Microsoft announces the Windows 10 May 2020 Update, the next Windows for your PC

Seamus Bellamy / IDG

Meet Microsoft’s Windows 10 May 2020 Update. On Thursday, Microsoft said the latest iteration of Windows 10—known informally as Windows 10 20H1 or version 2004—has reached what Microsoft is calling its final build of the cycle, Build 19041.207.

The May 2020 Update build will begin rolling out soon to members of the “Release Preview” ring of the Windows 10 Insider program, which is reserved for those who wish to receive what are essentially final release builds early, with minimal risk to their devices. Microsoft isn’t saying when the Windows 10 May 2020 Update will roll out to the general public—beyond the general May 2020 timeframe, of course.

Microsoft is also apparently reserving its right to keep publishing new bug fixes until then. “We will continue to improve the overall experience of the May 2020 Update on customers’ PCs as part of our normal servicing cadence,” wrote Brandon LeBlanc, senior program manager of the Windows Insider program, in a blog post.

Microsoft has been extremely conservative in its timing of the Windows 10 May 2020 Update; Microsoft essentially stopped adding new features to the May 2020 Update around late November of 2019. Since then, developers have been slowly fixing bugs, most likely hyperconscious of avoiding repeats of showstoppers like the 2018 Windows 10 update glitch that erased user data.

As with other companies, Microsoft’s efforts have been slowed by the coronavirus, too. In a Mixer broadcast, senior product manager Jason Howard noted that a scheduled “bug bash” this week had been cancelled.

It’s overwhelmingly geeky, but the Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux (WSL) has been overhauled, creating WSL2.

Read more: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3538410/microsoft-announces-the-windows-10-may-2020-update-the-next-windows-for-your-pc.html