Windows Insider Release Preview Channel Moves Forward to 23H2

With the Windows 11 Fall Update now available in preview form, the Release Preview channel is moving on to version 23H2. Which has been renamed to the Windows 11 2023 Update.

“Today we are making Windows 11 version 23H2 Build 22631 (Windows 11 2023 Update) available in the Release Preview Channel for Windows Insider Program for Business participants to validate on devices in their organizations,” the Windows Insider Program team writes in the announcement post. ” This update is delivered as an enablement package as we shared back in July and will be released in the fourth quarter of 2023. This new update will have the same servicing branch and code base as Windows 11, version 22H2, and will be cumulative with all the newly announced features including Copilot in Windows (in preview) plus [some] additional changes.”

Those additional changes will constitute what’s new in 23H2 when compared to the Fall Update. Which was 23H2, until it wasn’t. You know what? Never mind.

What matters is that those “new additional changes” include exactly one new feature for now: Microsoft Teams (free). As previously announced, Microsoft is removing the Chat integration in the Windows 11 Taskbar and is replacing that item with a shortcut to the newly renamed Microsoft Teams (free) app, which is the consumer version of Teams that’s been included with Windows 11 since the first release. That said, it sounds like this “new” app will include some Chat-like functionality via “a mini communications experience making it possible to chat, call, and meet with their people within just a click or two.” And it will include some new features, such as Phone Link integration, a new People experience, and a new Play Together widget for Widgets.

Commercial customers can get the Windows 11 2023 Update (which Microsoft hilariously and correctly called the “Windows 11 23H2 feature update” in the post) via Windows Update for Business, Windows Server Update Service (WSUS), or Azure Marketplace. Individuals wishing to install this build now simply need (to be in the Release Preview first and then) seek it in Windows Update.

Between this and the new John Cable post—which we were promised at the Microsoft Special Event last week—I now know how to move forward so that I can update the Windows 11 Field Guide to cover all of these new features. I’ll be writing about that soon.