Microsoft made its latest working system, Home windows 11, publicly out there on October 5, 2021 — a bit of greater than six years after Windows 10 debuted. Home windows 11 gives updates and new options, together with an easier design meant to extend productiveness, methods to hook up with folks sooner, an all-new Microsoft Retailer, and a extra open ecosystem that unlocks new alternatives for developers and different creators.
This Microsoft Home windows 11 cheat sheet particulars the working system’s principal options, lists system necessities, explains how and when to get it, and extra.
What’s Home windows 11?
Home windows 11 is Microsoft’s latest main launch of its working system and the successor to Home windows 10. The OS options an all-new simplified but modernized interface designed to encourage productiveness and creativity.
Whereas the March 2022 Windows 11 Patch shouldn’t be categorized as a “function replace” to the working system by Microsoft, the patch did include a number of unannounced options. For instance, when you run Home windows 11 with Widgets turned on, you’ll discover a brand new icon within the decrease left nook of the desktop that gives a abstract of your native climate situations. Microsoft additionally up to date Notepad and rebranded the Groove media participant.
As of Could 2024, Home windows 11 is the second most popular Windows version in use after Home windows 10.
What’s the Home windows 11 model timeline?
Model 21H2
The unique model of Home windows 11 was launched to the general public in October 2021. This model, additionally known as model 21H2 and codenamed “Solar Valley,” was made out there as a preview construct to Home windows Insiders within the improvement channel in June 2021. Throughout its roughly one 12 months existence, Home windows 11 model 21H2 was up to date and patched over two dozen occasions.
Model 22H2
The Windows 11 2022 Update, sometimes called 22H2 and codenamed “Solar Valley 2,” was the primary main replace to Home windows 11. The primary preview of this model of Home windows 11 22H2 was launched to Home windows Insiders within the Dev Channel on September 2, 2021. The replace started rolling out to the general public on September 20, 2022.
The Home windows 11 2022 Replace included a number of function updates, enhancements and enhancements. These included hypervisor-protected code integrity security, sync standing of OneDrive displayed in File Explorer, Home windows Studio Results, and streamlining modifications for future Home windows 11 updates and patches. Since its launch, Home windows 11 22H2 has been patched and up to date quite a few occasions.
SEE: Try these Windows 11 22H2 enterprise features you must know.
Model 23H2
The Windows 11 2023 Update, sometimes called 23H2, was launched to the general public with eligible computer systems on September 26, 2023. In September 2023, Microsoft started rolling out a brand new Home windows 11 replace to eligible computer systems. Often called Windows 11 23H2, this newest main replace provides new options, functions and safety protocols to the working system, together with Home windows Copilot, File Explorer enhancements, Home windows backup app, taskbar enhancements, new quantity mixer, 7-Zip and RAR help and RGB peripheral customization.
SEE: Everything you need to know about Microsoft Copilot on this TechRepublic cheat sheet.
Model 24H2
The Home windows 11 24H2 Replace is an upcoming replace to the working system. A preview was launched by means of the Home windows Insider Program to builders on February 8, 2024. Some notable enhancements will embrace HDR Backgrounds, Wi-Fi 7 help, AI Voice Readability and AI CoWriter in Notepad.
What new options include Home windows 11?
New Begin format
In Home windows 11, the newly centered Begin button makes use of the cloud and Microsoft 365 to indicate current information, it doesn’t matter what platform or system they had been being seen on beforehand, together with an Android or iOS system.
Snap Layouts, Snap Teams and Desktops
A brand new set of options in Microsoft Home windows 11 is the introduction of Snap Layouts, Snap Teams and Desktops. These supply a “highly effective technique to multitask and keep on high of what you must get executed,” in line with Microsoft’s press launch. With these Home windows 11 options, customers can manage home windows and optimize display actual property for a cleaner visible format (Determine A). Customers can create and customise separate Desktops for every a part of their life — like one for work and one for private use.
Determine A
Chat from Microsoft Groups
In Home windows 11, Microsoft integrates Chat from Microsoft Teams into the taskbar, so customers can immediately join by way of textual content, chat, voice or video with private contacts, no matter which platform or system is getting used throughout Microsoft Home windows, Android or iOS. By way of Microsoft Groups, customers can now immediately mute and unmute or begin a presentation straight from the taskbar within the new OS.
