Microsoft will be celebrating the one-year birthday of Windows 11 with the release of a major update codenamed “Sun Valley 2”. If you have a Windows 11 device, you’ll get the update automatically, and for absolutely free provided that your device is already on the new OS.
As we draw ever closer to the release of Windows 11 Sun Valley 2, Microsoft is getting more specific about it. This time, the version number “22H2” has been officially confirmed by Microsoft itself.
A Windows Update released on Thursday confirms the operating system’s next feature update is known as “Version 22H2”. As you can see in the below screenshot, Microsoft is finally using version 22H2 as the tentative name for the next major update. This also confirms that the update is a step closer to finalization.
At the moment, it’s unclear how the company plans to publicly dub this major revision of Windows 11. It could be named after a month or Microsoft could simply use the version number as the public name. Windows 11 version 22H2 has also appeared in several leaked Microsoft documents until this point.
Of course, we already know that version 22H2 will focus more on fixing the existing interface of Windows 11 like Start Menu, Control Center/notification, native apps like MS Paint, Windows Settings, taskbar desktop and other areas of the operating system.
This update is also set to bring back support for taskbar drag and drop, and add a new Task Manager to Windows 11.
How to test the Windows 11 22H2 now
As always, it is possible to download and install preview builds and start testing the early bits of Windows 11 Sun Valley 2 today.
There are various channels in the Insider Program for different branches of the OS. If you want to try preview builds of the next major update today, you can join Dev Channel, which is targeted at the most technical users.
The ‘Dev Channel’ was originally used to test the initial builds of Sun Valley and later Windows 11. Most app updates also appear in the Dev Channel as Beta Channel is currently reserved for testing bug fixes.
Reliable builds will be published in the beta channel in a few months as we get closer to the public launch. Ahead of the launch, Windows 11 22H2 will be published in the ‘Release Preview Channel’ which is typically used to test builds ready for production use.
