OK, I admit it. I’ve been biting my lip since last week, when MS briefed MVPs about this upcoming milestone. Now that they’ve made an official announcement, I can share my thoughts and reactions. (That’s also where the nifty graphic comes from.  I doubled it up for a better WordPress look.) All this goes to explain why today I’m pondering Microsoft Viva introduction. Potentially,  it means much for modern digital workers everywhere — including me (and you too, dear reader).

When Pondering Microsoft Viva Introduction, Don’t Get Carried Away

Q1: What is Microsoft Viva?
A1: It’s an “Employee Experience Platform,” aka EXP “built for the digital era.” It is designed to bring together “knowledge, learning, resources, and insights into an integrated employee experience…
Further, it “… builds on Microsoft Teams to empower people to be their best, from anywhere.” See the Official Announcement Blog.

Q2: Name the four faces of the Viva EXP?
A2:  They’re repeated in the next graphic. You’ve got Viva Insights, Viva Topics, Viva Learning, and Viva Connections.

Of Insights, Topics, Learning and Connections

The emerging scoop on these Teams-based facilities goes  like this:

• Viva Connections allows an organization’s leaders to shape in-house cultures and mindsets. It also invites employees to help build “an inclusive workplace.” Further, it “helps everyone succeed by giving people a curated, company-branded experience that brings together relevant news, conversations, and other resources.” More at Viva Connections Blog.
• Viva Insights wants to help people form better work habits, achieve improved work/life balance, and find focus. Using AI (I’m guessing of both global and local varieties) this tool offers  insights to individuals, managers and leaders. They’re described as “personalized and actionable insights that help everyone in an organization thrive.” Mo’ info at Viva Insights Blog.
• Viva Learning creates a centralized learning hub within Microsoft Teams. There, people can “discover, share, assign and learn from content libraries available across the organization.” “[M]ake learning a natural part of your day” is the goal. MS says it “seamlessly connects into the day to day for our 115 million daily active users in Teams.” Futher deets from Viva Learning Blog.
• Viva Topics uses AI to provide its users “with knowledge and expertise in Microsoft Teams and the Microsoft 365 apps they use every day.” Based on Teams and Graph, it seeks to “deliver knowledge directly through the Teams users experience later this year.” At present it “has [already] reached general availability for our commercial customers.” Oh, and here’s the link to the Viva Topics Announcement (no blog just yet, I guess). This is the area that, as a Windows Insider MVP, interests me most.

Big Trouble in Little China

…is a delightfully awful 1986 throwaway movie starring Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall. It also humorously restates my mild concern, understanding now how much MS knows about us through Teams. And then, how much more we’re all going to know about ourselves and each other through that same nexus.

This could might be the best thing that’s ever happened to productivity workers. Or, it might be the first sign that SkyNet is getting itself together to subjugate wee, slow, puny humans. Should be fun to see which way this particular mop flops, eh?

Stay tuned! We’ve all got a lot to ponder as the next step in the man/machine interface takes another small step into the future. Personally, I’m jazzed…

The rumors started flying yesterday, first at WindowsLatest. But I couldn’t find evidence through the data they provided to back that up in the Windows registry. Then, this morning Sergey Tkachenko at WinAero.com came out with some more tangible proof in the form of registry key/value names to demonstrate that 21H1 action is afoot. I’m now inclined to agree that Build 19043 becomes likely 21H1 candidate for a Spring release.

Strong Hints Mean Build 19043 Becomes Likely 21H1 Candidate

In his story, Tkachenko proposes a string value  of Microsoft-UpdateTargeting-ClientOS vb_release_svc_prod3 10.0.19043.782 for an ultimate value of the Microsoft-Windows-21h1Enablement key. Just for grins, I searched on that value, and found nothing like it in either of my Release Preview (Build 19042.782) test machines.

Careful reading of his post leads me to  this analysis. Because 19041 became 20H1 and 19042 20H2, he’s guessing that 19043  matches up to 21H1. But so far, I’ve seen no hard evidence to support this assumption. That said, I do believe he may be right. I’ve seen nothing whatsoever to contradict equating 19043 with 21H2, either. And indeed, it is shared by many other Windows followers online.

How Much Longer Before We Know?

If you believe poster “moinmoin” at WindowsModder.de, an enablement package could appear as soon a next Patch Tuesday (February 9).  And if not then, he says, surely on or before the following Patch Tuesday (March 9).

It all depends on how this latest Release Preview update goes within the Insider Preview population that downloads and uses KB4598242. This test of the enablement package’s stability and usability, based on telemetry from its installers, could have a major impact on when 21H1 sees the light of day. If things go well, and no major issues or errors manifest, then sooner. If contrariwise, then later. We’ll see!

[NOTE}: To get the complete details on the Registry information from the lead-in photo from this story, right-click that image and select “View Image” (Firefox). Or, use your browser’s syntax to view the image by itself. Then you can read the values on-screen. HTH.

OK, Then: It’s Settled (January 24, 2021)

Thanks to a sequence of DISM commands that German-speaking Windows wizard “moinmoin” has shared at DeskModder.de, we now know how to “upgrade” PCs running Insider Beta or Release Preview channel build 19042.782 (or higher, presumably). I share all those details in a new article here entitled 19043 aka 20H1 Early Try-out How-to. I’d have to say this locks in the 19043/20H1 nomenclature conclusively, unless MS introduces a seismic shift in naming conventions between now and when 21H1 goes public.