Lockscreen Widgets
Home windows 11’s new Widgets are a customized feed powered by artificial intelligence and Microsoft Edge. As an alternative of utilizing a cellphone to test information, climate or notifications, now customers can open their Home windows 11 desktop to see a equally curated view (Determine B). Widgets gives new alternatives inside Home windows 11 to ship personalised content material for creators and publishers.
Determine B
Microsoft Retailer overhaul
The Microsoft Retailer has undergone a significant overhaul; customers now have one protected location for apps and content material to observe, create, play, work and be taught. In keeping with Microsoft, the Retailer “has been rebuilt for velocity and with an all-new design that’s stunning and easy to make use of. Not solely will we deliver you extra apps than ever earlier than, we’re additionally making all content material — apps, video games, exhibits, motion pictures — simpler to seek for and uncover with curated tales and collections.”
Main first- and third-party apps comparable to Microsoft Groups, Visible Studio, Disney+, Adobe Artistic Cloud, Zoom and Canva have additionally been added to the Microsoft Retailer.
Android apps
By way of its partnership with Amazon and Intel, the Microsoft Retailer permits customers to find Android apps, which could be downloaded by way of the Amazon Appstore. Microsoft is enabling builders and unbiased software program distributors to deliver apps to the Microsoft Retailer, it doesn’t matter what app framework is used to create them.
What new options include Home windows 11 22H2?
The primary main content material patch, referred to as Home windows 11 22H2, added a number of new options and functions to the working system.
For enterprise customers, Home windows 11 22H2 improved File Discover performance to combine OneDrive standing, which improves group collaboration and cooperation. The replace additionally added a brand new function known as Home windows Studio Results, which can enhance digital conferences with AI-powered processing effectivity.
On the person stage, Home windows 11 22H2 added new quality-of-life options like voice activated navigation, Start Menu feature improvements, extra personalization themes and the Clipchamp app. Additional, Home windows 11 22H2 added new live captioning options for routinely transcribing digital conferences.
What new options include Home windows 11 23H2?
The most recent main content material patch, referred to as Home windows 11 23H2, provides a number of new options and functions to the working system.
The spotlight of Home windows 11 23H2 Replace is the addition of Home windows Copilot, which integrates an on-demand generative AI function straight into the working system. Home windows Copilot shall be accessible to customers as they work with Mail, Paint, Notepad and every other Home windows app.
Home windows 11 23H2 contains the usually requested for skill to regulate RGB peripherals natively by means of Home windows settings as an alternative of counting on third-party software program and utilities. The replace additionally helps a number of widespread open-sourced archiving protocols, together with 7-Zip and RAR. The 23H2 replace contains quality-of-life enhancements for Home windows File Explorer and the taskbar.
SEE: How to Enable Windows Copilot in Windows 11 23H2
Extra Home windows 11 information and updates
In July, Microsoft announced a brand new method of distributing updates, known as checkpoint cumulative updates. These will roll out routinely with Home windows 11 24H2 or Home windows Server 2025 in late 2024 at earliest. With checkpoint cumulative updates, every replace shall be a smaller obtain, ideally saving time, bandwidth and arduous drive area. Particulars could be discovered on the Microsoft Tech Group submit linked above.
Across the identical time, a savvy X user noticed a exceptional new look in a Windows 11 preview build: the “all apps” format choice. “All apps” teams apps by sort, versus alphabetically, and would be the first of some new methods to show apps within the Begin menu sooner or later.
What AI options have been added to Home windows 11?
Microsoft has added numerous options based mostly on synthetic intelligence to Home windows 11 since its preliminary launch, together with Reside Captions, background noise removing in videoconferencing, webcam autoframing and the Bing Chat chatbot within the taskbar’s search subject.
Copilot
In January 2024, Microsoft introduced that the brand new Home windows 11 PCs, together with the Floor line popping out by means of Spring 2024, will embrace a Copilot key. The Copilot key permits quick access to Microsoft’s AI assistant, Copilot, in Home windows.
Copilot assists with a wide range of duties, comparable to reworking paperwork into displays, modifying photographs, summarizing emails and conferences, managing PC settings like enabling battery saver and accessing data from totally different apps and platforms.
