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When Microsoft rolled out Windows 11 22H2 in September, officials said the annual feature update would come in two parts.
The first set of features began rolling out to mainstream users in September, but the second set of features wouldn't arrive until October or November.
On Oct. 18, Microsoft made this second grouping of Windows 11 22H2 features available via its regularly scheduled non-security, optional preview (aka “Week C”) releases.
Officials reiterated that mainstream users would get these missing Windows 11 22H2 features on Nov. 8 as part of Patch Tuesday.
Also: Microsoft starts rolling out the annual Windows 10 feature updates, Windows 10 22H2
Included in this second batch of features are:
The redesigned Photos app for Windows 11, with the recently announced iCloud photo library integration, is coming later. Officials said the Photos app would be available at the end of October and iCloud integration in November.
Officials said that Windows 11 users should expect Microsoft to roll out new features for Windows 11 outside the annual feature update in the year's second half. Microsoft plans to handle these feature updates the same way it does with this additional Windows 11 22H2 set. It will preview them as part of the monthly non-security optional updates for Windows 11 and then roll out gradually to all in “a subsequent monthly security update” (Patch Tuesday).
After November, Windows 11 Enterprise and Education customers will have these additional new features set to off by default. Microsoft will allow enterprise customers to turn them on as a set (not individually) using a single Group Policy/MDM. (The set of features going out this week and on Nov. 8 will NOT be off by default.) The new features delivered outside the annual feature update will be turned on by default when the next update is delivered.
Windows 11
Bob Thompson is our inhouse Home and Garden, Energy and Gaming news writer. Bob is keenly aware of the need to recycle. Bob has written for many online publications over the course of his writing career, before joining our team.
