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Microsoft releases major Fall 2024 update Windows 11This version, codenamed 24H2, brings with it a number of updates and fixes that will make your Windows experience a little better.

Even if you’re a die-hard Windows 11 fan, you might not have noticed this Windows 11 24H2 is hereand for good reason: Microsoft staggers the rollout of major updates like this over several weeks or months; so unless you’re careful about checking for Windows updates and keep the “Get the latest updates as soon as possible” option, you may not see it. “Available” setting is on.

It may even install without you noticing; An easy way to check and see which version of Windows 11 you’re running is to press the Start button, type “Windows information,” then select “Windows features” from the results. This will open the About page of your System settings; Here you can see which edition and version of Windows 11 you are running.

If you see version 24H2 listed, congratulations: you have the big Windows 11 Fall update! There are all kinds of small changes and fixes aimed at making Windows better (like Wi-Fi 7 support), as well as some new features to try.

Some of the new features are only available on Copilot+ PCs; Windows Recall feature, Live Captions and some advanced graphics upgrades.

But you don’t need a fancy Copilot+ PC to take advantage of the many new upgrades in the latest version of Windows. No matter which PC you have, here are 5 of my favorite new Windows 11 features you should check out first!

Phone Link comes to the taskbar

One of my favorite things about using a Mac with my iPhone is that Apple makes it so easy to get my text messages to both devices, so I can see them while I’m working without reaching for my phone.

Windows 11 has had an anemic Phone Link app for a while now, allowing you to wirelessly connect your Android or iOS smartphone to your PC to check messages, but it can’t match the interoperability of iPhones and Macs.

However, it gets much better with the 24H2 update; at least if you have an Android phone. Those of us using iPhones are still stuck with a Phone Link app that shows our notifications in the taskbar, but if you have an Android device, you can send and receive messages, remotely browse your phone’s files, and even see a live notification from your Windows 11 PC. Viewing your phone’s battery status, connection status, and recent messages in your Start menu. You can even use your Android smartphone’s camera as a webcam by going to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mobile devices.

Basically it’s almost as good as: macOS Sequoia‘s iPhone Mirroring feature, at least if you’re using an Android device.

Quick Settings expanded

Once you have 24H2, try opening the Quick Settings menu by clicking the Wi-Fi icon in the corner of your taskbar.

When you do this, you’ll notice that the usual simplified interface has been expanded and given pages that you can scroll using your mouse or by clicking the arrow icons on the right side of the menu.

This change basically gives you easy access to all the tools in your Quick Settings menu, rather than limiting you to just the things you put there.

The value of this is that Microsoft can keep adding tools, and without having to go into the “Edit quick settings” tools to add them manually, you can simply scroll down to access them.

One of the new settings that you can quickly enable or disable from the Quick Settings menu is Energy Saving mode, another new feature that I will explain later.

New Energy Saving mode

Once you get the 24H2 update, you may notice the new Energy Saver button in your Quick Settings menu, which is a better version of the existing Battery Saver mode.

The current Battery Saver in Windows 11 is only available on laptops, and when enabled, it attempts to reduce power consumption by doing things like dimming the screen and limiting app activity in the background.

This has now been replaced by Energy Saver mode, which is available on both laptops and desktops; So you can use this mode to both reduce your electricity bill and extend battery life.

This is part of Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to make Windows more environmentally friendly, and in the Settings > System > Power & battery menu, you’ll find plenty of options you can use to fine-tune how much power your device draws when plugged in. and when in the new Energy Saver mode.

Wi-Fi renewal

One of the smallest new features I really appreciate is the new button in the Wi-Fi menu in the Windows 11 taskbar that lets you refresh the view of available Wi-Fi networks.

If this seems like a minor feature, it is, which is why using Windows laptops over Wi-Fi has been incredibly frustrating for the last few years. There were many times when I tried to connect to my iPhone’s hotspot in a crowded conference room or train car, only to be frustrated by the influx of other Wi-Fi networks crowding my available network queue.

In the past, I’ve had to disable and enable Wi-Fi on my laptop several times to refresh the list of networks so that the networks I want become available. Thanks to this new feature, I can hit the refresh button on Wi-Fi networks whenever I need to; A small but welcome upgrade for Windows.

File Explorer is getting some much-needed upgrades

When you fire up File Explorer, you may notice a few new features to play with, including a new set of compression tools that let you compress not only .ZIP, but also .TAR and .7z.

This effectively ends the long dark age that we Windows users have been in when it comes to file compression. For a long time, we had to download something like 7-Zip whenever we wanted to package or unzip a file into anything other than .RAR, but a recent Windows 11 update unlocked Windows’ ability to decompress .7z files.

Now that 24H2 has added the option to compress files to these formats, you no longer need to go to the web to get a suitable file compression tool; but you may still want to do so since Windows 11 has built-in file compression tools. still significantly slower than something like 7-zip.

While you linger in File Explorer, note one of my favorite new features in 24H2: text labels on the Cut, Copy, Rename, Share, and Delete buttons in the right-click context menu.

Since the release of Windows 11, these functions have been stored as icons in the context menu, and it took me months to finally remember which was which.

No longer will new Windows 11 users have to deal with this headache; Text labels are on the new icons, so finding the Delete or Rename buttons is quick and easy.

These are just a few of the new features available to everyone in Windows 11 24H2; so keep poking around to see what else is new in Windows.

Microsoft is also weeding out some crap from the operating system, so Windows 7 will lose these features in 2024. You probably won’t miss features like Cortana and WordPad, but they’re worth knowing as you prepare for 2025!

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