Windows 11 24H2 Features are Coming to 23H2, 22H2 Too

It looks like Copilot as an app and other Windows 11 24H2 features are coming to Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2 too: Microsoft today issued new Release Preview builds with these features, indicating that they could hit a broader Preview Update release at this month’s Week D (June 25) and then stable as soon as next month’s Patch Tuesday in July (July 9).

Or not. Because Microsoft.

Just so we’re clear what’s happening here: There are currently two supported versions of Windows 11 in the market, 22H2 and 23H2. Both share the same code base and are identical from a functional standpoint. The only differences are the build number and the respective end of support dates. Of course, this raises a question: Why would Microsoft have two different but literally identical Windows 11 versions in market at the same time?

The answer, go figure, is Copilot.

Copilot was originally supposed to be exclusive to 23H2, but late in the development period, Microsoft realized that many of its customers, especially its commercial customers, would likely skip 23H2 and stay on 22H2 because of Copilot. And so it switched gears and released Copilot and the rest of the 23H2 feature set to 22H2 the month before 23H2 was to have shipped. Problem solved: Now most Windows 11 users would get Copilot whether they want it or not.

Flash forward to May 2024 and Microsoft delivered a preview version of Windows 11 version 24H2 to the Windows Insider Program’s Release Preview channel ahead of its stable initial release with Copilot+ PCs. 24H2 is a different code base from 22H2/23H2 and even in this early form–it will be enhanced and released in full in October in stable–it had several interesting new features. And as important, Microsoft provided an ISO of this build that anyone could use to upgrade immediately, in stable. Which is why I wrote a tip about doing that: If you installed 24H2 already, you’re in stable, you’re on the normal servicing schedule, and you will get updates each Patch Tuesday and optional Week D preview updates each month. The idea is that anyone can be on the same build of 24H2 that Copilot+ PC users will get on June 18, and this initial release of 24H2 was expected to finalize well before now.

And then Recall happened.

Microsoft could have handled the Recall drama any number of ways, but it finally decided to just address the haters, reiterate its original plan, and make one substantive change that addressed my big complaint by making Recall truly opt in instead of “optional” (read: opt out) where you would have needed to disable it after setting up Windows initially. The changes to Recall necessitated a lot of scrambling though: Those Copilot+ PCs, loaded up with 24H2, Recall, 40+ AI models, all the other Copilot+ PC features, were already imaged, packaged up, and winding their way through the channel.

Microsoft’s only acknowledgement of this mess came on June 7, when it revealed that it had “paused” the roll out of 24H2 to Insiders in the Release Preview channel who had installed the initial preview release, and then later optionally installed the May Week D update that delivered Copilot as an app and some other changes. It’s clear that that Week D update was the preview version of the initial 24H2 release that would hit Copilot+ PCs and, via Windows Update, anyone else who wanted it. But the schedule was tossed in the air when Microsoft decided to update Recall.

Math is hard. But calendar math can be brutal. With the clock ticking, Microsoft would have to update 24H2 so that Recall matches the behaviors it described in its early June Recall update. And that’s why we didn’t get a 24H2 Patch Tuesday update this past Tuesday, June 11: That build almost certainly would have been the same build that the first Copilot+ PC users saw when they finally booted their new devices into the desktop starting on June 18. But the team was furiously working on–is likely still furiously working on–that update.

Here’s my educated guess: On Tuesday, June 18, one week after Patch Tuesday, anyone on 24H2 will get the June Patch Tuesday update. Those with a Copilot+ PC will get an update during the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) that will deliver that same changes. They will go off on their Recall adventure, or not, it’s opt in now. And we–those on 24H2–will simply get whatever it was we were supposed to get this past week.

But as noted up top, Microsoft today issued new builds of 22H2 and 23H2 to the Release Preview channel that have all the (non-Copilot+ PC) features in 24H2. What gives?

This one is easy: It’s Copilot all over again. Microsoft wants to make sure that all the new features it puts out in the world land on as many PCs as possible, and so it’s delivering the 24H2 stuff to 22H2/23H2, as it did previously with Copilot. It’s kind of genius in a way, as it allows customers to avoid a Feature Update, which is what they want, while allowing Microsoft to force-feed them new features regardless. OK, evil genius, maybe.

The timing is perfect, too. For a little while, we’ll have three supported Windows 11 versions–22H2, 23H2, and 24H2–in market. But 22H2 exits support on October 8, 2024. Funny date, that. It’s a Patch Tuesday. So we can expect 24H2, the “full” release, to land on or around that date. The only question is whether those still on 22H2 are force-updated to 23H2 or 24H2. And it won’t matter because 23H2 and 24H2 will be exactly the same thing from a functional perspective. The only difference will be the respective end of support dates.

If you’re paying attention and understand what’s happening here, you may have one question. (I did, if that helps.) If Microsoft delivered 24H2 to the Release Preview in May, how is it now delivering new 22H2 and 23H2 builds to the Release Preview a month later? This one is almost a puzzle, but the answer is (retroactively) obvious: That 24H2 build in May was a preview update in Release Preview, so many Insiders probably just ignored it. So this new build will get them up to speed. Not just with 22H2 or 23H2. But with 24H2 too.

Put simply, version numbers don’t matter anymore. If you’re using Windows 11, you’re using Windows 11, no matter which version you think you’re on.

So there’s my educated guesses on this whole mess. It all adds up, not that that matters. But it feels right. And it will be interesting to see what the Day 1 experience is for anyone brave enough to buy a Copilot+ PC.