Microsoft Confirms It Could Update Windows 11 Before October 2022 (UPDATED)

UPDATED: I originally wrote this a bit more definitively than I should have. Microsoft will almost certainly update WIndows 11 before next October’s Feature Update. But it is not guaranteed. –Paul

Microsoft has explicitly confirmed that it will probably not wait for the next major version of Windows 11 to fix the many problems with this OS.

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I know. I feel like this was well understood, even though many details—like how and when—were unclear. But I can’t find an instance where Microsoft said this publicly.

Now I can.

“New features and OS improvements from [Windows Insider] builds could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready, and we may deliver them as full OS updates or servicing releases,” Microsoft’s post about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509 notes.

So there you go.

The next “full OS update” is expected in October 2022, given that Microsoft has promised annual feature updates.

But “servicing releases” could happen at any time, literally. They’re what Microsoft usually calls cumulative updates or quality updates. So it’s reasonable to expect that at least some of the new features and changes that Microsoft is now testing in the Dev channel of the Windows Insider Program could be rolled out as soon as early 2022.

As for the exact timing and cadence, who can say? I could see Microsoft releasing quarterly Windows 11 servicing updates next year that deliver new features and changes, but that’s just a guess. It’s reasonable to assume we’ll need at least a few next year, given how much is missing and/or broken today, and that these updates could slow down in subsequent years. But we’ll see.

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Conversation 41 comments

  • jwpear

    Premium Member
    03 December, 2021 - 4:26 pm

    <p>It’s like they just can’t help but shoot themselves in the foot. This is Barney every time Andy lets him load his gun with his one bullet.</p><p><br></p><p>Overall, I like Windows 11. It feels fresh and modern. But I’m disappointed by some of the decisions and usability mistakes. The Start menu suffers the most. </p><p><br></p><p>Why does a company with so much talent make these mistakes over and over? Is there that much turnover at Microsoft that the engineering team has no idea of the past?</p>

    • proftheory

      Premium Member
      03 December, 2021 - 5:20 pm

      <p>Who’s steering the boat rather than who is making it move.</p>

    • Greg Green

      04 December, 2021 - 8:58 am

      <p>Software design in general, not just MS, seems like it’s forgotten the past.</p>

      • bbennett40

        06 December, 2021 - 10:17 am

        <p>Agree. The trend now is to release it to the public as soon as possible then fix it later. We are in perpetual beta testing it seems.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      04 December, 2021 - 5:51 pm

      <p>Has anyone ever said MSFT’s main goal isn’t revenue growth?</p><p><br></p><p>If hordes of Windows users keep on using Windows even when Windows objectively gets worse, what incentive would MSFT have for doing anything right?</p>

  • Bart

    Premium Member
    03 December, 2021 - 4:32 pm

    <p>I am pleased to see this happens, so I don’t have to wait for new features for a year. </p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    03 December, 2021 - 5:12 pm

    <p>I pray I never have to use windows 11. I need to stay productive and being forced to change the way I work for the benefit of Microsoft rather than me; stirs up a whole host of irrational emotions and anxieties.</p><p><br></p><p> </p>

    • proftheory

      Premium Member
      03 December, 2021 - 5:21 pm

      <p>Maybe some of those bright ideas might be brought to Windows 10 also.</p><p><br></p>

    • ringofvoid

      03 December, 2021 - 6:30 pm

      <p>Windows 11 will get better over time. By the time Windows 10 goes out of support, I’m sure it will in excellent shape. </p>

      • navarac

        04 December, 2021 - 3:34 am

        <p>You’re more optimistic than I am, I must say. I have already moved away from Windows.</p>

        • red.radar

          Premium Member
          04 December, 2021 - 11:23 pm

          <p>While I haven’t done it….yet… I have been researching my exit strategy. </p>

      • hrlngrv

        Premium Member
        04 December, 2021 - 7:12 pm

        <p>By Windows 10 EOS, Windows 11 may almost be as good.</p>

        • Greg Green

          05 December, 2021 - 10:09 am

          <p>LOL! Advertising slogans never used: This model is almost as good as last year’s.</p>

