Despite a global pandemic Microsoft have managed to start the roll out of their latest feature release version 2004 and I haven’t noticed much from the previous release, but what does the 2004 in Windows 10 Feature Release represent?
Feature Release
Technically speaking, these are new versions of the windows 10 operating system. In the good old days new versions of windows were marketed as whole new operating systems and an updated version was released every couple of years with a whole new range of features along with a new version number. This system ran from Windows 3.1 up to Windows 8.
Windows 10 was released as a free upgrade initially to Windows 7 and Windows 8 users and at the same time, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would be the definitive version. Windows 10 would be updated twice yearly, every 6 months with new features and functionality. In addition, there would also be monthly quality updates for 18 to 30 months from the date of release depending on the lifecycle policy. This meant that a latest version numbering system would need to be implemented to reflect those 6 monthly updates.
Where do you find the version number?
To find the version number you will need to navigate to Settings\System\About. Scroll down the screen until you see the heading Windows Specifications, it should look something like this:
If you look at the row starting with version, you will see 2004 next to it. This tells you the year and month that the Feature Experience Pack was released. In this case the first pair of numbers “20” represents the year of release and the second pair of numbers “04” represents the month of release. In this case the scheduled release date was the 4th April 2020.
Previous Windows 10 Releases
| Version | Servicing Option | Release Date | OS Build Number | End of service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Semi-Annual Channel | 27/05/2020 | 19041.388 | 14/12/2021 |
| 1909 | Semi-Annual Channel | 12/11/2019 | 18363.997 | 11/05/2021 |
| 1903 | Semi-Annual Channel | 21/05/2019 | 18362.997 | 10/11/2020 |
| 1809 | Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) | 13/11/2018 | 17763.1369 | 10/11/2020 |
| 1803 | Semi-Annual Channel | 10/07/2018 | 17134.1610 | End of service |
| 1803 | Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) | 30/04/2018 | 17134.1610 | End of service |
| 1709 | Semi-Annual Channel | 18/01/2018 | 16299.1992 | End of service |
| 1709 | Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) | 17/10/2017 | 16299.1992 | End of service |
To find out more on Windows 10 release information please visit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-information/