Microsoft has just announced that the October 2020 Update, the next major update for Windows 10 is now available to download for Windows Insiders in the Release Preview Ring. The Build 19042.508 (KB4571756) that is rolling out today is believed to be the “final” one, though it will continue to be serviced with patches ahead of the public release of the October 2020 Update.
As of this writing, Windows Insiders in the Release Preview can download the October 2020 Update by checking for updates in Windows Update. The build 19042.508 will also roll out automatically to all Insiders on the Beta channel, which have been testing the October 2020 Update for quite some time now. Commercial devices in both the Beta and Release Preview Channels will also automatically be offered the October 2020 Update, Microsoft also said today.
The Windows Insider team also mentioned that there’s a known issue in the build 19042.508 causing an “Element not found” error when trying to start Windows Subsystem for Linux. “With the help of Insiders, we have identified the root cause of the issue and have created a fix which should be included in the next 20H2 servicing release shortly,” the team explained. In the meantime, Insiders who want to continue using WSL are invited to not install this latest patch.
Overall, the October 2020 Update (20H2) will be another minor Windows 10 release with a couple of improvements for the Start Menu, the Task Bar, and notifications. Live Tiles in the Start Menu are now theme-aware, and Microsoft has also changed how notifications look with new app logos at the top of toast notifications. Moreover, Microsoft Edge tabs will now show up when you use Alt + Tab on your PC, and clicking a pinned site on your Taskbar will now display all of the open tabs for that site across any of your Microsoft Edge windows.
We’ll go more in-depth about the Windows 10 October 2020 Update in the coming days. The name suggests that it will start rolling out to the public in October, which would change from last year’s version 1909 which was released in November. If you’re already running the October 2020 Update on your PC, let us know in the comments if you like the minor improvements that this latest release will bring to the OS.
