The Best New Windows 11 24H2 Features You Should Be Using
Oct. 3, 20241. Recall (Copilot+ PC Exclusive)
Microsoft introduced a brand newAI Recall featurein May, but after facing a strong backlash due to security and privacy issues, the company stopped the rollout. Now, after asecurity overhaul of Recall, Microsoft is going to rollout the feature to Windows 11 24H2 Insiders starting in October.
The Recall feature will be first available in October to Copilot+ PCs, powered bySnapdragon X seriesprocessors in the Insider channel. And in November, Copilot+ PCs running onIntel Core Ultra Series 2and AMD Ryzen AI 300 processors, will get the Recall AI feature, again in the Insider channel.
Microsoft says the Recall feature is turned off by default, and users can also uninstall it if they want. And now the local vector index is stored in a secure VBS environment and can only be accessed after Windows Hello authentication.
Another AI feature coming to Windows 11 24H2 isCocreatorand Generative erase and fill. The feature is exclusive to Copilot+ PCs as it uses the on-device NPU to generate AI images based on your sketch.
You can also feed textual prompts and adjust the creativity level to generate images according to your preference. From the demo we have seen so far, it seems the Cocreator feature is quite fast and it generates images in real-time, as you start sketching.
The official Photos app on Windows 11 has received new AI features with the 24H2 update. You can now create images with Image Creator in the Photos app itself. You can enter prompts to create an image within seconds. Keep in mind, you will need an internet connection to use this feature.
While there are manyAI image upscaler toolsout there, Windows 11 24H2 brings a new update to the Photos app that lets you upscale images and increase resolution to up to 8x. Basically, on a Copilot+ PC, you can natively upscale images without rely on third-party tools. Microsoft says the Super Resolution feature in Photos leverages the on-device NPU to upscale images.
Remember theCircle to Search tool on Androidthat lets you highlight an object on your screen, and the AI finds the product for you? Well, Microsoft is bringing a similar experience to Windows 11 with the 24H2 update. The newClick to Do featureon Windows 11 brings an AI overlay that analyzes what is on your screen and offers contextual actions.
For example, if you launch Click to Do on an image, it lets you remove or blur the background, erase objects, or perform a visual search using Bing. You can also bring up Click to Do to summarize and rewrite content that’s on your screen. To launch Click to Do, simply press and hold the Windows key and click on the object or text that you seen on your screen.
For example, you can enter visual cues that relate to an image and it will find the image for you. Of course, the feature will be exclusive to Copilot+ PCs running the 24H2 build. Also, keep in mind, initially, it will only work in File Explorer, but Microsoft says the feature is coming to the universal Windows Search pane and Windows Settings.
One of the noteworthy features of Windows 11 24H2 isAuto Super Resolution. It’s an AI-powered feature thatuses the onboard NPU to upscale resolutionin supported games. You can find this new setting under System -> Display -> Games.
It works similarly toAMD FSR and Nvidia DLSStechnology but uses the NPU instead of the GPU. It’s left to be seen how much of a difference it brings to gameplay, but it’s exciting that Microsoft is working to bring AI enhancements to Windows 11 in various forms.
With the 24H2 update, you can finally take advantage of Windows Studio Effects with the help of on-device NPU. During video calls on Windows 11 24H2, with this feature, you can change the background effect,adjust your eye contact, enable automatic framing, reduce noise and amplify your voice.
Live Captionsis getting huge improvements with the Windows 11 24H2 update. The feature lets you translate speech of different languages in real-time. And it also works in the offline mode. Not to mention, it now supports live captioning for bothaudio and video calls. The addition of severalnon-Englishlanguages for live captions is a welcome change.
Windows 11 24H2 also brings anew Copilot appthat is rebuilt from the scratch. Microsoft has completely changed the UI to make it more personal and inviting. It’s still a web app, though. And there is no deeper integration with the Windows OS right now.
