The eleventh stable build of Windows 10, version 20H2, was released to the public on October 20, 2020 after being on the Beta Channel since June 16, 2020. This is the first version of Windows 10 to include the new Chromium-based Edge browser by default. Windows 10's privacy settings have more detailed explanations of data that the operating system may collect.
Additionally, the "enhanced" level of telemetry collection was removed. Windows Update notifications may now be "snoozed" for a period of time, the "active hours" during which Windows will not try to install updates may now extend up to 18 hours in length, and updates may be paused for up to seven days. Windows Defender has been replaced by the universal app Windows Defender Security Center. Devices may optionally be configured to prevent use of software from outside of Microsoft Store, or warn before installation of apps from outside of Microsoft Store.
"Dynamic Lock" allows a device to automatically lock if it is outside of the proximity of a designated Bluetooth device, such as a smartphone. A "Night Light" feature was added, which allows the user to change the color temperature of the display to the red part of the spectrum at specific times of day (similarly to the third-party software f.lux). Microsoft is finalizing the new features of the update which will be launched in the spring of this year. Many devices of Microsoft are running on older version of windows 10 which needs to be updated.
Microsoft is making small improvements in its new updates in the spring, however, if it makes the big changes it will release it in the fall of the year. The update is available for users of select devices running Windows 10, version 1903 or later who are interested in experiencing the latest feature updates and are ready to install this release on their device. Over time, this major, bi-annual feature update will become available to download and install via Windows update. It is an indisputable fact that 2020 has been an eventful year for the enterprise world. There has been notable updates for all the major operating systems, including the introduction of Mac OS Big Sur and iOS 14 in June, and Android 11 in September. Now, we are treated with a fall update for one of our favorite OS, Windows 10.
Microsoft has been rolling out semi-annual updates to the Windows 10 operating system, with the first half of the year seeing the major feature update and the latter half with a smaller update . Windows 10 20H2 is a free update available for users of devices running Windows 10 version 1903 or later. Bugs are inevitable during and following software updates, but Microsoft's February 2021 patch sought to fix many of these. As Windows Latest reports, these include glitches in the Alt + Tab experience and situations where the device would stop responding in full screen games and tablet mode. The patch is also available for devices running the May 2020 update, although they'll also be included in Microsoft's monthly 'Patch Tuesday' update.
OneDrive lets you back up and sync the Desktop, Documents, and Photos user folders automatically. You still can't designateanyfolder on the system for backup, as you can with Google Drive or SugarSync, but those folders contain most of what people want to protect. OneDrive's new Personal Vault feature rolled out to all users in October 2019.
The latest released version, Windows 10 May 2021 Update , is largely a servicing update, with no major new features. The previous October 2020 Update , also a non-major update, featured a slicker Start menu, a more functional Edge web browser, and other worthwhile tweaks. Windows 10 has benefited from recent in-between-update feature additions such as the News and Interests taskbar panel and the Meet Now icon in the task bar, for creating ad-hoc video conferences. We fixed an issue that might prevent users from opening phone apps that are pinned to the taskbar. This issue occurs after they update to Windows 10, version 2004 and then use the Your Phone app.
The new Edge has evolved a lot since its first public release in 2019. It's a solid browser, and as it's based on the same Chromium open-source code base as Google's Chrome you should find fewer compatibility issues with web applications. Microsoft has added many of its own features to Edge, including Collections, a way to save groups of tabs and share them with colleagues. There's support for older sites on your network with an embedded Internet Explorer 11 mode that launches IE in an Edge tab.
IE Mode is only for intranet sites, and you need to set up and manage a list of addresses. It's intended as an interim only, while you update sites for the new browser. Microsoft today started rolling out the free Windows 10 October 2020 Update. Among the new features, this is the first Windows 10 release to ship with Chromium Edge. Business users are getting Mobile Device Management, Windows Autopilot, Microsoft Defender Application Guard, update deployment, and Windows Hello improvements. End users can expect improvements to Start, notifications, Settings, display, and the tablet experience.
Microsoft introduced the ability to 'stream' Android apps from the linked smartphone. On select devices it is now possible to instantly access your phone's mobile apps directly from your Windows 10 PC. There's no need to install, sign-in or set up your apps on your PC.
