Windows 10

Windows 10 Feature Updates

If you have had a Windows 10 operating system for any length of time you may have noticed that every so often there is a major update to the system. These updates usually take a long time to install and your system may restart several times during installation. They are known as feature updates.  Feature updates are released twice a year, usually in spring and again in the fall.  20H2, the most recent feature update was released in October of 2020.

While some feature updates are major upgrades to the system, not all of them are.  The spring 2021 update (21H1) is not expected to be a major overhaul.  Toward the end of 2021 we will see a major update for Windows 10 which as of right now goes by the name of (21H2) Sun Valley.

It is reported that (21H2) Sun Valley will make design changes to the Start menu, task bar menu and the windows corners will be rounded among other things. This update is expected to be released around the 2021 holiday season,

What should you do before installing a Feature Update?

Before installing a feature update it is wise to make sure your computer does not have any software issues.

Make sure your video, network and or wireless drivers are up to date

We suggest turning off hibernation and sleep settings.  We have seen many systems come through our doors with corrupt update installations because the system went to sleep during the update process.

Be patient.  Many of these feature updates take a long time to install.

In the Event your system fails, locks up or has any other issue with the downloaded update or the installation of this update stop attempting to fix the issue and bring it in to a trusted computer repair shop. Attempting to repair could result in data loss. However if you are familiar with the recovery environment and have your data backed up or don’t have any data to save then proceed with the menu driven recovery option included with windows 10.