Microsoft Announces the Next Update to Windows 10, Arriving this Spring

Microsoft has announced the next update to Windows 10 but do not get too excited, as there is not a lot besides stability and bug fixes. You can look for the update to arrive in the spring but let’s dive into what is new and set the expectations.

The update will be called 21H1, as Microsoft has officially announced, with broad availability coming later in the first half of 2021. But for those who do not want to wait, the company states that they will begin pushing builds of 21H1 to the Beta Channel for Windows Insiders as a final check for bugs and other issues.

So what’s new in this release? It’s mostly security and performance improvements, changes are noted below.

• Windows Hello multicamera support to allow users to choose an external camera priority when using high-end displays with integrated cameras.
• Windows Defender Application Guard performance improvements including optimizing document opening scenario times.
• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Group Policy Service (GPSVC) updating performance improvement to support remote work scenarios.

If you are running Windows 10 version 2004 or 20H2, your upgrade experience will install like a monthly servicing update. For those who are running an older version of Windows 10, the process will be like that of previous releases and take a bit longer to install (think full Windows 10 upgrade workflow).

As this is the spring release of Windows 10, this iteration will receive 18 months of service. But, I would expect most businesses will pass on this update and opt for the fall release which is serviced for 30 months.

We knew that this release would be much smaller in size and I was not expecting any major updates. That being said, I am looking forward to 21H2 where we are expecting UI enhancements and other updates.