Windows 10 20H2 update is being tested – but don’t get your hopes up for anything exciting

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Windows 10’s next big update known as 20H2 – because it will land in the second half of 2020 – is now officially being tested, with the first preview build being released to Windows Insiders in the slow ring (now renamed the ‘beta channel’).

As ZDNet reports, build 19042.330 is the initial build for the 20H2 update, and Microsoft confirmed, as the rumor mill had previously insisted, that the upgrade will be a “scoped set of features” – meaning that this will be a more minor update with no major additions, as was the case with the November 2019 Update (19H2) last year.

The update, which will likely land in the autumn later this year, will include the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser. And indeed build 19042.330 incorporates the new Microsoft Edge, and also the fixes delivered in the recent KB4557957 cumulative update (as released for the May 2020 Update – and note that sadly, it’s causing some serious problems).

Seek and upgrade

The new build has been made available to those in the beta channel who are ‘seekers’, meaning that in other words, it’ll only be delivered to those Insiders who check (seek) for updates under Windows Update, and actively choose to install 20H2.

Once you’ve made that decision and switched to 20H2, you will then subsequently receive test builds for it automatically going forward. Further features will then be delivered, although as mentioned these will be more minor changes – such as tweaks to improve performance – with no big major moves planned.

This also means that those upgrading to 20H2 from the current May 2020 Update will have an easy and streamlined upgrading process, just as if they were installing a monthly cumulative update.

As Microsoft observes: “Simply put, anyone running the May 2020 Update and updating to Windows 10, version 20H2 will have a faster installation experience because the update will install like a monthly update.”

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).