Windows 11 users are in for a few upgrades today, as it's once again time for Microsoft's Patch Tuesday updates. For Windows 11 version 22H2, that means there are a lot of new features, as Microsoft is rolling out the "Moment 2" update, after making it available as an optional update at the end of last month. Today's update is mandatory, as per usual with Patch Tuesday. Of course, the original version of Windows 11 is also getting updated, and so is Windows 10.

New features are now available for Windows 11 version 22H2

If you missed out on the optional update from last month, today's update, labeled as KB5023706 (build 22621.1413), has a lot in store. For one thing, there's a new taskbar optimized for touch devices, which hides your app icons to make more space for the rest of the UI. This feature spent a long time in testing, but it's finally available. Another new feature is the ability to access Windows Studio effects using the Quick Settings panel on the taskbar. This lets you apply certain effects to your camera and microphone, such as blurring your background or cancelling background noise.

Another major addition with this update is support for third-party app widgets in the Widgets panel. Now, apps can choose to offer widgets that you can pin to the Widgets board, with some early examples including Messenger (from Meta) and Spotify.

Microsoft has also updated the Task Manager with a search bar so you can easily find the process you're looking for. Voice access has been updated with support for more voice commands so it's easier to use your PC with just your voice, and for low-vision users, Microsoft has also made improvements to the Braille experience, adding support for more Braille displays and improving the Narrator integration with Braille drivers. For Azure Active Directory users, you'll also see AI-powered recommendations on the Start menu.

There are also a number of app updates that may have shown up for you over the past couple of weeks. That includes the Snipping Tool, which now includes a screen recorder, and the Notepad, which has tab support now.

Of course, this update also carries smaller improvements, including a fix for a crash that may happen when playing HDR video, as well as a fix for a bug preventing some users from using their PIN or fingerprint to sign in. Most of these changes are carried over from last month's optional update. Specific to this month, Microsoft has only listed two improvements:

• This update implements phase three of Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) hardening. See KB5004442. After you install this update, you cannot turn off the changes using the registry key.
• This update addresses an issue that affects a computer account and Active Directory. When you reuse an existing computer account to join an Active Directory domain, joining fails. This occurs on devices that have installed Windows updates dated October 11, 2022 or later. The error message is, “Error 0xaac (2732): NERR_AccountReuseBlockedByPolicy: ‘An account with the same name exists in Active Directory. Re-using the account was blocked by security policy.’” For more information, see KB5020276.

read more

You can download the update manually here, if you'd rather do it that way, or simply check for updates in the Settings app.

Windows 11 version 21H2 (22000.1696)

If you're still on the original release of Windows 11, the list of news is much shorter. Today's update — labeled as KB5023698 — only includes the same fixes listed above, as well as the ones from last month's optional update, which also includes a few of the same fixes that Windows 11 version 22H2 got. An interesting bit mentioned in Microsoft's highlights is an advanced auto-learning feature for facial recognition, which should improve the performance of Windows Hello. Here's the full list of fixes from last month's optional update:

• New! This update adds an advanced auto-learning feature for facial recognition.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Color filters setting. When you select Inverted, the system sets it to Grayscale instead.
• This update addresses an issue that affects IE mode. The text on the status bar is not always visible.
• This update addresses an issue that stops hyperlinks from working in Microsoft Excel.
• This update addresses an issue that affects a certain streaming app. The issue stops video playback after an advertisement plays in the app.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Appx State Repository. When you remove a user profile, the cleanup is incomplete. Because of this, its database grows as time passes. This growth might cause delays when users sign in to multi-user environments like FSLogix.
• This update affects the United Mexican States. This update supports the government’s daylight saving time change order for 2023.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Z-order of two maximized windows. A window that is behind another window might appear on top.
• This update addresses an issue that affects AppV. It stops file names from having the correct letter case (uppercase or lowercase).
• This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Edge. The issue removes conflicting policies for Microsoft Edge. This occurs when you set the MDMWinsOverGPFlag in a Microsoft Intune tenant and Intune detects a policy conflict.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Using a provisioning package for bulk provisioning fails.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS). LSASS might stop responding. This occurs after you run Sysprep on a domain-joined machine.
• This update addresses an issue that affects parity virtual disks. Using Server Manager to create them fails.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the MDM_VPNv2_01 class. Enumerating this class fails. The error messages is, “Generic Error”.

read more

You can download this update manually here, or check for updates in the Settings app.

Windows 10

And for those on Windows 10, there's also an update rolling out to version 21H2 and 22H2 (as well as version 20H2 for SKUs that are still supported). That update is labeled as KB5022906, and it changes the build number to 19044.2728 (21H2) or 19045.2728 (22H2). However, the changelog for this update is almost exactly the same as the update for the original Windows 11 release, mentioned above. The only difference is it doesn't include the auto-learning feature for facial recognition. You can download this update manually here.

If you're running older versions of Windows 10, which are only supported for specific SKUs of Windows 10, specifically in business scenarios. You can find the changelog and download link for those updates below.