SEE: Windows 11 Update Brings New Tricks to Microsoft Copilot
Recall
Recall, introduced at Microsoft Build on Could 20, 2024, is a brand new AI-powered function that enables customers to shortly and intuitively search by means of their system’s historical past utilizing pure language questions. Whereas that is included as part of Home windows 11, it is going to solely work on Copilot+ PCs which have inbuilt neural processing items.
Recall runs regionally, logging the whole lot the pc has executed, together with internet shopping, file creation and voice chats, so something the person has come throughout by way of that PC could be known as upon. Recall is included with Timeline — the present Home windows function that exhibits operating apps and previous actions — to provide an easy-to-use scrollable interface.
Attributable to safety issues, Microsoft delayed Recall’s rollout with the brand new Copilot+ PCs on June 18, 2024, so it may possibly “make sure the expertise meets our excessive requirements for high quality and safety.”
What do builders must find out about Home windows 11?
PWABuilder3
Home windows 11 options the brand new PWABuilder3, so builders can construct a PWA from their internet app in minutes (Determine C). WebView2 runtime is included with Home windows 11, which makes it simpler to reap the benefits of its internet platform as a safe technique to construct hybrid internet apps. Choices like Home windows Terminal and the brand new Microsoft Edge DevTools can nonetheless be used, as they’re now included in Home windows 11.
Determine C
Home windows App SDK
Launched March 29, 2021, the Windows App SDK, beforehand referred to as Venture Reunion, makes it simpler to combine Home windows 11 options into apps, but it surely nonetheless permits builders to succeed in greater than a billion customers on Home windows 10.
Home windows on ARM
Builders can construct apps that run natively on Windows on ARM with the brand new ARM64 Emulation Appropriate ABI. Utilizing the ARM64EC, native ARM and emulated x64 code could be blended in the identical course of or module. This interoperability means builders can optimize apps to run on Home windows on ARM — even when the app has x64 dependencies or masses x64 plugins they don’t management.
WinUI3
To rejuvenate app designs, builders can use WinUI3 in Home windows 11, which gives built-in UI updates comparable to rounded geometry, refreshed iconography, new typography, enjoyable micro-interactions like Lottie animation and refreshed shade palette. The Snap layouts function will assist with most productiveness in Home windows 11.
Reunion Windowing
Reunion Windowing permits builders to simply handle and create app home windows. The function works with current app codes, simplifies widespread operations and brings new performance to desktop apps like Mild-Dismiss Habits, Image-In-Image mode and simpler titlebar customization.
SEE: Study how to install Windows 11 from Microsoft’s ISO file.
Microsoft Retailer commerce availability
Together with the foremost modifications to the Microsoft Retailer, Microsoft is taking steps to unlock better financial alternative for creators and builders. Microsoft now permits builders and unbiased software program distributors to promote their apps on the platform no matter whether or not they’re constructed as a Win32, Progressive Net App, Common Home windows App or every other app framework, to allow them to attain and interact a bigger viewers.
The income share insurance policies have modified, too. Builders can now deliver their very own non-gaming apps into the Microsoft Retailer with their very own commerce platform and preserve 100% of the income — Microsoft takes nothing. Builders can nonetheless use Microsoft’s commerce platform, with aggressive income share of 15% for apps and 12% for video games.
Is Home windows 11 free?
Home windows 11 is obtainable by means of a free improve for eligible Home windows 10 PCs and on new PCs as of October 5, 2021. To see in case your Home windows 10 PC is eligible for the free improve to Home windows 11, obtain the PC Health Check app.
Prepare your group and turn out to be a Home windows 11 energy person with The Essential Windows 11 Course and The Ultimate Windows 11 Training Video Course from TechRepublic Academy.
How do I improve to Home windows 11?
Microsoft Home windows 11 is obtainable as a normal launch to the general public. Assuming your private laptop meets the prerequisite requirements, including installation of Windows 10 1909 or later, you’ll be able to improve to Home windows 11 by navigating to the Replace & Safety settings display.
Customers may reap the benefits of the Windows 11 Installation Assistant to bypass the Home windows 10 Replace & Safety display and improve to Home windows 11 straight.
Are you able to arrange Home windows 11 with out a Microsoft Account?
Microsoft requires the person to log in to a free Microsoft account to obtain and set up Home windows 11; nevertheless, this step could be averted by creating a local account — i.e., one which solely applies to that machine and doesn’t contain an web connection — throughout the setup course of.
