What’s in Windows 10 21H2?

Microsoft has been making plenty of news over the last few weeks with its announcement of Windows 11, Windows 365 and now Windows 10 21H2, the second major update for 2021.

Since both Windows 10 21H2 and Windows 11 will come out later this year, how organizations proceed with upgrading to Windows 11 largely depends on the features they need and their timeline for upgrades. Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 10 on Oct. 14, 2025, but Microsoft is also releasing a Windows 10 Long-Term Servicing Channel edition along with 21H2 that is being released this fall, giving organizations an additional four years of support.

For organizations sticking with Windows 10 and hoping to get the most out of the next update, here is what they can expect.

Security

Microsoft is adding WPA3 H2E standards support for enhanced Wi-Fi security that helps protect against side-channel attacks, reduces potential side-channel attack vectors and provides other general security improvements, according to Windows Latest.

The company is also adding a simplified password deployment model via Windows Hello for Business to achieve a deploy-to-run state within a few minutes.

Read Next: Why Organizations Should Proceed Slowly With Windows 11

Productivity

Microsoft is adding GPU compute support in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows deployments for machine learning and other compute-intensive workflows. According to Windows latest, this feature is geared toward consumers and developers and allow users to leverage their GPU when working with WSL.

“This could improve the performance of WSL containers and make it easier for developers to do more machine learning development and data science work,” Windows Latest reported.

When can you get this update?

According to Microsoft, 21H2 builds are available to Windows Insiders who were moved to the Release Preview channel from the Beta channel because their devices did not meet hardware requirements for Windows 11. However, those users won’t see those new features right away. In a Windows Insider blog, the company said the first build will fix several issues.

The update will be broadly available later in the second half of this year, Microsoft says.

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