You can conveniently pin your favorite mobile apps to your Taskbar or Start menu on your PC for quick and easy access. When you launch an app, it opens in a separate window outside of the Your Phone app enabling you to multitask. So, whether you need to quickly reply to a conversation, respond to your social posts, or order food, you can do it fast using your PC's large screen, keyboard, mouse, pen and touch screen alongside your other PC apps. In 2015, Microsoft released Windows 10, which launched with Cortana, which is a digital assistant just like Apple has Siri. This was the latest version of windows at that time, users received the updates to the OS. Windows 10 is a service that means that it will provide you better performance with time through its periodic updates.
You can enable your updates and just relax, the updates will automatically be downloaded and installed as soon as they come. Users will soon have the option of two usable Windows builds – May 2020 and October 2020, while the upcoming May 2021 update should arrive later this month. For that reason, those organizations possibly avoided installing Microsoft's spring feature updates, including Windows 10 version 2004. A spring Windows 10 feature update release is just supported for 18 months. Although the major focus remains on implementing fixes to the last major update, it does come with some welcome new features. The Windows 10 October 2020 brings with it the full integration of the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser into the OS.
It also comes with the inclusion of Microsoft Edge tabs into the OS's Alt-Tab menu, a brand new Start menu, better support for high refresh rate gaming monitors, an improved Taskbar, and app logos in Windows 10 notifications. For example, Windows 10 is resetting pretty much anything related to regional settings, keyboard, start menu and taskbar customization. Things are getting better from one version to another but if you're upgrading from an older build, let's say 1903, expect some post-configuration tasks… and the only way to do that is using a task sequence. There are several known issues in this update, including one in which system and user certificates might be lost when updating a device from Windows 10 version 1809 or later to a later version of Windows 10.
In addition, devices with Windows installations created from custom offline media or custom ISO images might have the legacy version of Microsoft Edge removed by the update, but not automatically replaced by the new Microsoft Edge. According to Microsoft, the best and short answer is "Yes," the October 2020 Update is stable enough for installation. However, the company is currently limiting the availability, which indicates that the feature update still not fully compatible with many hardware configurations.
Also, at the health dashboard website, the software giant has revealed some problems during the rollout. For example, as part of the known issues, there are some audio driver problems. An issue that causes the loss of system and user certificates when upgrading using the Media Creation Tool, Update Assistant, or ISO file. However, the problems are not as serious as we've seen with previous releases. We fixed an issue with devices that were configured using mobile device management RestrictedGroups, LocalUsersAndGroups, or UserRights policies. These devices incorrectly continue to receive the policy after you use MDM to remove the configuration profile that has the policy.
As a result, users of the affected devices might have incorrect group memberships and UserRights assignments or other symptoms. This issue occurs after installing Windows updates from October 29, 2020 and later. The tenth stable build of Windows 10, version 2004, codenamed "20H1", was released to the public on May 27, 2020 after being on the Insider Release Preview branch since April 16, 2020. A new feature on Pro, Education, and Enterprise known as Windows Sandbox allows users to run applications within a secured Hyper-V environment.
Redstone also supports Windows Subsystem for Linux, a new component that provides an environment for running Linux-compatible binary software in an Ubuntu-based user mode environment. That shift in Windows development models worked well in 2019 and looks set to perform similarly in 2020. In fact, if you're already running version 2004 you have most of the bits for 20H2 already installed as part of the monthly cumulative updates. All that's needed is for Microsoft to send an update that throws the right registry switches to turn on the new features.
Windows 10 is developed as a service, meaning it receives two feature updates every year. Microsoft has released nine free updates so far for the over 1 billion devices running Windows 10, which first debuted in July 2015. Now the tenth update for the world's most popular desktop operating system is here. Tablet mode sees improvements for touch usage by increasing space between taskbar icons, replacing the search box with a search icon, optimizing File Explorer windows for touch.
If you have a convertible device like Surface Book, you won't have to worry about "do you want to switch to tablet mode" notification anymore. Some of the things in the update include subtle UI changes like a cleaner look to the Start menu, the addition of open Microsoft Edge tabs in task switcher (Alt+Tab), and more classic Control Panel items moved to the modern Settings app. Here's how to install the latest version to your Windows 10 system.
