Windows 11
Windows 11 is a version of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released on October 5, 2021, as the successor to Windows 10 (2015). It is available as a free upgrade for devices running Windows 10 that meet the #System requirements, Windo ...
2023 Update (also known as version 23H2 and codenamed "Sun Valley 3") is the second major update to Windows 11. It was shipped as an enablement package for the "Windows 11 2022 Update", and carries the build number 10.0.22631.
Overview
Starting with Windows 11, version 22H2, new features were released continuously to users of Windows 11. Following this release model, many features in Windows 11 2023 Update may thus already have been released to existing Windows 11 users at the time of receiving this update.
Major features of Windows 11 2023 Update and system applications included:
* Windows Cortana was replaced with Windows Copilot, later rebranded as
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot (or simply Copilot) is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft. Based on the GPT-4 series of large language models, it was launched in 2023 as Microsoft's primary replacement for the discontinued C ...
, an AI assistant based on the same technology stack as Bing Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
* Windows Backup was re-introduced with a new look and feature set for Windows 11.
* Passkey support on the OS level was implemented via the biometric
Windows Hello
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 29, 2015. Windows 10 was made available for download vi ...
system.
* The Start Menu, All Apps section now shows a new "System" label for system apps, which are managed via the Settings app, System category, System Components section.
* Wake on Approach, Lock on Leave, and Adaptive Dimming features introduced to reduce energy use.
* Paint received layer support and AI-based tools for digital creation.
* Snipping Tool received AI-based tools to extract text from screenshots.
* Photos received AI-based tools for subject detection to automatically add background blur to photos.
* Clipchamp received an AI-based Auto Compose tool.
* Chat was changed to
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration platform developed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft 365 suite. It offers features such as workspace chat, video conferencing, file storage, and integration with both Microsoft and third-party applicat ...
, which is automatically pinned to the taskbar.
* Voice Access was improved to reach more places, such as login. It now also supports more complex words.
* Narrator was improved to support more languages.
Final minor version of Windows to unofficially support processors that don't meet the x86-x64-v2 (i.e., having
POPCNT
SSE4 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 4) is a SIMD CPU instruction set used in the Intel Core microarchitecture and AMD K10 (K8L). It was announced on September 27, 2006, at the Fall 2006 Intel Developer Forum, with vague details in a white paper;
ARMv8.1
AArch64, also known as ARM64, is a 64-bit version of the ARM architecture family, a widely used set of computer processor designs. It was introduced in 2011 with the ARMv8 architecture and later became part of the ARMv9 series. AArch64 allows pr ...
specifications.
Development history
The first preview was released to Insiders who opted in to the Beta Channel on May 25, 2023. The update began rolling out on October 31, 2023. New features and changes from "Moment 4" were enabled by default in this update. The version string was changed from "22H2" to "23H2" in build 25375.
Subsequent updates
The first component update to Windows 11, version 23H2, codenamed "Moment 5", was released on February 29, 2024, with build 22631.3235 and several further changes:
* Improvements to Copilot in Windows
* Improvements to voice access
** New voice access in French, German, and Spanish
** Added multi-display support
** New voice shortcuts feature
* Enhanced image consumption experience in Narrator
* New share targets for sharing links through the Windows share window
* Updates to the Cast flyout in Quick Settings
* New suggestions feature in snap layouts 
* Improvements to Windows 365 Boot and Windows 365 Switch
* New notification for prompting to open recent photos and screenshots from Android mobile device in Snipping Tool
The update will reach end of service on November 11, 2025 for Home, Pro, Pro Education, Pro for Workstations and SE editions. The Enterprise, Enterprise multi-session, IoT Enterprise and Education editions will reach end of service on November 10, 2026.