Windows 11 24H2 Finally Gets Its September Week D Preview Update

The circle is now complete: On the last day of September, Microsoft finally provided Windows 11 version 24H2 with its Week D preview update. This is the final puzzle piece ahead of the broader distribution of 24H2 as an upgrade for x64 PCs running previous Windows 11 versions.

Not surprisingly, given the chaos of the past year, it hasn’t gone according to plan.

A quick recap: Microsoft is expected to deliver a Feature Update–on Tuesday, October 8, though it’s had mixed success hitting schedule targets–that will upgrade Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2 to version 24H2. This release is the second and more typical of two major milestones for 24H2 in 2024. The first arrived in June alongside Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ PCs. (That said, anyone could upgrade to 24H2 immediately using a tip I published in May.) This update will align 24H2 on Arm64 PCs (like those using Snapdragon X processors) and x64 PCs as the mainstream supported version of Windows going forward.

Ahead of each monthly Windows 11 cumulative update, Microsoft issues a preview version of that update so that customers can optionally install it and test the new features and other changes early. These preview updates are released the Tuesday of Week D each, meaning the fourth Tuesday of the month. Or they would be if Microsoft could meet its own schedule: Not for the first time this past year, the Tuesday of Week D came and went with any preview updates. Instead, we got last-second pre-release builds in the Windows Insider Program’s Release Preview channel for 22H2/23H2 and 24H2.

I speculated at the time that Microsoft was scrambling in the build-up to the completion of the second, major milestone for 24H2 that we’d see Week D updates within the next few days. And that happened, at least for 22H2 and 23H2: That Week D previous arrived last Thursday. And now it’s happened for 24H2, as well: KB5043178 updates Windows 11 version 24H2 to build 26100.1882. It adds several minor new features and other changes that mirror the features it “tested” in the Release Preview last week, as expected.

So the question now is how and when Microsoft delivers this coming 24H2 milestone. Based on the problems some users are seeing with the Week D preview update for 22H2/23H2, the timing might be pushed back. But I’ve long expected Microsoft to deliver the preview version of this Feature Update in October, limiting the rollout initially to seekers, and then more broadly in stable in November. And I don’t see that changing.

Anyway, it’s October now. And the clock is ticking.