For over a year, Microsoft has stated that it doesn't see Cortana as an Amazon Alexa competitor, but instead as a productivity tool. The May 2020 update removes support for voice control of smart home devices and music streaming services. You can still ask it general information and weather, set reminders, check your calendar, and create to-do lists. It sets alarms and timers, opens apps, adjusts settings, and can still tell you a joke. Windows is by far the most popular operating system for desktop computers, with more than 1.3 billion active PCs running it. The OS has reached a point of polish and functionality to earn it a PCMag Editors' Choice award.
On May 18, Microsoft announced the availability of Windows 10 version 21H1, known as the May 2021 Update. But the launch of a major Windows 10 update isn't the end of a process — it's really just the beginning. As soon as one of Microsoft's twice-yearly feature updates is released, the company quickly gets to work on improving it by fixing bugs, releasing security patches, and occasionally adding new features. Using the enablement package approach significantly reduces the number of problems you may see using an in-place upgrade or clean installation.
However, it does not resolve the problems with the feature update. Although the new operating system does not seem to have major issues thus far, you may still encounter isolated problems with the new changes. Also, the answer to whether you should install this version depends on the release already installed on your computer. If the device is already running version 2004, you can install version 20H2 with minimal to no risks. The reason is that both versions of the operating system share the same core file system. As a result, the new features have already been deployed in an inactive state.
The system only needs a small "enablement package"to activate the new version with a quick reboot that doesn't require reinstallation. The third stable build of Windows 10 is called version 1607, known as the Anniversary Update. This version was released on August 2, 2016, a little over one year after the first stable release of Windows 10. The Anniversary Update was originally thought to have been set aside for two feature updates.
While both were originally to be released in 2016, the second was moved into 2017 so that it would be released in concert with that year's wave of Microsoft first-party devices. Last year, Microsoft shifted away from issuing two major Windows 10 updates to a major update in the first half of the year and a minor update in the second half of the year. That means the Windows 10 October 2020 Update shares the same Cumulative Update packages as the Windows 10 May 2020 Update .
As a result, version 20H2 will be delivered more quickly to version 2004 users — it will install like a monthly security update. I install every feature update and every plain update the second they are released, I don't care if my computer explodes. It's not like it was STABLE, RELIABLE OR BUG-FREE before the updates either. Who knows, maybe in years Windork 10 has evolved into a good, stable and user friendly OS where updating would be somewhat hazardous, but we are pretty effin' far from that utopia still. So bring it on, Redmond, I have become completely numb regarding every update on this ludicrous superpotato OS.
The source version of Windows 10 is not the only factor that administrators need to consider. Past updates have shown that there will always be issues, some known some unknown, when new feature updates are released. It is advised, at the very least, to create a system backup prior to running the upgrade on any system . So the issue appears to be that if you attempt, for the first time from a new 20H2 OS installation, to create a link to your Hotmail account, you cannot do so.
I am taking the computer back tomorrow to work further on this, but having tried to do this both initially at the computer myself, and subsequently by phone with the user attempting login, it has not worked. Hotmail still exists, and people still use it as an e-mail address; they have a reasonable expectation that if they move to Windows 10 20H2, they can continue to do so. What Microsoft has done, when a fresh copy of Windows 10 20H2 has been installed, is to prevent access to the login page that allows you to enter a Hotmail address and password.
Sounds like your facile response isn't backed by any real experience or tests. All my apps, programs, games, etc. open and run without any issues. A screen recorder app no would no longer record at the desired resolution and frame rate, and a game became jerky and less responsive. Graphics and audio driver updates didn't solve the problem and neither did running System File Checker.
Rather than attempt to uninstall the monthly update or reinstall the app and game I chose Clean Install of 20H2. Alternatively, you can use the "Update Wizard" tool to install the latest version of Windows 10. This is a very easy to use utility that will guide you step by step through the upgrade process. It is also particularly useful for creating installation media via USB stick, DVD or ISO file to install updated Windows 10 on another machine.
As Microsoft releases a feature update and a service pack per year, the Windows 10 v20H2 is a feature update, which is a convention for Microsoft to release in the second half of the year. This version brings a more seasoned look to the User Interface of the Windows environment, along with some other features introduced for the user's convenience. Microsoft will soon drop support for some older versions, which make the removal of these update blocks a welcome move. The company regularly places 'blocks' on upgrades to the latest release of Windows for certain device models depending on the hardware inside. This is usually because of some incompatible driver or other software issues which could prevent users from successfully upgrading.
