Windows 10 20H2 update could disappoint people hoping for new features

(Image credit: Future/Microsoft)

Windows 10’s 20H2 update, the upgrade which is due to arrive later this year, will only be a minor affair making small tweaks, much like the previous 19H2 update, according to the latest from the grapevine.

Insider contacts informed Windows Latest that this would be the case, and that no major new features will be added at all with 20H2, just as with 19H2 (although some changes were present in the latter, just not big ones – and it will be the same song this time around by all accounts).

This scheme of things has previously been rumored, of course, and preview builds of the incoming OS update back this up – for example, the latest build to hit the fast ring only came with a couple of minor improvements to existing bits of functionality, and a raft of fixes.

If 19H2 and 20H2 are minor updates, this could point the way to a future whereby Microsoft releases a major update with new features in the first half of the year, and a minor tweaking upgrade in the second half of the year. This has been theorized about before, but Microsoft hasn’t been drawn on the matter of whether this will become a permanent scheme of things.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that Microsoft itself doesn’t know the answer to that question yet.

Privacy changes

Naturally, a minor update doesn’t mean no changes whatsoever. The adjustments we know about thus far include a rejig for the options concerning what data Windows 10 sends back to Microsoft (albeit with a somewhat confusing new take), and a lot of minor bits and pieces like tweaks to the way in which Windows volume controls work.

We’ve also just witnessed Microsoft officially tease major changes coming to Windows 10’s overall interface – including the Start menu and File Explorer – and if 20H2 is indeed a minor affair, this UI overhaul presumably won’t be included. Meaning we could be waiting until 2021 for that to arrive, and it will debut on Windows 10X first, that being the case.

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).