What you need to know
- Windows 10 version 21H2 is dubbed the November 2021 Update.
- It'll begin rolling out next month.
- It includes minor enterprise-grade features.
Microsoft has today announced that the next Windows 10 feature update, officially known as the November 2021 Update, will begin rolling out next month and that the final build is available now for testing in the Windows Insider Release Preview channel and via ISOs.
Even though Windows 11 is now out, Microsoft isn't abandoning Windows 10. The November 2021 Update is based on the same "Vibranium" platform release that the May 2020, October 2020, and May 2021 updates were based on. This means the update will only take a few minutes to install, and will be no more than a few hundred megabytes in size.
Here's what's new with the Windows 10 November 2021 Update:
- Adding WPA3 H2E standards support for enhanced Wi-Fi security
- Windows Hello for Business supports simplified passwordless deployment models for achieving a deploy-to-run state within a few minutes
- GPU compute support in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows (EFLOW) deployments for machine learning and other compute intensive workflows
Microsoft does say that a feature originally intended for the November 2021 Update will be coming later:
The new Windows Hello for Business deployment method known as 'cloud trust' is still under development and will be delivered in a future monthly update to the November 2021 Update. We will provide more information in the future as this feature becomes available.
Windows 10 version 21H2 will be supported for 18 months for Windows 10 Home and Pro users, and 30 months for Enterprise and Education customers. Windows 10 itself will be supported for four more years, with an end-of-life date scheduled for October 2025.
The update will begin rolling out next month, and will likely take a measured and phased approach to availability just like previous feature updates have. This means that even though the update has shipped, it won't be made available to everyone right away to ensure that there's nothing wrong with the rollout.
