14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just shipped a new preview build to users enrolled in the Beta channel of the Windows Insider program, and given testers here are already running Windows 10 version 20H2, the new release comes in the form of a cumulative update.
Windows 10 version 20H2 is the next feature update for the operating system, and it is projected to launch in the fall of this year.
It will be a rather small update for Windows 10, following in the footsteps of Windows 10 version 1909, so it’ll be offered a standard update rather than as a new feature update.
Today’s new cumulative update is KB4571744, and it increases the OS build number to 19042.487.
The focus has obviously been on non-security improvements, and the update comes with bug fixes exclusively, so no new features are included this time.
There are plenty of fixes, including for Microsoft Outlook add-ins, which sometimes become unresponsive. This issue has also been spotted on stable versions of Windows 10, so I expect Microsoft to include the fix in the next cumulative update going live on the September Patch Tuesday cycle for production devices too.
Microsoft says it has also included improvements for Start menu and tiles in VDI environments. The company explains the following in the changelog of today’s update:
“We fixed an issue with Start menu apps and tiles in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments. The issue occurs after you sign in to the VDI environment a second time and use a Remote Desktop User Profile Disk in a non-persistent virtual desktop pool.”
As far as enterprises are concerned, Microsoft has also added a very important fix for the Server Message Block, or SMB.
“This issue incorrectly logs the Microsoft-Windows-SMBClient 31013 event in the Microsoft-Windows-SMBClient/Security event log of an SMB client when an SMB server returns STATUS_USER_SESSION_DELETED. This issue occurs when SMB client users or applications open multiple SMB sessions using the same set of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections on the same SMB Server. This issue most likely occurs on Remote Desktop Servers.”
The update brings plenty of other smaller improvements, including for Windows Hello, the touch keyboard, File Explorer, as the file manager somehow crashed when opening folders where only raw files were stored.
Needless to say, the changelog is quite huge, and you can check it out in full in the box after the jump.
Windows 10 version 20H2 is already approaching its final testing stages, and if everything goes according to the plan, it should be finalized as soon as September. As per Microsoft’s typical schedule, the update should then go live for production devices in October or November, with the rollout to happen in stages just like it was the case of the previous feature updates.
As a matter of fact, the gradual rollout of Windows 10 version 2004, or May 2020 Update, is yet to complete, so devices are still getting the new update as we speak. However, the timing for Windows 10 version 20H2 seems to align with this new strategy just fine, as Microsoft is expected to announce version 2004 general availability by the time its successor gets the go-ahead.
In the meantime, users who want to try out Windows 10 version 20H2 early can just enroll in the Windows Insider program and get builds from the Beta channel or the Release Preview ring. On the other hand, just keep in mind that running preview builds comes with an increased likelihood of issues, so just don’t install these releases on your daily driver.