What’s New With Windows 11 in 2026

Windows 11 is simpler, more attractive, and more modern than its predecessors, but it's also familiar and offers the same basic interactions and interfaces. It was first introduced by Microsoft in 2021 and has since rapidly evolved and improved with new features and bug and security fixes, and to address customer concerns.

I will dive into these topics in more detail throughout the book, but here is a quick breakdown of the major changes, improvements, and features available in Windows 11 in 2026.
It's not about version numbers anymore
In the past, Microsoft updated each Windows version in turn, moving between major releases like Windows 10 and Windows 11 and annual interim releases like Windows 11 version 21H2 (where 21 indicates the year of release and H2 means "second half"; so this is a version from the second half of 2021) and 22H2. But things have changed in recent years.

Microsoft has continued releasing a new Windows 11 version each year, usually in the second half of the year. And each of these versions is supported for two years for the Windows 11 Home and Pro product editions used by individuals. But now each supported version of Windows 11 is updated with the same set of new features and fixes. So, at the time of this writing, Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 are current and supported, and are functionally identical.

2026 also saw the introduction of an unusual additional release, called Windows 11 version 26H1, that is made available only on new laptops running Windows 11 on Arm on new Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 processors. Like other supported versions of this product, Windows 11 version 26H1 is functionally identical to the other current and supported versions, though the introduction of new features in 26H1 sometimes trails 24H2 and 25H2 by a month.

Because of this change, this book no longer covers a specific Windows 11 version. Instead, it covers all supported Windows 11 versions, which include Windows 11 versions 24H2, 25H2, and 26H1.
Shifting hardware requirements
When Microsoft first introduced Windows 11, the system's new hardware requirements triggered some pushback from customers because they seemed to arbitrarily exclude PCs that were several years old or more. Microsoft also required PCs to have an enabled Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 security trip for the first time, though it had said it would instate this requirement years earlier.

Today, the Windows 11 hardware requirements are reasonable. If anything, many of them--like the RAM and storage requirements--are unrealistically low. And it is not difficult to work around these requirements and install or upgrade the latest supported version of Windows 11 on just about any PC.

Also, there have been two major developments to the Windows 11 hardware requirements in recent years.

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