Take a deep dive into the latest iteration of Windows 11 with your tour guide, Nick Peers

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR again when Microsoft rolls out a major update to Windows. Despite claiming it was moving away from such huge announcements, Windows 11 23H2 (also dubbed ‘Moments 4’) contains a surprising number of new features, as well as welcome tweaks to existing ones.

By now, you may be aware of some of them, as features have been rolling out quietly since September. But with the flick of the switch at the end of October, all users should now be able to access the vast bulk of what Windows 11 version 23H2 has to offer.

You’ll have seen the headline splashes, but what do these new features actually do, and what smaller—but no less important—updates may have escaped your attention? In this feature, we’ll give you a grounding in what to look out for. Crucially, we’ll also show you where to find the features in question, and even reveal how to disable some of the more intrusive features, should they not meet your tastes (never mind needs).

From AI-powered personal assistants to passkeys, there’s something new for everyone in the new version of Windows 11. Join us on our next tour, starting… now.

THE FIRST THING to do is verify you have the full 23H2 update in place. Don’t be fooled by the presence of some or all of the new features—for example, the Copilot preview started rolling out back in September, while some of the new System elements, such as the redesigned Home page, may have been in place on your machine since October.

The definitive answer can be found by navigating to Settings > System, scrolling down to the About section, and making a note of the version and OS build. If the version is still 22H2, then navigate to Windows Update, where you should hopefully find ‘Windows 11, version 23H2’ waiting to download. If it isn’t, and the ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available’ switch is flicked to the off position, you need to flick it on, then check for new updates, at which point it should appear.

Given that many of the new features promised in the Moment 4 update may already be in place, don’t be surprised if the actual update to 23H2 is a quick one—see the box below for an explanation on how Microsoft deploys major updates. Once you’ve been upgraded, it’s time to discover those new features.

EMPLOY A COPILOT Unsurprisingly, given the rise of ChatGPT and similar ‘AI’- powered personal assistants, Microsoft has tied in its Bing Chat tool into Windows 11 with the release of Copilot, which places itself next to the Search button or box. Note the ‘pre’ label on the icon—a reminder that it’s still in the early stages of development.

To Microsoft’s credit, Copilot isn’t a simple baked-in frontend to Bing Chat and nothing more. It’s engineered to sit at the heart of your Windows installation, aimed at helping you quickly get the answers you need, not just to questions you’d normally search the internet for, but Windows too. You’re able to use it to quickly get into any part of your system, and you can instruct it to perform those tasks for you instead of being directed to the relevant spot.