Windows 11’s next major update, version 22H2, is ready to be launched in just over a month, according to fresh gossip from multiple sources.
Zac Bowden of Windows Central (opens in new tab), a trusted purveyor of leaks for all things Microsoft, claims that September 20 is when Windows 11 22H2 is set to be released to the general computing public, with the caveat that this date could still be changed – but it’s Microsoft’s current intended target.
The Verge (opens in new tab) also informs us that its sources reckon this date is correct.
What we’ll get as the launch version of 22H2 is build 22621, Bowden further observes, and there will be an additional update later in 2022 for Windows 11, the first of Microsoft’s so-called “moments” (we’ll come back to that in a, well, moment).
Windows 11 22H2 comes with a good number of changes and tweaks to the interface – including the much-awaited return of the capability to drag-and-drop to the taskbar – and various core Windows apps, alongside advances on the accessibility front like Voice Access (which basically represents the integration of Nuance’s Dragon speech recognition software into Windows 11).
Analysis: Magic moment to follow soon after 22H2?
With two different tech sites having got word from separate sources, this adds more weight to the assertion that September 20 is the date Microsoft has in its diary. Although as noted, this timeframe could still be subject to slippage – as ever, if a last minute show-stopping bug rears its head, and this has happened in the past (indeed with Windows 10, we had one terrible glitch emerge post-release as you may recall).
While the changes in terms of major feature additions may feel a bit light with 22H2, there’s more in the pipeline before the year is out, with the aforementioned “moment” update. That’s essentially a more minor feature update applied outside of the big upgrades like 22H2.
This first moment will supposedly usher in tabs for File Explorer, a pretty big change in reality, and more besides. So, even after September – assuming Microsoft hits its target date – we can expect more goodies for Windows 11 shortly thereafter, most likely.
