Windows 11 24H2 officially debuts for Copilot+ PCs and no one else – but don’t worry, you won’t miss much

By James On Jun 17, 2024

Microsoft has made Windows 11 version 24H2 available, but at the moment this is only for Copilot+ PCs, at least officially.

This means that the 24H2 update will only be released for those specific devices, which for starters means Windows on Arm laptops with the new Snapdragon X (Arm-based) chips – and no other PCs.

If Windows Latest spotted, Microsoft states in the release notes: “Windows 11, version 24H2 is only available for Copilot+ PCs.”

There’s a twist, though: what Microsoft means here is that 24H2 is only available in the finished version for Copilot+ PCs. These devices go on sale tomorrow (June 18), and when you boot up your Copilot+ laptop, it will run 24 hours a day and immediately apply KB5039239 (it’s the June cumulative update).

Those who don’t have a Copilot+ PC can actually download and run KB5039239, but only as a Windows Insider. In other words, 24H2 is only available as a test build (26100.863) located in the Release Preview channel.

However, as Windows Latest points out, if you run this preview on a standard (non-Copilot+) system, you may experience a rough ride in terms of bugs, even more so than a normal test build (especially one in Release Preview, which is, as as the name suggests, the last step before release).

Analysis: missed it? Not really

If you’re worried you’ll miss out if you don’t get Windows 11 24H2, we’re not worried. As we’ve already noted, this is indeed only for Arm-based Copilot+ PCs, and while you can technically put the preview spin on a PC with an AMD or Intel CPU, there aren’t many new features in the pipeline anyway. away. (And the one huge feature for Copilot+ PCs, Recall, was removed as you may recall, and tested in the near future).

For now, all the initial 24H2 release does is apply a number of bug fixes – including one that makes games with BattlEye anti-cheat work with Windows on Arm – and security tweaks.

There’s one big change with Copilot, though, which becomes an “app experience” so the desktop assistant can be treated like any app in Windows 11. In other words, you can move, snap, or resize the Copilot window, and so forth. – rather than being attached to a side panel – but even that’s something you can probably wait for.

When the full release of the 24H2 update comes, probably in September if the rumors are true – although this could be pushed back to later in 2024 – there will be a lot more features on board (although some of them will only be for Copilot+ PCs, like Remember ).

So for now you’re not really missing anything, and indeed this preview build being tested again is a good sign for everyone in terms of the release timeframe of the full Windows 11 24H2 update. As you’ll recall, the preview rollout and testing was paused due to several nasty bugs, and we were worried there might even be a delay to 24H2 – but now the build rollout is resuming in the Release Preview channel , that’s a good sign that things remain on track with regard to the launch schedule.