Yesterday, Microsoft released Windows 11 LTSC 2024 and detailed all the new features it gains compared to Windows 10. The company also published a detailed post explaining the Windows 11 24H2 upgrade information, and compatibility as well as the features for managed enterprise and office PCs.
Aside from these, Microsoft has also reminded IT system administrators about the recently introduced deployment feature that allows such admins to choose between installing a feature update or not.
The company debuted this policy change earlier this year in May and with this feature, an update can be labelled either as "required," in which case the 24H2 feature update will be installed immediately, or as "optional" which means, unlike before, the feature update will not be force-installed yet.
Arnab Mitra, a Senior Program Manager of Microsoft 365, shared this information via a post on X on their official handle:
Use #MSIntune #WUfB Feature Updates policy to make #Windows11 24H2 as Optional or Required update pic.twitter.com/2eGa7MEzVm
— @rnabmitra (@rnabmitra) October 1, 2024
As is generally the case, Microsoft wants you to upgrade and for those PCs which are still on Windows 10, to do so "immediately." The company says the app compatibility of its OS is top-notch with claims like "Windows 11 is the most compatible Windows operating system ever".
It also released a video outlining several of the highlights of Windows 11 including performance, which, funnily, cites a paid study to show a ridiculous performance disadvantage for Windows 10.
Despite some of the fluff, Windows 11 24H2 does indeed bring many new unannounced features too. Although some of these may not be for everyone, like faster ReFS performance, others are designed with the general public in mind. These include the likes of WDDM 3.2 upgrades that may lead to fewer graphics driver crashes on version 24H2, as well as AV1 video encoding.