Today, we are introducing the next feature update to Windows 10, version 21H1. As people continue to rely on Windows more than ever to work, learn and have fun, we understand the importance of providing the best possible update experience to help people and organizations stay protected and productive. It is a responsibility we do not take lightly and why for the first time an H1 (first half of the calendar year) feature update release will be delivered in an optimized way using servicing technology, while continuing our semi-annual feature update cadence. In today’s blog I will cover details on how we plan to service the release, its scope, and next steps.
Since I’ve lost track of the Windows release process and everything feels random and messy, I’m just going to say nothing at all.
This 21H1 release will spread like H1N1
Ha, randomly I have two systems forever stuck on 1909.
They are trying to match Ubuntu’s releases. But in open source land we have this epic acceleration where 6 months of development makes for fantastic improvements. Windows 10 can’t even decide on which control panel to use.
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@leech
Are they identical to other systems which have updated, or different. I’m wondering because I have two stuck in the same boat. Neither is mentioned in the update warnings so it could be some other gotcha in the update system. I’m holding back for now but could try a fresh install with the latest version on one system and see how it goes.
I’ve had this happen twice before to a few of machines, in the end it was related to either the two machines have a problematic version of a 3rd party app installed, or a bad driver.
In my case it was an installed version of LibreOffice blocking the install/removal of a library critical for the OS update. Once I got LIbreOffice updated I had to do an in-place upgrade for Win 10 and from then on the machines returned to the normal update cycle.
In the other case a 3rd PC refused to update, while investigating I noticed a driver required an update that was failing. I rectified the problem by removing the driver, allowing Windows to install the latest driver version from Windows Update, and then updates resumed as usual. I was then able then to downgrade the driver which I did for external hardware compatibility reasons.
It’s really no more effort than maintain or managing Linux or MacOS, and under Win 10 much simpler to debug than earlier Win versions.
Thom, it’s neither random nor messy: think Ubuntu and MaxOS X: like the latter, Windows is stuck on Windows 10, there is no Windows 11. Like the former, Windows 10 gets a feature update every 6 months: 1909 (September 2019), 2004 (April 2020), and now 20H2 (second half of 2020) and 21H1 (first half of 2021).
In reality it’s much better than before, since you get a predictable release schedule and new versions of Windows are not radically different from their predecessors, making management much easier.
Bought my wife a Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (14″ with AMD Ryzen 5 4500U) in August, for use when her university courses started up again in Sept. Worked great for all her Zoom/BigBlueButton/BlueJeans classes. She really liked that the camera has a privacy shutter. 🙂
Lenovo listed it as fully-supported by the Windows 20H2 update, so I updated it in December. No issues with the upgrade, and everything appeared to be working. Until her classes started again in January 2021 … and the camera wasn’t detected in Zoom. The camera wasn’t even listed in Device Manager! No updated driver available from Lenovo, and the 2018 driver didn’t work.
Opened a support ticket, and it was closed a couple days later without notice. But there was a new driver available for the camera … that didn’t work. Camera still isn’t listed in Device Manager, not even as an unknown device. 🙁
Wonder what the odds would be that the 21H1 update detects the camera again… Had to buy an external USB camera for her to participate in her classes (at least Aukey had a sale on 1080p cameras).