Dell's Windows 11 version 24H1 announcement causes confusion
Microsoft is already making it difficult to keep up with the different Windows builds and versions that the company releases. There are feature updates, Moment updates, cumulative updates, optional updates and even accidental updates.
It does not help that Microsoft is tight lipped about its plans for 2024. If Microsoft follows its current guidelines, it will release a feature update for Windows 11 in this year. There is also the, rather strong, rumor of a Windows 12 or Windows AI release in 2024.
If that is not enough uncertainty, there is now also Dell that adds to it. The company teased an upcoming XPS device recently, which will, by the way, feature the new Copilot key on the keyboard.. One of the screens confirms that the device will be ready for Wi-Fi 7. More interesting than this bit of information is that Dell lists Windows 11 version 24H1 as the requirement for the feature.
The company reveals that the new Windows 11 version won't be available for download until April 2024 and factory install until August 2024.
Windows 11 version 24H1 is not something that Microsoft has announced at this point. The majority of experts, including our colleagues over at Deskmodder, seem to agree that Dell has made an error here.
Dell may have mixed up the upcoming Moment 5 update with the next feature update for Windows 11. Microsoft plans to release Moment 5 in February to testers and in April 2024 to Stable versions of Windows 11.
The month coincides with Dell's announcement of Windows 11 version 24H1 in April 2024. Moment update releases may be installed by users, but they are also integrated in the next version of Windows automatically.
This explains why Dell refers to August 2024 as the factory install date for the update. Basically, what Dell refers to is Windows 11 version 24H2, which Microsoft plans to release in the second half of 2024.
The release date for the 2024 feature update for Windows 11 is late September or October of 2024.
To sum it up: the chance that Microsoft is going to release Windows 11 version 24H1 is slim. It would mean another course reversal, as it has just ended the two feature updates per year schedule. It is unlikely.
If Dell means Moment 5 and not Windows 11 version 24H1, it would mean that the update will introduce Wi-Fi 7 support in Windows 11.
Now You: what is your take on this?
Not to mention, the Copilot key is not reprogrammable (from another article):
“As encouraged by Microsoft, Dell added a Copilot key to launch Microsoft’s AI assistant from XPS keyboards. It’s where you’d expect the right Ctrl / Menu key to be. This could also be a nuisance to users, especially since the key is not reprogrammable.”
So, does Dell get paid by Microsoft for each query users submit to Microsoft Copilot? Why else would they not allow users to reprogram it to something useful?
Nothing really impresses me about what Windows appears to become going forward. Especially if all this AI will be forced upon me whether I want it or not.
The AI (at least so far) can be disabled through local policies or other options. This is key because government and financial institutions will not want it on their rank-and-file machines at least at this point, because of the possibility that it might leak confidential data into the wild.
(which is also a reason why one should always sanitize one’s input into ChatGPT, Claude, etc.)
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-disable-windows-copilot-in-windows