Running Windows 10? Microsoft is preparing to fire up the update engines

Winter Windows Is Coming

It's coming. Microsoft is preparing to start shoveling the latest version of Windows 10 down the throats of refuseniks still clinging to older incarnations.

The Windows Update team gave the heads-up through its Twitter orifice last week. Windows 10 2004 was already on its last gasp, have had support terminated in December. 20H2, on the other hand, should be good to go until May this year.

We started the first phase in the Windows 10, version 21H2 rollout for machine learning (ML) training. We are targeting devices on Windows 10, version 20H2 that are approaching end of servicing to update automatically to version 21H2. https://t.co/l7RbiFyq3O

— Windows Update (@WindowsUpdate) January 20, 2022

However, while it is hard for any lingering Windows 10 2004 user to avoid 21H2 via Windows Update, 20H2 (which debuted in the latter part of 2020) is also in the crosshairs. Microsoft has warned it was "targeting devices on Windows 10, version 20H2 that are approaching end of servicing to update automatically to Windows 10, version 21H2" via the first phase in its rollout for machine learning (ML) training.

It intends to carry on that training "and deliver a smooth update experience." Of course, the update is, at first glance, pretty minor (as Microsoft focuses its energies on Making All The Things Rounded in Windows 11.) However, a bit ominously, the company also said "the update will install like a monthly update."

These are words to strike fear into the hearts of many a user left singed following the most recent monthly Patch Tuesday emission.

The latest set of statistics from advertising platform AdDuplex put 31.8 per cent of PC running Windows 10 20H2 and 11 per cent on Windows 10 2004. Those figures will have dropped in the weeks since, particularly with 2004's end of support and the undoubted bleating from the operating system about getting an update.

With many customers still unable to meet Microsoft's infamous hardware requirements for Windows 11, Microsoft seems set on nudging holdouts toward the light of 21H2 – whether customers like it or not. ®