        • crp0908

          06 December, 2021 - 2:55 pm

          <p>I’m still waiting for Windows 10 to be as good as Windows 7 was. The one feature update a year via a provisioning package may be what finally does it. </p>

    • sergeluca

      05 December, 2021 - 4:43 am

      <p>I’m using it everyday and I really like it, it is solid and beautiful.Some features are missing but are coming soon. Switching from Mac Book Air M1 to Surface Laptop 4 &amp; W11. Not everything was right in the MacOS world (bugs in UI, 1 crash/2 months on my M1, terrible unintuitive multiscreen support…), very happy to be back to W10 (and then W11) after using M1 for over 7 months everyday.</p>

  • stephenf

    03 December, 2021 - 6:27 pm

    <p>Anybody know where one can go to find out what is <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">missing and/or broken?</span></p>

  • mike2thel73

    03 December, 2021 - 7:18 pm

    <p>I am unable to upgrade any of my laptop/desktop devices from windows 10. My hardware pre-dates Skylake.</p><p><br></p><p>Yes I know I know….there are workarounds but if Microsoft is going to not let me use windows updates for using outdated hard ware then I’m not bothering.</p><p><br></p><p>At Costco during Black Friday weekend I purchased a Samsung Galaxy book pro 15.6" (core i7, 1TB storage, 16gb ram) for $899 pre-tax for my brother-in-law for Xmas.</p><p><br></p><p>My brother in law is a Samsung Galaxy mobile user so spending the extra money for Samsung made sense. The only thing is it is NOT a touchscreen.</p><p>I was very disappointed for that but I was truly impressed with this laptop after spending almost one week with it.</p><p><br></p><p>I opened it up because I wanted to test it and I’m going to set it up for him so it will be ready to use out of the box.</p><p><br></p><p>I wish I was in need of a laptop because I really like it. The design of windows 11 is a breath of fresh air. This is what windows 10 should have been.</p><p><br></p><p>But it doesn’t matter because I’m using a 10 year old laptop that still works great and a MacBook pro from 2017 that still works great.</p><p><br></p><p>I would love to upgrade to windows 11 but the deal that Microsoft made in the backroom with it’s hardware partners is making it easy for me to forget windows after 2025 and just become part of the sheep family at apple.</p><p><br></p><p>I just purchased my first flagship iPhone and I’m ok with leaving Microsoft &amp; Google in the dust.</p>

    • miketheheadski

      03 December, 2021 - 10:03 pm

      <p>Yeah, it is a good thing Apple never abandons older hardware when they upgrade MacOS…Oh, wait…</p>

      • yaddamaster

        03 December, 2021 - 10:37 pm

        <p>but the implicit understanding was that Microsoft wouldn’t be like Apple. They would support ancient hardware. It was up to consumers to decide when their hardware got too slow and they needed to upgrade. The decision was with the consumer.</p><p>There were a number of deals similar – Microsoft ecosphere was cheaper than Apple but less polished. Now it’s basically just as expensive and still less polished.</p><p><br></p><p>The old world is gone…..and with it much of the reason for sticking with Microsoft. At least as an enthusiast. </p>

        • miamimauler

          04 December, 2021 - 12:09 am

          <p>@yaddamaster</p><p><br></p><p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Microsoft ecosphere was cheaper than Apple but less polished. Now it’s basically just as expensive and still less polished"</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">That is an excellent point.</span></p>

      • Greg Green

        04 December, 2021 - 9:03 am

        <p>This move by MS is worse than anything apple did. I have a 2013 iMac that was still running the latest apple software at the beginning of this year.</p><p><br></p><p>That chip and it’s successor are not supported by Windows 11.</p>

  • polloloco51

    03 December, 2021 - 8:05 pm

    <p>I have to say:</p><p>I would gladly take the Windows Vista or even the Longhorn 5112 start menu, over the Windows 11 start menu any day! It is so horribly dumbed down and lobotomized. </p><p><br></p><p>I really hope Microsoft beefs it up with power user features in later updates! </p>

