The testers in the Fast Ring are currently getting preview builds from the mn_release branch and ‘mn’ stands for Manganese, which is the internal codename for Windows 10 20H2, the next service pack-style update coming later this year.
After Manganese (20H2), Microsoft plans to release Windows 10 21H1 update, which is also known as ‘Iron’. According to one leaked blog post, Microsoft plans to start flighting builds from the Iron branch to the testers in Fast Ring in June. The information was accidentally revealed in a WSL 2.0 announcement and the blog post has since been edited.
Microsoft has already started compiling preview builds of Windows 10 21H1 update. Now, a reference to Windows 10 21H1 Build 20141.1000 has been spotted in a first-party app update package, suggesting that the first preview build of 21H1 could arrive in a few weeks as originally planned.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s release schedule for Insider program tends to change, but for now, it looks like Windows 10 21H1 preview update is still on the track.
One of the biggest changes that we will see next year could be an updated Start menu for Windows 10. Earlier this year, the Windows Insider team showed off a new Start menu that would feature a “fluent theme” with fewer distractions and improved consistency.
Windows 10’s new Start menu will still support live tiles for apps such as Weather and Mail & Calendar.
Windows 10X features are coming to Windows 10
According to reports, Microsoft is planning to deliver Windows 10X features “sooner rather than later” and the features would also arrive in Windows 10.
For example, Microsoft will let testers use the new Win32 container in Windows 10, which can run Win32 apps virtually in a “sandboxed environment”.
In addition to Win32 container support, Microsoft is also planning to include significantly improved Windows Update mechanism within Windows 10 that makes the update process much faster and feature updates will not take as long to install as they do currently.
Testers in the Windows Insider program will be able to test these improvements before the general public. For now, it remains unclear whether these improvements or features will arrive this year.
