23H2, Microsoft Teams (Free), And an Inability to Communicate Effectively (Premium)

Microsoft's laughable inability to communicate effectively reached absurd heights today with the release of Windows 11 version 23H2. But it's not just the product or the non-existent "Fall update" we were promised. There's also a little problem with the one "major" new feature in 23H2 that didn't ship previously in preview form.

I am referring of course to Microsoft Teams (free). Microsoft has a branding problem when it comes to this free consumer version of Teams, and the release of Windows 11 version 23H2 today doesn't change that in the slightest. In fact, it may have just gotten more confusing.

But let me back up for a moment as recent history plays into this story.

Microsoft announced in September that it would preempt 23H2 by releasing most of its new features ahead of schedule to customers on Windows 11 version 22H2. But even that announcement was miscommunicated: Yes, those features would ship before 23H2, but they would ship only in preview form, meaning that most users wouldn't get them, let alone even learn about them.

Worse, those new features would ship in preview form twice for some reason, once in September and then again in October. (The only difference between the two releases was that the first used Controlled Feature Release technology to randomly deploy new features whereas the second had all the new features enabled by default for everyone.)

Today's public release of the 23H2 update once again brings all those new features to Windows 11 users, albeit in non-preview form for the first time, ensuring that everyone will get them. If your PC is compatible with Windows 11 version 22H2, you're getting 23H2 immediately. It's that simple.

Just kidding! As Microsoft boogeyman John Cable explains, there is still a small possibility that a "safeguard hold" could delay the delivery of this update to your PC. Hilarious.

On that note, I'd like to think I'm not an "I told you so" kind of guy, but I now have some evidence to the contrary.

On the day of that September Microsoft event, as we listened to different people from the company tell us different stories, I did what I always do and stated the truth as simply as possible: This "Fall update" or whatever the heck Microsoft was trying to call it at different times of the day was nothing less than 23H2. And the fact that Microsoft has still not actually shipped that update to Windows 11 customers---remember, a preview update is not an "update," it's a preview update---to this day proves my point: 23H2 is here now in stable. And the Fall update, for lack of a better term, is not.

(Will the Fall Update ever ship? Meaning, will it ever ship in non-preview form in stable? Who can say? What's the potential user base for this thing now that 23H2 is out and is compatible with the same 22H2-based PCs? That was rhetorical.)

You know where I stand on this kind of nonsense: It doesn't help anyone. But that's what Microsoft does these days. They talk. Garbage comes ...