What’s New in Windows 10’s 21H2 Update, Coming Winter 2021
Feb 18, 2021, 6:25 pm EDT
| 13 min read
Microsoft’s 21H2 update will debut in the second half of 2021. This is a bigger update with more new features and follows the 21H1 update planned for Spring 2021, which is focused on stability and polish.
This article is up-to-date with the latest changes as of Windows 10 Insider build 21318, which was released on February 19, 2020.
No Guarantees!
As usual, Microsoft offers no guarantee that these features will appear in the final version of 21H2. They’re currently in the development builds of what will become the 21H2 update, but Microsoft may pull these features and spend more time working on them or never release them.
How to Build Your Own High-Performance Portable SSD
This one has RGB for maximum flair! Credit: Adam Patrick Murray/IDG
If you’ve been eyeing one of the big-name high-performance portable SSDs but don’t want to pay the high prices just build your own. Yes, you can skip those big-brand prices by building your own portable SSD using off-the-shelf parts, getting the same performance and typically a lower price, too.
Adam Patrick Murray/IDG
What type of SSD should you pick?
You’ll first want to pick out a USB SSD enclosure, which can be found on sites like Newegg or Amazon, and at other electronics stores, from around $10 to $50. Before you shop, you’ll want to know what kind of enclosure to buy. Much of that depends on what kind of SSD you want to put inside of it.
Source: Windows Central
On Windows 10, when the hard drive starts to run out of space, you usually add another to extend the available storage. Although it is a quick solution, as time goes on, you could end up with a long list of drives on your computer, which sometimes may not be the best approach to organize your data.
Instead of using other solutions like Storage Spaces or Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) to combine drives into a logical volume, Windows 10 also allows you to mount a hard drive to a folder rather than using a drive letter. This approach will not only reduce the number of drive letters, but it will also help you to organize your drives better.
READ MORE
This is an especially frustrating issue as affected Windows 10 users end up being stuck in a loop of downloading the update and then seeing the installation process fail. Windows 10 users have reported receiving errors codes such as 0x8007000d and 0x800f0922.
While one reported error message that appeared after the installation process stopped working said: Some update files are missing or have problems. We’ll try to download the update again later. Error code: (0x8007000d) .
Elsewhere, Windows 10 users have also reported that cumulative update KB4592438 has caused CPU and GPU performance to grind to a halt. Others have said the latest Windows 10 update is causing lags when they try to open and close problems.