Windows 10's light desktop background.

The latest version of Windows 10 is the Nov 2021 Update, version "21H2," which was released on Nov 16, 2021. Microsoft volition at present release new major updates every twelvemonth.

These major updates tin can have some time to reach your PC since Microsoft and PC manufacturers do all-encompassing testing before fully rolling them out. Let's have a look at what's included in the latest version, how to find out what version yous're running, and how you can skip the await and get the virtually contempo version if you don't already have it.

The Latest Version Is the Nov 2021 Update

The latest version of Windows 10 is the November 2021 Update. which was released on November 16, 2021. This update was codenamed "21H2" during its development process, every bit it was released in the 2nd one-half of 2021. Its last build number is 19044.

Windows 10'south Nov 2021 Update is a small update that focuses on bug fixes, just like the May 2021 Update and October 2020 Update were before it. Information technology does have a few other small changes, including compatibility with the "SAE Hash to Element" security standard used by some wireless WPA3 networks and GPU compute support for the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

How to Check if You Have the Latest Version

To see which version of Windows 10 you take, open your Start menu, and and then click the gear-shaped "Settings" icon to open the Settings app. You can also burn upwards the app by pressing Windows+I.

Opening Windows 10's Settings app

RELATED: How to Find Out Which Build and Version of Windows ten You lot Have

Head to System > Nigh in the Settings window, and then gyre downwardly toward the bottom to the "Windows Specifications" section.

A version number of "21H2" indicates you're using the Nov 2021 Update. This is the latest version. If you see a lower version number, you're using an older version.

Annotation: 21H2 is a smaller update, and then the "Installed On" date may not be updated hither and may testify a appointment in 2020 instead of 2021. Rest bodacious that, if the Settings app says y'all're using version 21H2, you lot accept the latest version.
Windows 10's Settings app showing version 20H2.
In the screenshot, the PC is running Windows x version 20H2.

If you see a higher version number than 21H2 on your arrangement, you're likely running an unstable Insider Preview version of Windows.

How to Update to the Latest Version

When Microsoft provides the update to your PC, it automatically installs itself. But Microsoft doesn't offer new Windows updates to all PCs at once. Instead, Microsoft rolls them out slowly over time, after both Microsoft and the various PC manufacturers bank check to see if they cause issues with different hardware configurations. If your PC doesn't become the update, Microsoft isn't entirely confident it will work on your hardware but yet.

However, you can override this and choose to install the update anyhow. After all, you can always downgrade back to your current version of Windows 10 if you have any problems, bold y'all choose to do so within ten days later upgrading. There'southward some adventure here, but you are still installing a stable operating arrangement update.

To install the update anyway, y'all tin can at present head to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and click the "Check for Updates" button. If a stable version of Windows ten is bachelor, Windows Update may offer to download and install it—fifty-fifty if it hasn't been rolled out to your PC even so. Look for a "Download and install now" link below a find about a "Feature Update" existence available for your PC.

Click "Download and Install" under the Feature Update section.
Microsoft

You lot can also visit Microsoft's Download Windows ten folio to update. Click the "Update now" button to download the Update Banana tool, and then run the tool. It will upgrade your PC to the latest version of Windows 10—even if the update wasn't offered to you lot via Windows Update. The tool may nonetheless refuse to install the update if some problems need to be stock-still with your PC'due south configuration first. You can either await or try to troubleshoot the problem yourself.

The above article may contain chapter links, which assist back up How-To Geek.