A developed may have accidentally leaked the upcoming Windows 10 21H1 release date. Microsoft keeps the date of its major biannual updates close to its proverbial chest, although they usually arrive in Spring and Autumn.
However, this time around, the leaked information could detail the release date of the next big update to hit the operating system.
Microsoft Edge Developer Leaks Windows 10 21H1 Release Date
As spotted by Mayank Parmar for WindowsLatest, a new code commit in the Windows Edge Chromium development log comes carries the following note:
The Windows Release coming out this June 2021 has a new API that can disable KTM exploits.
Although that doesn't give us an exact release date, it could indicate that June 2021 is the provisional Windows 10 21H1 launch period. Although this would mean the update arriving slightly later than usual, with previous updates landing in April or May.
Aside from the potential release date, the commit also notes that the update will deliver a new API to protect against Kernel Transaction Manager (KTM) exploits. A KTM exploit can lead to an attacker running code on a target machine, in the most extreme examples.
The introduction of an API to protect against such attacks will increase the overall security of Windows 10.
What Will We See in the Windows 10 21H1 Update?
Despite this leak on the potential release of Windows 10 21H1 and the update set to arrive within the next five months, very little is actually known about the content.
We do know that the update will remove an underused Windows 10 feature, Shake to Minimize. The feature is already switched off in early releases of the 21H1 update, some of which are available to the Windows 10 Insider Preview versions. The update is expected to bring native support for DNS-over-HTTPS, too.
Part of the lack of information stems from the type of release 21H1 is believed to be. The lack of new features appearing in Insider Preview builds at this stage suggests that the update will focus on bug fixing and feature patching. If there were to be a new raft of features, at least some wide-scale testing would have taken place by now.
Furthermore, a separate recent leak found that the update is likely to be what is known as an "enablement package." In this context, the enablement package will switch on currently disabled features of Windows 10—but not deliver a huge new feature.
So, could this mean that the Windows 21H2 update planned for the second half of the year will deliver feature updates? Only time will tell.
