Windows 11’s upcoming updates will be smaller, faster, and smarter

Microsoft is tweaking how your PCs will receive Windows updates yet again, making them quicker and smaller to download. But, if you’ve been holding out for the Windows 11 24H2 update that’s landed on Copilot+ PCs, you’ll have to wait a little longer.

How Microsoft is improving Windows updates is a bit technical, but builds off what Microsoft has done before. Beginning in 2021 with the Windows 11 21H2 update, Microsoft trimmed the file size of Windows updates by about 40 percent in basically two ways: separating Windows applications like Mail into their own apps, and not part of Windows; and downloading only what was needed for a Windows update.

Microsoft is taking the same approach for Windows 11 24H2, but more aggressively. Going forward, Microsoft will look at the code it released during the last feature update that was downloaded to your machine, and the code it released during the current update, and try to send over just the code that is the “difference” between them. Between each feature update, Microsoft will issue smaller cumulative updates called “checkpoints.” The same technique will apply: Microsoft will send over just what’s changed, and not the entire update.

The change in approach should be better for users in several different ways: smaller, quicker downloads, and probably less storage on your PC from older Windows updates that are archived there in case of a problem. The new experience will begin with Windows 11 24H2 later this year.

For now, though, Windows 10 and users running older Windows 11 machines will experience business as usual. “If you are running other versions of Windows 10 or Windows 11 (earlier than version 24H2), the process of updating will be similar to previous monthly updates or annual Windows 11 feature updates,” Microsoft said.

Right now, Microsoft is only shipping Windows 11 24H2 to Copilot+ PCs, and even then it has pulled back on certain features, such as Recall. It won’t be available as a general update for a while.

“Windows 11, version 24H2 will be available as a traditional feature update to all devices later this year,” Microsoft says.

That means that most users will probably see Windows 11 24H2 on its normal release schedule, sometime in September or October. But what this probably means is an end, once and for all, to lengthy updates — especially Windows 11 feature updates — that can put your PC use on hold for an hour or so while the feature update completes.

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld

Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers’ News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.

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