Windows 10 May 2020 Update finally comes to Microsoft’s own Surface devices

(Image credit: Future)

Windows 10 May 2020 Update had previously been blocked by Microsoft on some of its own Surface devices, but the company has just announced that the Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3 – and indeed other ‘Always On, Always Connected’ PCs – can now get the upgrade.

The block was put in place due to some potential compatibility issues encountered by devices with “more than one Always On, Always Connected capable network adapter”, Microsoft explains in a support document (as spotted by Thurrott.com). And that gremlin could result in nastiness such as the machine unexpectedly shutting down or rebooting.

This affected the Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3 as mentioned, but a cumulative update (KB4557957) recently delivered as part of Microsoft’s monthly batch of updates for June resolves the compatibility problems.

Gradual removal

Don’t get too excited just yet, though. While those Surface owners keenly awaiting the latest May 2020 Update can now go and check for updates again – and hopefully see the upgrade – there’s no guarantee that it will pop up immediately.

As Microsoft observes, the block is being removed gradually over the ‘coming weeks’, but it’s certainly been stripped away for some folks who said they’ve managed to upgrade.

Also of note for Surface detachables is that KB4557957 “optimizes the touch experience and keeps the familiar desktop experience when you detach the keyboard”.

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).