Windows’ next big upgrade is Windows 11 24H2, releasing this year itself

Windows 11 has been a significant upgrade to the popular desktop OS, but users always look forward to the next update in the presumed form of Windows 12. Microsoft has been fairly tight-lipped about when Windows 12 will be released, but the company has finally revealed that it is not Windows 12 that is releasing any time soon. Instead, Windows’ next big update is called Windows 11 v24H2, and it will come out this year itself.

While announcing new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds, Microsoft mentioned in the changelog that the next big update for Windows will be called Windows 11, version 24H2 (as highlighted by XDA). This will be this year’s annual feature update. As the versioning suggests, the update will be released in the year’s second half, and Microsoft mentions that Windows 11 will have an annual feature update cadence.

Starting with Build 26-xx today, Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels will see the versioning updated under Settings > System > About (and winver) to version 24H2. This denotes that Windows 11, version 24H2 will be this year’s annual feature update. As mentioned here, Windows 11 will have an annual feature update cadence that releases in the second half of the calendar year.

These statements are pretty clear and leave practically no wiggle room for Microsoft to surprise us with a Windows 12 release. There is no specific date mentioned for the release of Windows 11, version 24H2, but at least we now have clarity on what the next Windows update is and the time window of its release.

The new Insider Preview builds for Windows 11 include a few notable features. The big feature here is sudo support, making it easier for users to run commands as administrators, similar to how sudo works in Linux. Microsoft Copilot within Windows has also received more contextual capabilities, making it easier to use the AI chatbot. There are also a few visual changes, with more settings moving from the Control Panel style dialog boxes to being integrated within the Settings app.