Easiest Option to Upgrade to Latest Version of Windows 10 21H1 | No Need to Download 21H1 | Best Upgrade Option

Easiest Option to Upgrade to Latest Version of Windows 10 21H1. This is the topic we are going to discuss today in this post. If you have any better options to upgrade your Home PCs, let us know in the comments section.

If you are looking for a Windows 10 21H1 upgrade of office or business PCs/laptops, then you need to use any of the following methods:

• Windows Update for Business policies through Intune
• WSUS through SCCM (Windows 10 Servicing)
• Windows 10 Upgrade Task Sequence

First of all, understanding Windows 10 build versions is important before going into the Windows 10 upgrade process. I have a blog post about the version details of Windows 10. You can refer to it to get more details about the build, major, and minor versions of Windows 10.

Prerequisites Easiest Option to Upgrade to Latest Version of Windows 10

I’m going to share prerequisites for the Easiest Option to Upgrade to the Latest version of Windows 10. But there are some prerequisites to using this easiest option for Windows 10 upgrade. This option is not available for all the scenarios.

The following are the prerequisites to upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10 21H1 using the enablement package/standalone package.

Windows 10 version should be version 2004 or 20H2 to upgrade to Windows 10, version 21H1 using the easiest method explained in this post.

Servicing stack update for Windows 10, version 2004: September 8, 2020 or a later servicing stack update

May 11, 2021 - KB5003173 (OS Build 19041.985) or a later cumulative update

NOTE! – Before updating to Windows 10, version 21H1 using an enablement package, you must be running Windows 10, version 2004 or 20H2. You must have the following prerequisites installed before applying this update:

NOTE! – This easiest method is applicable to all the coming versions of Windows 10. If your Windows 10 version is one version below (N-1 version) the latest version of Windows 10.

Manual Upgrade to Latest Version of Windows 10

The manual way to upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10 is explained below. There are a couple of ways to do this manual way. But I don’t recommend the second method and that is using ISO.

NOTE! – I’m not going to cover the toughest way to upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10. The toughest way to upgrade Windows 10 latest version is to download ISO and upgrade using that.

Option #1 – Windows Settings App

• You can go to Settings Application (click on the start menu and start typing setting) in Windows 10
• Click on Update & Security -> Windows Update option
• Click on Check for Updates button
• Wait for 10-15 minutes
• The following message will show up (sometimes this can take hours)
  • The next version of Windows is available with new features and security improvements. When you’re ready for the update, select “Download and install.”
• Click on Download and install button to start downloading
• It will automatically start upgrading the Windows 10 21H1 version in the background.
• This download & upgrade is happening via Windows Update and Microsoft Update for your HOME/non-managed Windows 10 PCs.

• Restart Pending Stage – the Windows 10 computer whenever it asks for. For me, it took less than 2 minutes to reach this stage.

Using Microsoft Update catalog website – Standalone Windows 10 Upgrade KB?

This is the second option to upgrade Windows 10 to the latest version using the standalone package. The standalone package is also known as the enablement package. The enablement package kb5000736 is not available via the Microsoft Update catalog website.

Option #2 is not easy as option #1 explained above but better than an ISO upgrade. Try to use this only for Windows 10 devices that are not connected to the internet or for testing purposes. You need to have WSUS/SCCM to use this method of an upgrade – Windows 10 1909 Deployment Enhancement Enablement Package HTMD Blog (anoopcnair.com).

This method is not applicable for HOME PCs/Laptops.

Follow the steps below to download the standalone upgrade package to get to the latest and greatest version of Windows 10.

• Open the URL – https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=kb5000736
• As mentioned above the enablement package KB to upgrade to Windows 10 21H1 is not available on the Windows Update catalog website.

Results

After restart, you would be able to see the latest version installed on the device. Try running the Winver command.

Resources

• KB5000736: Featured update to Windows 10, version 21H1 by using an enablement package
• Windows 10 Upgrade Task Sequence
• Windows 10 1909 Deployment Enhancement Enablement Package HTMD Blog (anoopcnair.com)

Author

Anoop is Microsoft MVP! He is a Solution Architect in enterprise client management with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is a blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. E writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc…