Windows 10 May 2020 Update will finally make it easier to see when we need to upgrade

(Image credit: Future)

Windows 10’s incoming major update for the first half of 2020 will usher in a new system of notifications for updates which represents a better way of informing users that an upgrade is ready for their PC.

Windows 10 May 2020 Update (as it will be named, according to the rumor mill – it’s known as version 2004 currently) has a shiny new notification which pops up in the Action Center, informing you that an update is ready for installation, and giving you three options pertaining to that upgrade.

You can ‘Restart Now’ to install the update there and then, or choose to ‘Restart Tonight’ if you want to delay the installation until later on that day. Alternatively, there’s a third option to ‘Choose an Hour’ which allows you to schedule the update for an exact time.

As spotted by Italian tech site HTNovo, the notification comes with an animation reminding laptop users that they should plug their device in so it’s running on mains power (as opposed to battery) before installing the update.

Important reminder

The streamlined notification in the Action Center is a handy addition, and of course the reminder to notebook users may well be, too. It’s important to ensure that your laptop is plugged in, just in case the battery level is low – because if the machine was to turn itself off mid-update, that could cause serious problems with Windows 10 (you might even be looking at having to reinstall the OS in the worst-case scenario).

Windows 10 May 2020 Update comes with major changes to Cortana – with the digital assistant being made into a separate app, and offering a more natural ‘conversational’ experience – along with various interface improvements, tweaks to virtual desktops, Task Manager, Windows search, and more.

This move with upgrade notifications would appear to be a late addition to the library of changes.

Via MS PowerUser

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).