It’s that time again – we’re on the second Tuesday of April, and that means it’s Patch Tuesday. Microsoft is rolling out updates to all supported versions of Windows, including both Windows 11 and Windows 10. Specifically, updates are rolling out to Windows 10 versions 21H2, 21H1, and 20H2 are getting updated to build 19044.1645, 19043.1645, and 19042.1645, respectively.
The headlining change in this release is the newly-added Search Highlights feature. This was first rolled out to Windows 11 Insiders, and it was then included in the last optional update for Windows 10. Now, everyone is getting the new feature. Essentially, this is a new look for Windows Search, and it provides content suggestions based on what day it is. For example, you may see information about important events that happened on that day, or special occasions like holidays. For users signed in with a corporate account, they’ll instead see content relevant to their organization. That includes important contacts, recent files, and so on.
As per usual, the update package is the same for all three versions, and this update is labeled as KB5012599. You can download the update manually from here, or get it via Windows Update. Aside from that, the update is relatively small, as you might expect for a cumulative update such as this one. Microsoft’s highlights only say the following:
Updates security for your Windows operating system.
The more detailed changelog still only includes one item, which is addressing a potential DoS vulnerability:
Addresses an issue that causes a Denial of Service vulnerability on Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV). For more information, see CVE-2020-26784.
Of course, this update also includes all the changes from the optional update that was released in the second half of last month. That includes improvements to notifications, including the ability to display up to three high-priority notifications at once. This makes it so that you can see an incoming call and an alarm at the same time, for example. You can refer to the changelog for Windows 10 build 19044.1620 to see all the details on that. It’s actually a far more comprehensive list of changes.
In addition to Windows 10 build 19044.1645 being available for the latest versions of Windows 10, there are a few versions that are also getting updates in certain business editions. You can find more information about these updates in the table below.
We’re fast approaching the end-of-service date for a couple of Windows versions, so this is a good time to consider upgrading. On May 10th, Windows 10 version 20H2 will no longer be supported for Windows 10 Home and Pro licenses, though it will still be supported for Education and Enterprise licenses. Similarly, Windows 10 version 1909, which is currently still supported for Enterprise and Education editions, is losing all support on the same day. These versions will receive their final updates on May 10th, and after that, you’ll want to upgrade as soon as possible, so it’s best to prepare now.