The Windows 10 May 2021 Update has been finalized and Build 19043.928 is likely to be the release candidate. Unsurprisingly, May 2021 Update will begin rolling out to millions of users around the world in May, and it will ship with a few minor improvements, mostly for enterprise customers.
Microsoft has officially named the version 21H1 update as “May 2021 Update” and published the final bits in the Release Preview Channel.
I wish Microsoft would rethink its obtuse versioning and naming scheme for windows, because none of this makes any sense to me anymore. This is a small update, and mostly focused on remote work scenarios in the enterprise.
Brought to you by the company whose flagship product was first branded using version numbers (1.0-3.x) before going to release years (9x) before going to arbitrary names (Me-Vista) before going back to version numbers (7-8.1) before settling on something mimicking Apple’s long-running and recently retired “no number higher than 10” naming convention only far more confusing (in typical Softie fashion).
Also the same company whose other major brand went from Product -> Product 360 -> Product One -> Product Series A/B/C.
It’s no secret that Microsoft’s product branding has always been atrocious, being a company that is infamous for having no taste.
At least the internal NT version is OK’ish.
The version naming seems to be a pretty trivial and tangential feature to latch onto when discussing the utility of a update.
Thom’s comment is even more cryptic, because I think he has previously posted that he uses Linux in preference to Microsoft, so why would he keep track of Microsoft versioning in the first place?
So it would be nice to comment on the fixes and features, and not just open the debate by throwing rocks about a version name!
One feature I was interested in was the ability to now use an external camera as a Hello utility. That is quite interesting, is it a potential security risk, could a thug pipe in a feed from some remote USB webcam and get access without the users knowledge!
It looks like it relies on a depth sensing camera and requires an existing “Hello”-capable camera to be installed. (Maybe I’m misinterpreting.) I’m not sure if remoting a feed is a very feasible thing… but it seems possible. Maybe you have to authenticate specific external cameras before they can be used, to help avoid hardware duping devices… but I’m wary of this, also. Hopefully there’s a toggle for opting in to external “Hello” webcams (as opposed to needing to opt out).
Somewhat tangential, but I really wish they’d bring back the Windows Classic skinning in one of these updates. The “work around” to get it back makes everything look broken and isn’t sustainable, or an easy toggle. (i.e., it’s non-discoverable; you have to remember which process to terminate.) At work we use Windows 7, and I’m glad to be able to set my computer to the classic look I prefer. That’s the sort of update I’m hoping for.
I agree, regarding your take on the version naming tangent. It’s irrelevant and subjective. Rather than tacking it onto random update articles it should just be an opinion piece posted here, IMO. This naming scheme has been a thing for the past several updates in Windows, hasn’t it? It’s not particularly hard to grasp, either. “YY” and then “first half of the year (H1)” or “second half of the year (H2).” The same complaint has already been raised with regard to Ubuntu versioning and so on, too, so it really might as well be its own article.
NotKyon,
Obviously it can be fooled, but the question is how sophisticated you need to be to do it. I’m not sure about windows hello’s implementation. If it doesn’t keep track of previous logins, then a simple replay attack may well work (ie just record the digital signals and replay them, much like the attacks against lots of RF car key fobs).
For an adversary who already has physical access, it’s probably much easier to use a simple keylogger to get the password. But if you’re using two factor authentication they may need to break both.
Because… I run OSNews… A site about… Operating systems…?
Oh, I thought it has something to do with… Orange Sanguine !
“- But why those comments are so nasty ?
– Becaauuuuuuuse…”
Reference to :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XuYT_mdQqw
I suppose.
But if you don’t use it why the critique, it’s sort of like me complaining about the handling of Ferrrari without ever having driven one!
I suppose I’d rather my journalism delivered cold without any poltical bent.
Perhaps a better naming convention would be that as most of this helps the service of windows and the services it requires, Service. It’s a bunch of updates and fixes all packaged together however to steam line, Pack. Then could just number them sequentially. Service Pack 1 😀 j/k
21H1 is easy to parse — it’s the first half of 2021. Since they are on a semi-annual release schedule, we can expect the next one to be 21H2 followed by 22H1, 22H2, etc.
In the USA it should be 9PM1, 9PM2, 10PM1, …
What about Windows 10 2004?
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/whats-new-windows-10-version-2004
So who knows! Maybe after 21H1 you’ll get Windows 10X21X (because the X looks cool and two X are better than one X).
Maybe they’ll switch to roman numerals: Windows X MMXXIHII.
That was planned to be released in…..drumroll….the 4th month of 2020, hence 20/04. IIRC it had to be delayed because of a bug to o5 so it should have been called 2005 but that is why they went to the half (hence H) system in the first place, its so they wouldn’t have to rename everything if they had to have a delay for some reason.
I seriously don’t know why so many supposedly OS savvy people seem to have a conniption about this (unless they just hate MSFT and want something to whine about) as many Linux and Unix distros use a similar year/month system too. I mean if you are on 20H2 and the latest release is 21H1? It don’t take Kojack to figure out which is the newer release.
Uhhh what is hard to understand? Its the year 2021 and the first half, hence 21H1. Certainly a lot clearer which release it is than rocking rhino or whatever the hell Canonical is calling the latest Ubuntu these days.
The taxonomy for project names will always diverge from what the marketing department wants — this has always been true in the tech industry. But the schema for naming Windows 10 releases does make some sense once you take a moment to read about it and think about it… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#PC_version_history
The thing that most people don’t consider is that Windows 10 was never, and will never be finished. They are trying the ‘release often’ approach. How do I know this? Mainly because of the constant tweaks they keep doing to the control panel / settings. When Windows 10 first released, it had this weird hybrid of Windows 7 / Windows 8 style control panels, then they started flattening icons, and yet still had different ways to get to other control panels… it was infuriating.
Even more infuriating, is you can go to a dozen different pages to find the same solution to an issue, and they all will give you roughly the same procedure that will work… if you’re still running a Windows 10 from a few years ago when the articles were all written, but the wording and place of settings have been moved around to different places, so now it won’t work for a Windows 10 install that has been updated to the 2020+ version…
Yeah this is especially annoying… Previous windows versions were distinct and didn’t change much, so instructions for 2000 would continue working for 2000 etc, and you could easily tell at a glance you were running 2000.
Now instructions for 10 could relate to any of the various update releases, and you can’t tell at a glance what version you have – typical end users will just know they have 10 but not which individual release.
What’s so hard about “year ’21, the first half of it”? It’s much better than Ubuntu’s Pathetic Ponies and Useless Unicorns (and before someone jumps out with “but they use years as well”, no, not in the repos’ names, so you have to know what damn stupid adjective you’re running anyway).