    • navarac

      04 December, 2021 - 3:29 am

      <p>Probably because "the young talent" at Microsoft have all been brought up on Chromebooks and iPads etc. They are working on Windows, having had no reason to use it. Idiotic.</p>

    • fishnet37222

      Premium Member
      06 December, 2021 - 9:46 am

      <p>Just bring back the Windows 7 start menu.</p>

      • sadsteve

        06 December, 2021 - 4:40 pm

        <p>If you want a Windows 7 like Start Menu just install Open Shell. It’s what I’ve been using for years. It very configurable.</p><p><br></p>

  • blue77star

    03 December, 2021 - 9:30 pm

    <p>Microsoft had no reasons to release Windows 11 this early and they had no reason to push any major UI change for Windows 10. They should keep updating Windows 10 and work on a good Windows 11 release until Spring of 2023.</p>

    • jimchamplin

      Premium Member
      04 December, 2021 - 2:37 am

      <p>Well they didn’t. So welcome to reality.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      04 December, 2021 - 5:54 pm

      <p>| <em>Microsoft had no reasons to release Windows 11 this early</em></p><p><br></p><p>Other than OEMs begging for something, anything to cushion the drop from pandemic sales levels.</p><p><br></p><p>IOW, there were sound and obvious reasons, but you don’t like them.</p>

  • v_2samg

    04 December, 2021 - 12:45 am

    <p>Oh man. We have kids here (<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">including Paul</span>), crying &amp; complaining.</p>

    • navarac

      04 December, 2021 - 3:30 am

      <p>It is the kids at Microsoft who have caused this crap, mate!</p>

    • Greg Green

      04 December, 2021 - 9:00 am

      <p>Mr Barnum eagerly awaits your arrival.</p>

  • Vitamindeck

    04 December, 2021 - 5:53 am

    <p>Biotin is used all over the world beauty reason so I have try and take imported biotin from website name vitamindeck.com.pk/. They have a best imported biotin of different brands</p>

  • daniel7878

    04 December, 2021 - 8:11 am

    <p>Not being able to “expand” or uncombine things in the task bar is driving me bonkers. </p>

    • egab

      04 December, 2021 - 1:10 pm

      <p>Wait, what ? You can’t select "Combine Taskbar buttons when taskbar is full/never" any more ?</p>

      • ronh

        Premium Member
        05 December, 2021 - 10:53 am

        <p>I relied on that in windows 10. TBH, I didn’t notice it was missing, but now I want it back.</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    04 December, 2021 - 5:47 pm

    <p>I look forward to choosing between Windows 11 21H2 SP1 vs Windows 11 22H2.</p>

  • fikus74

    05 December, 2021 - 11:04 am

    <p>Microsoft had a reason to release windows 11. They felt it would help sell devices during the Christmas season. The jury is still out on that.</p><p><br></p><p>As for Windows 11. I’m seriously considering Linux pop for my next PC build due next fall. I can’t stand the idea of Edge having forced content pushed to us without the option to turn it off.</p>

  • sandeepm

    06 December, 2021 - 10:19 am

    <p>Sad that they scrapped WCOS. Windows 11 is no better than any of the past Windows. Useless services keep the CPU and memory utilization maximized even now. What have they learnt from the past?</p><p><br></p><p>My surface book battery got bloated up and pushed the display out of the case due to the print spooler service running all night at full CPU.</p><p><br></p><p>Now I see that that issue still exists in Windows 11. Very sad.</p>

  • brettscoast

    Premium Member
    06 December, 2021 - 8:29 pm

    <p>This kind of makes sense I guess but I wish Microsoft would come out faster on the front foot to address users’ genuine concerns about the real issues with Windows 11 now. They need to come out quickly and <span style="color: rgb(32, 33, 36);">decisively early next year to fix these things in a more timely manner.</span></p>

  • roundaboutskid

    07 December, 2021 - 8:55 am

    <p>It’s a Microsoft tradition; every second version is utter shait.</p>

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