neowin[.]net/news/windows-10-version-2004-is-now-available-in-the-release-preview-ring
zdnet[.]com/article/microsoft-rolls-out-windows-10-2004-release-preview-ahead-of-expected-may-release-to-mainstream-users/
Microsoft released Windows 10 20H1 -- or 2004, whichever name you prefer – to the Insider Release Preview ring, which is the final step before general release. According to ZDNet’s Foley, developer release is scheduled tentatively for 4/28, with general availability coming 5/12/20.
I have a copy of Win10 set up for the Insider Slow ring on this PC, and it’s ran 2004 since late last year, plus I’ve got 32 & 64-bit versions in VMs for some limited testing. Frankly I haven’t seen anything that I thought was special enough to warrant more testing – the biggest change I notice [repeatedly] is that opening Control Panel from Windows Explorer opens a new Window, where Explorer closes so the Back arrow no longer works. [This is likely a step towards the eventual demise of Control Panel.] There are improvements to Bluetooth, but I do not have 2004 on my two devices that regularly use Bluetooth, so I can’t say how wonderful it is, or not. There is an improvement coming for gaming in the form of a new WDDM version or model. Microsoft has also changed or tweaked the way that Win10 2004 treats or handles drivers more generally, which has caused me a few [mostly minor] problems as I upgrade copies of Win10 1909 to 2004.
Running Win10 2004, this PC will not blank the display or go to sleep based on the timer settings if the older model gaming mouse I’m using is plugged in, though I can trigger sleep manually. In Win10 1909, timer-based sleep works just fine. It’s the same with the Insider copy of Win10 2004, so very unlikely there’s something wrong with the installation of Win10 2004. Fortunately, it has zero effect on the way I use this PC, so I haven’t bothered to look further.
A bigger problem is that my original copy of Win10 still will not upgrade from 1909 to 2004, possibly because it was originally installed on Intel hardware and later migrated to AMD, and some of that Intel stuff was left behind. When 2004 was released in the Preview ring I signed that copy of Win10 up, and went the Windows Update route rather than using the original Insider ISO. No difference – it still crashes after the initial restart. I spent some serious time trying to fix that without success – the only thing to note is that I found that the Win10 2004 setup Does Not like the pagefile.sys file on another hard drive or partition. Previously running setup from the ISO, after the initial restart it crashed with the Updating Windows screen at 0% -- after moving that file back to the Windows drive, it crashed at around 75 %, same as updating via Windows Update. [That updating Windows screen BTW does not mean that it’s applying updates but rather upgrading or installing the new build.]
Those failures worried me a bit – did it mean I’d see a repeat of a Much earlier Win10 version upgrade that effectively bricked my older, originally Win8.1 tablet for several months, until a new Insider version finally worked. Fortunately no… it upgraded using the Insider ISO just fine, though it did pause for a Long time at that [magical?] 75% mark, where that other upgrade failed.
Another bad experience with Win10 2004 does not bode well for this release and emphasizes the need for backups. After upgrading this copy of Win10 to v. 2004, I upgraded to a new version of the Creative SoundBlaster software for my AE-5 sound card. When I fired it up for the 1st time it crashed the system – no BSD, but more like an instant off. Win10 started back up fine, but when I ran a disk check it said that it fixed several errors but needed more repair – I needed to restart for that to happen. [That’s the 1st time I’ve found drive errors like that in years.] On restart it ran the disk check to make those repairs, then restarted, and started the disk check all over again. After doing that 3 times it said it was attempting an auto repair of Windows, follow by Windows needs repaired. Long story short I could no longer get that copy of win10 started, so I just restored a backup – done.
Finally, if/when you do upgrade to Win10 2004, check your installed software afterwards. So far I haven’t seen any big problems, but there have been more problems than usual nonetheless. One example is the Logitech G-Hub software, which was/is already prone to trouble. The LGHub Agent was constantly using 37% CPU & up – a quick uninstall -> reinstall fixed that. The mixed good & bad news… if you make it through this one, the update this fall *so far* looks like it might be another minor service pack type affair. On the other hand if you can’t upgrade to 2004, it’ll be next spring before you have a major version upgrade to give you another shot.