Windows 10 19H2 update (Version 1909): All changes, new features so far (Categorized changelog)

On this page, we have collated all the changes and new features brought by Windows 10 19H2 update (Version 1909). Windows 10 19H2 update is the next feature update for Windows 10 that Microsoft has decided to push via the cumulative updates route. You can bookmark this page to refer back to see the collated changelog for Windows 10 19H2 update (Version 1909).

Windows 10 19H2 (Version 1909): Release Date

As per the latest reports, the RTM build of Windows 10 19H2 update aka Version 1909 will go official or become generally Available from November 12th.

Windows 10 19H2 Top New features

Third-party Digital assistants:

• A change to enable third-party digital assistants to voice activate above the Lock screen.

Quick create events:

• You can now quickly create an event straight from the Calendar flyout on the Taskbar. Just click on the date and time at the lower right corner of the Taskbar to open the Calendar flyout and pick your desired date and start typing in the text box – you’ll now see inline options to set a time and location.

Notification improvements:

• Notifications settings under Settings > System > Notifications will now default to sorting notification senders by most recently shown notification, rather than sender name. This makes it easier to find and configure frequent and recent senders. We have also added a setting to turn off playing a sound when notifications appear.
• We now show the options to configure and turn off notifications from an app/website right on the notification, both as a banner and in Action Center.
• We have added a “Manage notifications” button to the top of the Action Center that launches the main “Notifications & actions” Settings page.

Windows 10 19H2 Core feature improvements

Accessibility improvements:

• We have added the ability for Narrator and other assistive technologies to read and learn where the FN key is located on keyboards and what state it is in (locked versus unlocked).

CPU performance & Battery life improvement:

• A CPU may have multiple “favored” cores (logical processors of the highest available scheduling class). To provide better performance and reliability, we have implemented a rotation policy that distributes work more fairly among these favored cores.
• We have made general battery life and power efficiency improvements for PCs with certain processors.

More understandable settings:

• We have added friendly images to show what is meant by “banner” and “Action Center” when adjusting the notifications on apps in order to make these settings more approachable and understandable.
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Windows 10 19H2 UI changes & Improvements

• The navigation pane on the Start menu now expands when you hover over it with your mouse to better inform where clicking goes.
• We’re updating the search box in File Explorer to now be powered by Windows Search. This change will help integrate your OneDrive content online with the traditional indexed results. More details here. [UPDATED for clarity.]

Windows 10 19H2 Enterprise/Developer improvements

• We have added additional debugging capabilities for newer Intel processors. This is only relevant for hardware manufacturers.
• Key-rolling or Key-rotation feature enables secure rolling of Recovery passwords on MDM managed AAD devices upon on demand request from in-tune/MDM tools or upon every time recovery password is used to unlock the BitLocker protected drive. This feature will help prevent accidental recovery password disclosure as part of manual BitLocker drive unlock by users.
• Windows containers require matched host and container version. This restricts customers and limits Windows containers from supporting mixed-version container pod scenarios This update includes 5 fixes to address this and allow the host to run down-level containers on up-level for process (Argon) isolation.
• We have enabled Windows Defender Credential Guard for ARM64 devices for additional protection against credential theft for enterprises deploying ARM64 devices in their organizations.
• We have enabled the ability for enterprises to supplement the Windows 10 in S Mode policy to allow traditional Win32 (desktop) apps from Microsoft Intune.