Microsoft christens Windows 10 20H1 as Windows 10 2004; preps to start testing its successor

Microsoft is nearing the finish line with its spring 2020 Windows 10 feature update. Today, November 26, officials said they've finalized on the business name for 20H1 and that they're gearing up to start testing its successor.

As it has been doing recently when nearing completion of a Windows 10 feature update, Microsoft has started testing its latest Windows 10 feature update simultaneously in the Fast and Slow Insider test rings. On November 26, Microsoft released a new build, 19033, of Windows 10 20H1 to those two rings. Build 19033 contains several fixes but no new features.

Officials said today that Window 10 20H1 officially will be known as version 2004 when it is released to the mainstream. As customary, Microsoft uses the year plus the month the newest build is "finalized" (RTM'd) as the naming scheme. In the past, Microsoft has selected "03" as the marker for the spring feature update releases. But in order to avoid confusion with Windows Server 2003, Microsoft is opting to use 2004, not 2003, to refer to 20H1, officials said today.

Microsoft officials said the company is "looking to begin releasing new builds from our development branch." That means Insiders in the Fast Ring soon will be getting the first test builds for the next Windows 10 feature update, which logically should be Windows 10 20H2. That test build is expected to be known by codename "Manganese" (MN). However, if Microsoft ends up going the same route it did with 19H2 -- specifically, making it a minor update and moving its Skip Ahead and Fast Ring testers first to the next spring release -- there is a chance Microsoft could start moving Fast Ring Insiders directly to testing 20H2. 

In either case, Insiders in the Fast Ring who would prefer to continue to test 20H1/2004 should switch their settings now so they can remain on 20H1 instead of being moved automatically to the next feature update in testing.

For a list of the fixes and known issues in Windows 10 20H1 build 19033, check out Microsoft's blog post.