Windows 11’s feature update known as Moment 3 arrived last month, didn’t it? Well technically, yes, but the update hasn’t been piped to everyone, only some users; it’ll fully roll out next month.
So, what exactly is going on here? As Windows Latest points out, the folks who have already got Moment 3 features as part of June’s cumulative update (released 10 days ago) are those who have turned on the ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available’ option (under Windows Update settings).
What seems to be happening, going by other reports and user feedback we’ve seen online (on top of Windows Latest’s findings), is that this is a gradual (phased) rollout, with those who have flicked that particular setting on being prioritized. Others are getting the June update but without Moment 3 features enabled.
However, come next month, everyone is going to get Moment 3 features fully enabled on their Windows 11 PC, with the July cumulative update (due on July 11, ‘Patch Tuesday’).
Windows Latest observes: “We have also spotted references to Patch Tuesday of July 2023 having the Moment 3 improvements turned on by default.”
Indeed, the same is true for the optional update for June, which is about to turn up. That’s the July patch in test (preview) form, so it’s the same content, but with the proviso that it might come with some bugs (as with any early release).
Analysis: many Moments so far…
If you’ve been reading about Moment 3 and its raft of new features – and some of them are pretty cool, including our five favorites we picked out here – you might also be wondering why you hadn’t got these yet.
Well, now you know, and it’s not long before this phased rollout will be opened up to everyone running Windows 11. You’ll have Moment 3 features by mid-July at the latest.
Since Microsoft introduced the idea of Moments – which are feature updates outside of the big annual feature drop, and are necessary since the two major feature updates per year cadence (H1, H2) was reduced to one (H2) – the company has been pushing them out at some pace. We only had Moment 2 in February, so it was just four months afterwards that the Moment 3 rollout kicked off.
Of course, all attention will now be turning towards 23H2 – the major annual update for this year – which should bring in all sorts of goodies. Including, we hope, ‘never combine’ for the taskbar, and maybe Microsoft’s Copilot AI, which is certainly rumored for inclusion (though we have our doubts – that’ll likely depend on how well testing goes, which should start later this month).
