A small update after September’s Copilot launch.
Microsoft is rolling out Windows 11 Version 23H2 today, which it is describing as a “scoped, cumulative release.”
“We are providing a limited scope of new features and functionality delivered via a familiar, fast, and reliable update experience,” writes John Cable, Microsoft’s vice president of Windows servicing and delivery.
The scope of features is indeed limited, partially because the company isssued a fairly large update at the end of September, pushing its Copilot AI features live, as well as AI features in Paint and changes to OneDrive, Photos and Windows Backup. So after all that, 23H2 is focused on some changes to Teams and application management.
The built-in Chat functionality in Windows 11 is now becoming a free part of Microsoft Teams, which is pinned to the taskbar by default. You’ll be able to send and receive SMS texts from Microsoft Teams (though in theory you could also use My Phone for that). Teams will also get new “People” functionality to find people you’re looking to contact.
Microsoft has also rolled out WDDM 3.2 (Windows Display Driver Model 3.2) and HLSL Shader Model 6.8 as part of the 23H2 update. The latter adds Work Graphs (experimental) and Wave Matrix (also experimental) support to DirectX. Work Graphs define a system of shader nodes that feed into each other to enable tailored GPU work creation, while Wave Matrices help with higher bandwidth matrix multiplications (which are useful in machine learning). It’s unclear what new functionality WDDM 3.2 brings to the table.
As for applications, those included with Windows 11 will be separated from the ones you install. In the “All apps” section of the Start menu, that software will be given a “system” label, and instead of being found in Settings > Apps > Installed Apps, they’ll instead be featured in Settings > System > System Components.
If you’re a member of the Windows Insider Program, you likely already have these features. But with 23H2, they’re going wide.
Like previous updates, 23H2 will be issued through Microsoft’s serving technology, which detects your specs and attempts to serve you the update when the company is largely sure you won’t experience and incompatibility issues. Those who want the latest updates first can go to Settings > Windows Update and check the box that reads “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available.” (That is, assuming you’re on version 22H2. If you’re on the older version 21H1, you’ll need to do a full OS swap).
With all of the new features for Windows 11 in September, this isn’t exactly the most exciting update, but it’s always a good idea to keep your system up to date for the sake of security.