Microsoft releases Windows 11 version 22H2

The first feature update for Windows 11 brings some new features and is now available on Windows Update on systems with Windows 11 installed. Until further notice, this is an optional update that can be downloaded to your computer by clicking “Download and Install.” As with Windows 10, it shouldn’t be offered to all systems at once, but first to those that only have common hardware and software and are therefore considered easy to upgrade.

Microsoft has the availability in a blog post Announced. Also in the usual other ways version 22H2 is available Or should it be soon: via WSUS and Windows Update for Business, as an ISO file and update via the Media Creation Tool, and as an ISO in the Volume Licensing Service Center (VSLC) for major Visual Studio customers and subscribers (formerly MSDN).

Feature Bouquet

As you may know from the feature updates for Windows 10, this update also brings one or two new looks and feel. Microsoft made most of it available to participants in the “Windows Insider” beta testing program about six months ago. Windows can now be conveniently snapped to sections of the screen via touch operation (“instant layouts”), and application icons can be arranged in folders in the start menu.

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Visual details have also been refined here and there: the volume control overlay has been adapted to the current look, OneDrive users can see the fill level in Explorer, and the File Explorer home page, formerly called “Quick access” has received an update. It’s now called “Home” and, in addition to its own recently used document and file folders, it also shows documents and other files you’ve pinned there for quicker access.

Hopefully 22H2 won’t silence critics of Windows 11. The rigid system requirements haven’t changed, and the taskbar still doesn’t have the long-awaited option to not group open program icons. When it comes to Microsoft accounts, the 2022 edition of Windows 11 will be even stricter: in the future, signing in with one will not only be mandatory in Home Edition, but also in Windows 11 Pro. After all, you can still bypass this. typing “Microsoft” as the username and something as the password.

security features

Something is also happening in the area of ​​security, like Microsoft in an aside Security blog post runs With version 22H2, “virtualization-based security” should be enabled by default on all devices that meet the official system requirements. Also, drivers with known security breaches are blacklisted.

The new “Smart App Control” feature is an attempt to address the problems of classic virus monitors. Prevents the launch of programs that are not (yet) known to be trustworthy. The signatures are updated periodically. We have already seen that: Copy Lunar Lander dialog, a mini-application with which you can play the classic Lunar Lander at copy-speed graphics, was initially blocked, but allowed a few days later: in the meantime, the little program had proven to be harmless. In the end, the feature should be a slightly smarter version of S mode, with the difference that it’s not just apps from the store that are allowed.

Smart App Control is initially in a learning mode where it analyzes what software is used on the PC. If, as a developer or power user, you use a lot of programs with which the feature can’t do anything, you should irrevocably disable it so that it doesn’t constantly interfere with everyday life. However, if Windows recognizes that only a few different and very frequent programs are used, it turns on the feature. If that bothers you, you can turn it off at any time, but if you want to enable it again, a clean reinstall or reboot of the installation is required.

bite by bite

Although some of the features are already in the 22H2 release, they should only be activated in October. An example of this is the file explorer, which after what seems like forever finally gets tabs. As usual in web browsers, they can be opened with Ctrl+T and closed with Ctrl+W.

For this type of feature rollout, Microsoft uses the same mechanism that has been used for small-scale feature updates to Windows 10 for a few years. New features are integrated into the system via Cumulative Updates, but are only activated with a small “enablement package”. Microsoft is likely to use this method more frequently in the future.

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