Windows 11 Moment 3 update arrives for everyone – but there's a catch

Windows 11
Be wary of the Moment 3 update for now (Image credit: 123RF)

Windows 11’s Moment 3 update can now be downloaded by anyone who wants to grab it, but you still might want to let caution take the driving seat (and leave valor in the passenger seat) for now.

Wait a minute, you might be thinking: hasn’t Moment 3 already been released? Well, technically yes, it has, but as we covered recently, the feature update hasn’t been made available to all Windows 11 PCs.

In fact, when Microsoft first opened the gates with Moment 3, it was only offered to those who had enabled the option to ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available’. But even then, having turned on that setting was not a guarantee of receiving the upgrade – Moment 3 was still rolled out gradually in a phased manner among that user base.

However, if you’ve missed out on Moment 3 so far, now anyone can get it, as the upgrade has been released as June’s optional update (patch KB5027303).

Whether you should jump on this update right now, though, is another matter, as we mentioned at the outset. Let’s discuss that further…


Analysis: It’s optional for an important reason

Why shouldn’t you download KB5027303? Well, it might have all those juicy Moment 3 features you’ve been hungering for – and there are some nifty bits of functionality added, as we’ve covered previously – but it is still a preview update.

That’s why it’s optional, because this is the last stage of testing for the package. And as it’s effectively beta software – albeit in its final incarnation, so likely pretty stable – you still have a higher chance of encountering bugs than with the full release version.

This is why it’s generally better to wait for that full release version, which in the case of Moment 3, will pitch up next month (it should arrive on July 11, as part of Microsoft’s monthly cumulative update for Windows 11).

At that point, of course, you’ll have no choice but to take Moment 3 onboard your Windows 11 installation (beyond the ability to delay it for a short time, if you choose – as with any cumulative update in Windows 11 Home).

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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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