Observe these steps to create a neighborhood account and set up Home windows 11.
- Observe the Home windows 11 set up course of till you’re introduced with the Let’s Join You To A Community field.
- Press Shift + F10 to open command immediate, sort “OOBEBYPASSNRO” and press enter. The PC will reboot.
- Restart the set up course of. Once you attain the Let’s Join You To A Community field, click on I Don’t Have Web after which Proceed With Restricted Setup.
Create a neighborhood account when prompted, after which end the set up. You’ll be able to connect with the web as soon as the set up has accomplished.
Why is my PC not eligible for Home windows 11?
To put in Home windows 11, your PC should meet system necessities that it could not at the moment fulfill. These necessities embrace:
- Processor: 1GHz or sooner with two or extra cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip.
- RAM: 4GB.
- Storage: 64GB or bigger storage system.
- System firmware: UEFI, Safe Boot succesful.
- Graphics card: Appropriate with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver.
- Show: Excessive-definition (720p) show that’s better than 9″ diagonally, 8 bits per shade channel.
- Web connection: Home windows 11 House version requires web connectivity and a Microsoft account to finish system setup on first use. Switching a tool out of Home windows 11 House in S mode requires web connectivity.
SEE: Right here’s how to tell if your PC can run Windows 11.
What are the feature-specific necessities for Home windows 11?
Some options in Home windows 11 have elevated necessities past these listed above. Listed below are extra particulars concerning necessities for key options per Microsoft.
- 5G help: Requires a 5G-capable modem.
- Auto HDR: Requires an HDR monitor.
- BitLocker to Go: Requires a USB flash drive (out there in Home windows Professional and above editions).
- Consumer Hyper-V: Requires a processor with second stage deal with translation capabilities (out there in Home windows Professional and above editions).
- Cortana: Requires a microphone and speaker and is at the moment out there on Home windows 11 for Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the U.Okay. and the U.S.
- DirectStorage: Requires an NVMe SSD to retailer and run video games that use the Customary NVM Specific Controller driver and a DirectX12 GPU with Shader Mannequin 6.0 help.
- DirectX 12 Final: Obtainable with supported video games and graphics chips.
- Presence: Requires a sensor that may detect human distance from system or intent to work together with system.
- Clever Video Conferencing: Requires video digital camera, microphone and speaker for audio output.
- A number of Voice Assistant (MVA): Requires a microphone and speaker.
- Snap: Three-column layouts require a display that’s 1920 efficient pixels or better in width.
- Mute and Unmute from Taskbar: Requires video digital camera, microphone and speaker for audio output.
- Spatial Sound: Requires supporting {hardware} and software program.
- Groups: Requires video digital camera, microphone and speaker for audio output.
- Contact: Requires a display or monitor that helps multi-touch.
- Two-factor authentication: Requires use of PIN, biometric (fingerprint reader or illuminated infrared digital camera), or a cellphone with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capabilities.
- Voice Typing: Requires a PC with a microphone.
- Wake on Voice: Requires Trendy Standby energy mannequin and microphone.
- Wi-Fi 6E: Requires new WLAN IHV {hardware} and driver and a Wi-Fi 6E succesful AP or router.
- Home windows Whats up: Requires a digital camera configured for close to infrared imaging or fingerprint reader for biometric authentication. Units with out biometric sensors can use Home windows Whats up with a PIN or moveable Microsoft appropriate safety key.
- Home windows Projection: Requires a show adapter that helps Home windows Show Driver Mannequin (WDDM) 2.0 and a Wi-Fi adapter that helps Wi-Fi Direct.
Is Home windows 11 price it?
In keeping with Microsoft’s current support plan, Home windows 10 will lose help for future function and safety updates on October 14, 2025. After that date, any enterprise, no matter dimension, will incur a big threat of legal responsibility for utilizing Home windows 10. With that in thoughts, upgrading to Home windows 11 is clearly needed and fully well worth the effort and time.
Home windows 11 is designed to reap the benefits of the newest in each {hardware} and software program safety protocols, one thing Home windows 10 shouldn’t be in a position to do. These safety measures assist the working system fend off numerous cyberattacks and malware together with software program viruses and ransomware. As a result of Home windows 11 is a free improve to Home windows 10, for many companies and people there may be little purpose to not improve.
SEE: Right here’s how to find and install the new Windows 11 22H2 update.