- Windows 11’s September update has arrived
- It packs some smart new features, but some are for Copilot+ PCs only
- There’s a hidden drawback for those who don’t run a Copilot+ PC, too
The latest Windows 11 update is now rolling out, and it’s packing quite a few features, albeit some of those abilities are exclusive to Copilot+ PCs – and there’s another catch wrapped up in that, too.
This is patch KB5065426 for Windows 11 24H2 (those holdouts remaining on version 23H2 get patch KB5065431).
I’m going to pick out the highlights of the September update for Windows 11 24H2, then round up the rest of the work Microsoft has done here, before discussing the niggly downside with the size of the patch that Windows Latest pointed out.
So, first up, here’s my list of the top features provided by this new Windows 11 update. As ever, some of these capabilities may be on a gradual rollout, so not everyone will see them right off the bat.
1. Recall gets a home page
Recall remains a controversial feature for Copilot+ PCs only, but there is a big change here in the introduction of a new home page for the functionality. This highlights all your recent activity in terms of what you’ve just been doing on your PC, and recently taken Recall snapshots, allowing you to quickly resume tasks or access snapshots. For those who use Recall this will likely be a handy addition.
2. Agent in Settings comes to more Copilot+ PCs
The AI Agent in settings – which lets you use natural language queries to find options in Windows 11, and offers recommendations for what choices you should make in some cases – is now rolling out to more Copilot+ PCs. Previously, this was only available for devices with a Snapdragon X (Arm) processor, but it’s now on Copilot+ laptops with AMD and Intel CPUs. This is a major move (flagged by Thurrott.com), as it’s a very useful piece of AI-based functionality for those who aren’t so familiar with where to find various Windows 11 options.
If you want widgets on your Windows 11 lock screen, with this update you can now pick and choose exactly which widgets you’d like to see. This is an important element of customization, although it isn’t clear why it took so long to implement. Before now, it was a case of having all widgets displayed, or none of them (for people outside of Europe, anyway).
4. Windows 11 search improvements
Windows search now presents images in a grid view in search results, making finding the pictures that you want easier. Another useful tweak for this central Windows 11 feature is that search will tell you when it’s still indexing files (with a progress bar so you know when it’s done – and the search results are fully complete).
5. Task Manager correction
This is a minor change, granted, but an important tweak in my opinion. Microsoft has standardized the reporting of processor usage in Task Manager, so the correct percentage figure is now displayed across the board. Previously, it was the case that different values could be shown for CPU usage within the panel, which was confusing. Now, there’s none of that nonsense going on – the only question (again) is why Microsoft took so long to do this, given that it was a fix put in the pipeline six months ago.
Other introductions with the September patch
Microsoft has also implemented a tutorial for its Click to Do feature in this new update, and given Windows Hello a fresh coat of paint, so the secure login functionality now looks more modern.
On top of this, there’s now an option ported across from Windows 10 to have a bigger clock display – which includes the seconds – in the notification center (to complement the smaller clock in the taskbar – you can see how this works in the above screenshot).
System permissions prompts have also been made clearer by dimming the background when they’re displayed.
Copilot+ minuses
There are some downsides in Windows 11’s September update which apply to those who don’t own a Copilot+ PC – and that’s most of us. Firstly, the obvious caveat is that some of the highlights here are only applicable to Copilot+ laptops, so the rest of us traditional Windows PC owners don’t get them. (This is an ongoing theme, too – though that’s hardly unexpected, as Microsoft continues to push AI hard).
There’s a catch you may not be aware of, though, as Windows Latest picked up, and that’s the size of these updates. The September patch is a relatively hefty 4GB in size, and it’s bulked up with AI models for Copilot+ PCs. However, normal PCs – which won’t use these models – still get them piped through in updates. That’s an unfortunate inconvenience in terms of download times and the space taken up by the update on your system drive (which could be particularly annoying if you have a laptop with a small SSD).