

Last year, Microsoft made the same "commercial pre-release validation" announcement for Windows 10 20H2 exactly two months before it unveiled the so-called upgrade to the public.

This is also the second update running that Microsoft has explicitly told commercial customers to start putting the version through the testing wringer.

WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) users can deploy the 21H1 pre-release update after synchronizing the "Windows Insider Preview" category. iso disk image format or through WSUS.) Microsoft (That, too, will be available, either as a manual download in. Those enterprise systems running earlier versions of Windows 10 will have to download the entire OS to reach 21H1. The enablement package is essentially a command given to Windows to "switch on" the new version, since the code for it is already onboard.)īecause Windows 10 21H1 is the second minor upgrade in a row, the enablement package mechanism works on all PCs running Windows 10 20H2 or 2004.

Microsoft delivers these minor upgrades through the usual Windows Update/WIndows Update for Business/WSUS channels as the monthly cumulative update. (Confused? Microsoft built Windows 10 21H1 by taking October's 20H2, collected everything that changed from that point on - those changes had been issued in the monthly updates since October - and added a handful of new features. That was possible because 20H2 was virtually the same as 2004 as released and exactly the same as 2004 by the time 20H2 was to debut. The enablement package Carley mentioned was the tip-off, as that small code fragment is what transformed Windinto 20H2 last year. "This is the same technology we used to update devices from Windows 10, version 2004 to version 20H2." "Version 21H1 will be delivered to devices currently running Windows 10, version 2004 or version 20H2 using an enablement package," she said. developer implied that, unlike in years past, the spring refresh would be a minor upgrade, one with few if any new features and little new functionality. Microsoft has not yet divulged a launch date for Windows 10 21H1, the year's first feature upgrade, as noted by the H1 - for first-half - designation. "Windows 10, version 21H1, is now available for commercial customers to begin feature exploration and validation prior to being released for general availability," Aria Carley, senior program manager, wrote in a March 18 post to a company blog. Microsoft is now telling commercial customers that Windows 10 21H1 is ready for "commercial pre-release validation," a phrase it first used in August 2020 prior to the launch of that year's minor fall upgrade.
