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 will now release new major updates every year.

These major updates can take some time to reach your PC since Microsoft and PC manufacturers do extensive testing before fully rolling them out. Allow's have a look at what'due south included in the latest version, how to find out what version yous're running, and how yous can skip the wait and get the nearly recent version if you don't already take information technology.

The Latest Version Is the Nov 2021 Update

The latest version of Windows 10 is the Nov 2021 Update. which was released on November 16, 2021. This update was codenamed "21H2" during its evolution process, as it was released in the 2nd half of 2021. Its final build number is 19044.

Windows 10's November 2021 Update is a small-scale update that focuses on problems fixes, but similar the May 2021 Update and October 2020 Update were earlier information technology. It does accept 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 Cheque if You lot Have the Latest Version

To encounter which version of Windows 10 yous accept, open your Kickoff menu, then click the gear-shaped "Settings" icon to open the Settings app. You can as well burn up the app by pressing Windows+I.

Opening Windows 10's Settings app

RELATED: How to Find Out Which Build and Version of Windows 10 You Have

Head to System > About in the Settings window, and then scroll down toward the bottom to the "Windows Specifications" section.

A version number of "21H2" indicates you're using the November 2021 Update. This is the latest version. If y'all meet a lower version number, yous're using an older version.

Note: 21H2 is a smaller update, so the "Installed On" date may non exist updated hither and may show a appointment in 2020 instead of 2021. Residue assured that, if the Settings app says you lot're using version 21H2, you take the latest version.
Windows 10's Settings app showing version 20H2.
In the screenshot, the PC is running Windows 10 version 20H2.

If y'all run across a college version number than 21H2 on your system, y'all'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, information technology automatically installs itself. But Microsoft doesn't offer new Windows updates to all PCs at once. Instead, Microsoft rolls them out slowly over time, later on both Microsoft and the various PC manufacturers check to run into if they cause problems with different hardware configurations. If your PC doesn't become the update, Microsoft isn't entirely confident it will work on your hardware merely yet.

However, you tin can override this and choose to install the update anyway. After all, you lot tin can always downgrade back to your current version of Windows ten if you take whatsoever issues, assuming you choose to exercise and so within ten days later upgrading. There'due south some chance hither, but y'all are all the same installing a stable operating system update.

To install the update anyhow, you can now caput to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and click the "Bank check for Updates" button. If a stable version of Windows 10 is bachelor, Windows Update may offer to download and install it—fifty-fifty if it hasn't been rolled out to your PC nevertheless. Await for a "Download and install now" link beneath a discover about a "Characteristic Update" being available for your PC.

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

You can besides visit Microsoft's Download Windows ten folio to update. Click the "Update now" button to download the Update Banana tool, and and so run the tool. It will upgrade your PC to the latest version of Windows 10—fifty-fifty if the update wasn't offered to yous via Windows Update. The tool may all the same decline to install the update if some problems need to be fixed with your PC's configuration beginning. Yous can either look or try to troubleshoot the problem yourself.