Understanding the Release of Windows 11 Version 24H2: Eligibility and Preparations Needed for PCs

Windows 11 24H2 is the big update to Windows 11 for 2024, complete with Wi-Fi 7 support, new File Explorer features, and much more. We were expecting it to arrive in a few months, but it’s already done for some PCs.

Microsoft published a support document about a bug fix update for Windows 11 24H2 (build number 26100.863), which is currently only available to Windows Insiders testers. There’s an interesting detail on the page, initially spotted by Windows Latest: “Windows 11, version 24H2 is only available for Copilot+ PCs devices.”

Microsoft announced the first wave of Copilot+ PCs last month, which have more powerful Neural Processing Units (NPUs) for on-device AI tasks, like Live Captions with real-time translation and more Windows Studio effects. The first Copilot+ PCs will start shipping on June 18th, all of which are using Qualcomm’s ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite chipset, though Copilot+ PCs with Intel and AMD x86 processors are also on the way .

Windows 24H2 has been in the Release Preview Channel for x86 PCs since late May, which means Microsoft is (more or less) done adding features and is focusing on bug fixes. Presumably, 24H2 is functional enough on Copilot+ PCs that Microsoft is starting them on 24H2, rather than shipping them with an older release and updating them in a few months. There are probably fewer bugs to worry about on the dozen or so Snapdragon PCs than the thousands of possible hardware configurations of other Windows 11 PCs, so the move makes sense.

Windows 24H2 includes Wi-Fi 7 support , a scrollable quick settings menu, the ability to create 7-zip and TAR archives in File Explorer , the “sudo” command, HDR background support, and other changes.

The first Copilot+ PCs were also supposed to ship with the Recall feature, which captures a screenshot every few seconds and indexes the contents for later searches. For example, you could ask questions about where you saw a certain image or text conversation, and Recall could tell you the source app or document from the screenshot data. However, Recall is now on hold , as the original implementation had several significant security problems. There’s no current release date for Recall.

Windows 24H2 should be released for all Windows 11 PCs sometime in the next few months, but if previous rollouts are any indication, it might not be an automatic update for everyone until early in 2025.

Source: Microsoft Support via Windows Latest

Also read: