Microsoft clarifies Windows 11 23H2 update isn’t arriving next week

Windows 11 on a laptop
(Image credit: Unsplash)

Earlier this week, Microsoft made a big announcement about the launch of its Copilot AI in Windows 11 which is happening with an update next week – but in case you were wondering, this isn’t the 23H2 update.

It is a big update to Windows 11, for sure, just not the annual update for 2023, which will arrive for the OS later, in fact.

As Neowin spotted, Microsoft made the clarification in a blog post following the announcement of the launch of Copilot.

The Copilot update will arrive as part of a rollout kicking off on September 26, and Microsoft said it will “later be included in Windows 11, version 23H2, the annual feature update for Windows 11.”

The 23H2 update won’t be released until Q4 of 2023, though, we’re told, which means it won’t begin to filter out until October at the earliest, and possibly not until later than that.


Analysis: A useful clarification

It’s a useful clarification from Microsoft, and we have to admit, we figured when the software giant talked about a big update coming next week, we assumed this would be the 23H2 update. That’s not the case, after all, but Copilot will be the biggest change to Windows 11 this year, so it’s easy enough to see how the confusion arose.

Still, we know where we stand now, and this won’t affect who gets Copilot next week – presumably those who have ticked the box to get the latest updates for Windows 11 as soon as they’re available.

As to how Copilot will turn out in its initial incarnation, well, we’re still a little dubious about that – though some first impressions we were treated to were positive, no doubt.

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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

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