Microsoft is just unconfined the first chief update to Windows 11. It comprises some useful and extremely requested new features, though it’s not an absolute overhaul. That’s to be predictable after all the huge changes Windows 11 brought when it came out a year ago. Microsoft is calling this new version the Windows 11 2022 Update, though it seems to be Version 22H2—for 2022, second half—in system settings.
All the new features have previously appeared in prerelease software as part of the Windows Insider program. In verity, that program lets you see features being measured for build even beyond out than 22H2. If you’re not an Insider, here’s an overview of the most attractive features in the update.
Here’s what you can anticipate seeing after you absolute the update and reboot.
What you need to know
- Windows 11 version 22H2 is now commonly obtainable as a free update.
- The update focuses on sustained polish and new features.
- Microsoft intends to add more features to version 22H2 over the next year.
- The next feature plunge for Windows 11 arrives in the next couple of months.
Microsoft is now transporting its first big update to Windows 11, version 22H2 or the “2022 Update.” This next discharge continues the vision introduced with Windows 11 last year but with more new features, UI improvements, and other excellence of life improvements.
Furthermore, the company intends to deliver “continuous innovation” with Windows 11 version 22H2 by rolling out new features more often, outside of the annual fall feature update. We’ll carry on updating this post as new features are exposed. Check out our roundup of the finest Windows 11 PCs in the intervening time.
Development on version 22H2 began brusquely before Windows 11 was finalised. It is now obtainable to all Windows 11 users as a free upgrade, assuming you’re using Windows 11 on a PC that ropes it.
The latest features of the Windows 11 22H2 update are as follows.
- Drag and Drop for the Taskbar
Windows 11 users have complained about the defeat of the facility to drag and drop files onto taskbar icons. The 22H2 update, fortunately, addresses this gap, recurring competence. It’s not a feature I use frequently; it doesn’t let you drag a file icon to open the app. The app must be organized first, and when you first haul it onto the taskbar, the universal no symbol appears, but don’t let that discourage you, the app window will emerge, and you can then drag the file onto it to unlock it.
Another new taskbar potential coming to a later update is an overflow button that appears when you have too many icons on the taskbar.
- A major update to File Explorer
The 2022 Update gives File Explorer its main alteration in at least a decade.
It might take an additional few weeks before it shows up; however, this feature will be enabled in the first publication update after the discharge of the 2022 Update.
The most understandable change is the addition of a multiple-tab interface. You can still decide to open numerous File Explorer windows, but keeping folders open in disconnect tabs makes it simple to cut, copy, and paste between diverse locations without managing multiple windows. The tabbed boundary behaves like a modern browser, so anticipate an easy wisdom curve.
The direction-finding pane on the left is revised faintly, with a new Home icon and tighter incorporation with Microsoft’s default cloud storage service, OneDrive. When OneDrive Personal or OneDrive for Business is open, you’ll see an icon in the upper right corner that makes it calmer to direct storage and sync options.
- Smart App Control
Smart App Control adds important protection from malware, counting new and budding threats by blocking hateful or unfrosted apps. Smart App Control also aid in blocking potentially unwanted apps, which are apps that may reason your device to run slowly, display unanticipated ads, offer extra software you didn’t want, or do other things you don’t expect.
- Credential Guard
Well-matched Windows 11 Enterprise version 22H2 devices will have Windows Defender Credential Guard twisted on by default. This changes the default state of the feature in Windows, though system administrators can still adapt this enablement state.
- Malicious and vulnerable driver blocking.
The susceptible driver block list is automatically enabled on devices for the following two new circumstances:
- When Smart App Control is enabled
- For clean installs of Windows
- Start menu improvements
With the latest Windows 11 version 22H2 Microsoft introduces elements to modify the start menu more profoundly. Added the aptitude to generate folders for apps or regulate the size of the area of pinned applications in support of the area devoted to recommended ones.
If you haul one application over another, Windows 11 automatically produces small folders for it, which can also be named with a right-click.
In the settings under Personalization > Start, Windows 11 will present three options for the start menu layout in the future. You can select between the standard layout, “More Pins”, and “More Recommendations”. And depending on the arrangement, the start menu shows more pinned programs or recommendations. Though, the recommendations cannot be removed from Microsoft’s new start menu for Windows 11.
- Updated File Explorer
The File Explorer sees some alteration in 22H2. Quick Access is now called Home, but there’s still a group on the right panel called Quick Access, where you can fasten files and folders. Folder previews—those little thumbnails overlay over the file icons—return in 22H2 after being missing with the first discharge of Windows 11. They are particularly helpful with image folders. The right-click context menu, which was helpfully condensed in Windows 11, gets an update in 22H2, and you can open a longer context menu with Ctrl-right click.
Tab lovers will have to wait, however. The macOS Finder has had a tabbed border for nine years, and Windows will be getting the same in October 2022 as an elective preview and then in November as a full discharge. Although the delay, Microsoft allows this feature as part of the Windows 11 2022 Update version. (Third-party File Explorer replacements previously offer tabs if you really can’t wait.)
- New Touch Gestures
Tablet users get new capabilities with Windows 11 22H2. New gestures let them convene the Start menu by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Swiping up from the right-bottom brings up Quick Settings, which adds needed expediency. In all, I’ve not been a big fan of Windows 11 for tablet users, but these new alterations take a couple of small steps in the accurate course.