Windows 10 October 2020 Update

Windows 10 October 2020 Update is an update to Windows 10 which was released on 20 October 2020.

New features and changes
Some of the features introduced in this version have been backported from Iron builds 20161 and 20175.1000.


 * The legacy Microsoft Edge has been replaced by the new Chromium-based as the default browser.


 * Start improvements:
 * Tiles for pinned apps no longer have an accent color. Instead, they are now theme-aware and can be white or black depending on the system theme. If transparency effects are enabled, they will also have an acrylic transparency.
 * Apps on the apps pane no longer have their icons displayed under an accent-colored backplate. They only show the icons now.
 * The icon for app folders has been updated, and it follows the Fluent Design system.


 * Open tabs in Microsoft Edge are now shown individually in Alt + Tab instead of just the Edge windows.
 * Clicking a pinned site on the taskbar now shows all open tabs for it across any open Microsoft Edge windows.
 * A more personalized taskbar for new users.
 * Notification experience updates:
 * The overall design of notification toasts has been changed to resemble that of Windows 10X. On the upper border, the app logo and name are now displayed so that users can easily identify which app generated a toast. Additionally, the icons for toast settings and dismissing to action center have been changed from a gear and an arrow to an ellipsis and an X.
 * The summary and automated rule enablement notifications for Focus Assist are now disabled by default. This can be reverted back to the previous behavior in Settings < System < Focus Assist.
 * Updates to Settings < System < About:
 * Information and links from Control Panel's System page have been fully migrated to Settings. Links that previously opened Control Panel now redirect to Settings.
 * Security status data has been consolidated. While summary messages are still shown, the rest of the details have been removed, and they can be queried on the Update and Security < Windows Security page.
 * Windows and device specifications now copyable via buttons on each section.
 * Tablet experience enhancements:
 * The notification toast that previously asked 2-in-1 users to switch to tablet mode when detaching the keyboard has been removed. Now, when this action occurs Windows will simply switch to the new tablet experience from the May 2020 Update.
 * The "Tablet mode" page under Settings < System has been renamed to simply "Tablet."
 * The quick action for Tablet mode is now automatically removed from the Action Center on non-touch devices to prevent confusions.
 * A new logic is incorporated to let users boot into the appropriate mode according to the mode they were last in and whether the keyboard is attached or not.
 * The new Modern Device Management (MDM) Local Users and Groups policy allows an administrator to make granular changes to a local group on a managed device, on par with what has been available to devices managed with on-prem Group Policy (GP).
 * When going to Settings < System < Display < Advanced display settings, there is now an option to change your displays' refresh rate without having to open the legacy Monitor Properties dialog.

Version numbering
This version drops the YYMM numbering scheme, introduced with the November Update, in favor of the half-year based YYHx scheme already used previously for codenames since the Windows 10 May 2019 Update. However, several applications and updates still have references for version 2009. This is because the former scheme is still in use, and is the ReleaseId from the Registry, in order to keep compatibility in the case of apps.