Microsoft, this week, released Windows 11 version 23H2. This hardly came as a surprise though. Besides Microsoft"s own confirmation that the update was indeed arriving in Q4 (as promised earlier), there was mounting evidence over the last couple of weeks which showed that the company was now in overdrive mode in order to make sure compatibility issues would not be bothering users (both home as well as enterprise).
For those relying on the official Microsoft Media Creation Tool (MCT), there is bad news as you are probably already aware. Although Microsoft"s website states that the "Current release" version is the Windows 11 2023 Update or 23H2, the Media Creation Tool still downloads the 22H2.
Earlier, Gabe Frost, a Senior Director and Group Product Manager at Microsoft, confirmed that the company was looking at the inconvenience. Frost responded later that the users will have to wait a while, close to a couple of weeks, as the ETA for Windows 11 23H2 on MCT was planned for November 15, which will be a day after the month"s Patch Tuesday update. Currently, there is work going on regarding the "package size optimization".
There’s a package size optimization underway for 23H2 with MCT. Rough ETA is a couple weeks ~11/15
— Gabe Frost (@bytenerd) November 1, 2023
The Windows 11 23H2 feature update (build 22361.2506) is built atop the previous Moment 4 update (build 22621.2506 / KB5031455) and it is enabled via an enablement package (EKB5027397).
Microsoft has confirmed that this EKB will install automatically which means users who are running Windows 11 22H2 on unsupported devices won"t be offered the update. You can however download the EKB as a standalone package and upgrade your unsupported PC from Windows 11 22H2 to 23H2 as we explained in this article.
Following the installation, in case you weren"t a fan of the new Copilot, users can choose to disable it using third-party apps like DoNotSpy, among other methods.