Microsoft announces Windows 10 21H1 Build 20150 & ISO for Insiders

Microsoft finally releases the first build of Windows 10 2104 [21H1] i.e. Build 20150. This new Build features tonnes of fixes with new features and improvements. As speculated earlier of this being a (Fe) Branch is not true now as the company launches it as RS_PRERELEASE branch instead.

Yesterday, Microsoft announces scrapping of the Rings concept and using the Insider Channels instead. In fact, they even release a 20H2 Build 19042.3303 – a feature update under the Beta Channel. This holds true for 21H1 Build 20150 too as this comes right under the Dev Channel (Fast ring). Although they haven’t created a separate title for Windows 10 21H1 at Flight Hub, this may unfold soon.

Windows Insiders must be happy now as they get a whole 21H1 ISO to work upon with several new changes to the Start Menu, Explorer, etc. Besides, Context Menu, Calendar, Photos, Microsoft Edge, and a few others receive new looks as well. 

What’s new inside 21H1 Build 20150

Well, Insiders get access to three new Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)They are GPU compute, WSL install, and WSL update. Let’s learn a bit more about them in detail –

  1. GPU compute: This allows the Linux binaries to leverage GPU making it possible to do more machine learning development and data science workflows directly in WSL.
  2. WSL Install: This allows insiders to install WSL just using a single command.
  3. WSL Update: With this, it now becomes pretty easy to manage the Linux kernel version used by WSL 2 distros. To know more, please read this post on the Windows Command line blog. Or, one can read this post on the Windows Developer blog to get in-depth details on “GPU compute” in WSL.

Other updates for Insiders

New map data inside the Maps app

Previously, Bing Maps announced that they will soon roll out the new TomTom base map data to Bing Maps. Well, Microsoft has already updated the map data inside the Maps app on 21H1 Build 20150. 

The software giant hinted that they will slowly update the Maps app for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel (Fast ring) to use the new map data from TomTom. If you are an insider, check this out, and if any bug chips in, suggest a change over the feedback.  

General changes & improvements

  • Insiders may try out the new search box on the default app settings pages. As per them, they have done some great work improving the performance of the search box. 
  • The new Korean IME is now available again for Insiders to use.
  • As per feedback, the experts are updating the text of the Settings > Privacy > Location page. They clarified that the icon displayed with the users’ location “ON” will appear on the taskbar.

To see the whole new Fixes and Features, visit Windows Blog.