Apart from that, users can voice chat with Copilot Voice, however, it’s not available in all regions. You can listen to daily news presented by an AI voice within the Copilot app. There is also an upcoming ‘Think Deeper’ feature, which will take some time to ‘think’ before generating a response, just likeOpenAI o1 model. The feature is aimed at solving complex queries.
While the new Copilot app is not limited to Windows 11 24H2, to access some features like Copilot Vision, users will likely need a Copilot+ PC with 24H2 installed on it.
After replacing the classic context menu with the introduction of Windows 11, Microsoft is finally bringinglabels to easily identifywhat each buttons do. The Windows 11 24H2 update has added text labels next to the buttons in the context menu. Good change, Microsoft! By the way, if you want to get theold context menu back in Windows 11, you can follow our tutorial.
Voice Clarity has been a part of Surface devices for quite some time. And now, Microsoft is bringing the AI feature to all x64 and ARM Windows devices starting with the Windows 11 24H2 build. As the name reveals, the feature essentiallysuppresses background noisewhen you are on a video or audio call using the CPU (not NPU). It uses low-complexity AI models to filter out noise and echo in real-time.
The Windows 11 24H2 update doesn’t have many sweeping visual changes. However, you get a scrollable quick settings page for action menus. When you have more quick actions in the panel, you can easily scroll to find all the options. In addition, there is now a refresh button inside the Wi-Fi action menu. And the best part is that Microsoft has improved the performance of the Quick Settings panel which is great.
Microsoft has done the unthinkable with the 24H2 update. You can nowuse thevenerable“sudo” command from Linux on Windows 11to grant admin privilege just like that. You can now use the ‘sudo’ command in Terminal and elevate a command as administrator without having to open the program as admin .
While you can open 7Z, TAR, and other archive file formats on the current Windows 11 version, you still cannot create files without using their dedicated programs. But with Windows 11 24H2, you can create archive files like 7Z and RAR natively on your PC. How cool is that?
Microsoft has replaced Battery Saver with a new ‘Energy Saver’ mode with the Windows 11 24H2 update. It lets you extend your laptop’s battery life by managing power consumption across system and user apps in the background.
The best part is that Energy Saver is available for both laptops and desktops. Energy Saver blocks background apps (you can customize the filter list), stops background syncing of apps like OneNote, OneDrive, Phone Link, etc., and blocks non-critical Windows updates. The majority of telemetry services are also blocked.
You can enable the Energy saver mode from the Quick Settings panel to extend your laptop’s battery life and disable it whenever you want better performance. It’s like the battery-saver mode on Android.
Microsoft is finally addingWi-Fi 7support to Windows 11 with the 24H2 update. In addition to Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, you will get access to Wi-Fi 7 which brings features likeMLO (Multi-Link Operation), 320MHz ultra-wide bandwidth support, 4096-QAM modulation, and more. Next, the 24H2 update brings support for Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio devices as well.
We all know the woes of setting up a printer with additional third-party software and drivers. So, Microsoft is making printing seamless with the Windows 11 24H2 update that brings the modern print stack. The ‘Windows protected print mode’ only allows devices to print using the modern print stack, designed for Morpia-certified printers. With this, you no longer need to rely on third-party printer drivers.
With the Windows 11 24H2 update, you can now share your Wi-Fi connection using a QR code. Apart from that, when you create a mobile hotspot, it will readily show a QR code to share the hotspot with other users. And when looking at your Wi-Fi password under Wi-Fi properties, it will show a QR code as well.
Windows 11 24H2 is built on the newGermanium platform, which means it will be installed by swapping the current OS with the newer version. In that sense, it will entirely replace the 23H2 version, which was based on the Nickel platform.
The platform change is happening after two major updates – Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2. Windows 11 was released as 21H2, and it was developed on the Cobalt platform. Apart from that, Microsoft is bringing “hot patching” to Windows 11 with the 24H2 update. This allows the system to apply security updates without rebooting the PC.
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