New update for Windows 11 24H2 is the most feature-packed for some time, delivering some seriously useful additions

• There’s a new update out for Windows 11 24H2 in preview
• It offers a whole load of features, albeit some are Copilot+ PC exclusives
• New abilities include a supercharged search in Settings, cross-device resume with OneDrive files, useful new HDR options and much more

Windows 11 version 24H2 is set to receive a towering pile of new features soon, and they’re already out in an optional patch for those who want to test the waters early.

The preview update for May (picked up by Neowin) will become the full June patch next month, and it comes with some changes for Copilot+ PCs only, as well as plenty of goodies for those with a traditional Windows 11 PC.

We’ll start with the latter, given that most folks still have a standard Windows 11 device, and an interesting addition for everyone with update KB5058499 is a new Cross Device Resume feature.

As Microsoft explains, you can now resume working on a OneDrive file on your PC if you were previously playing about with it on your smartphone (Android or iOS). Windows 11 will prompt you with a notification to check if you want to resume working on a file you were just using on your phone within the past five minutes, which is a nifty touch.

There are improvements for those with an HDR display, too, with new options in Settings, including a better explanation of what enabling ‘Use HDR’ means, and a toggle to turn on Dolby Vision (or turn it off) independently of HDR. Windows 11 will also now stream HDR video in all its glory even if you have HDR turned off (for the OS environment, games and so forth).

New share options (as previously seen in testing) now pop up when you drag a file out of a folder (in File Explorer), with suggested apps appearing in a tray at the top of the screen, so you can drop the file there to conveniently share it directly to any of those applications.

Furthermore, when typing with Voice Access, you can now turn off the profanity filter, and in the Settings app, a FAQ has been implemented which tells you more about the spec of your PC and what it really means. (Putting some perspective on how good your graphics card is, or how the amount of system RAM you have might affect the performance of Windows 11).

Also worth noting is that Microsoft has reintroduced the ability to open Copilot with the Windows key + C shortcut as an alternative for those who don’t have a dedicated Copilot button. Also, if you hold that shortcut (or the Copilot button), you’ll invoke ‘Press to talk’ with the AI assistant, whereby you can use voice commands (if you have a mic).

Copilot+ PC exclusives

In the case of Copilot+ PCs, the May optional update goes to town with fresh features for Click to Do, the companion feature introduced with Recall that provides context-sensitive AI-related actions.

That includes a new Ask Copilot option within the Click to Do menu that appears when an image or a block of text is selected, which opens the AI assistant with the highlighted content ready to go as a query.

Also, the intelligent text actions which were previously only available with Snapdragon (Arm) Copilot+ PCs are now out for devices with AMD or Intel processors. This gives you options within Click to Do to quickly summarize or rewrite text (or turn it into a list), all of which is achieved using the AI powers built into Windows 11. (Specifically, this is the ‘Phi Silica’ Small Language Model, and it means that the work is done right on the device, not in the cloud).

Microsoft has also made it so that those with a stylus can have the shortcut button on the pen open Click to Do (with either a single or double click), and it’s now possible to make the feature one of the four specified apps in the pen menu.

Furthermore, Click to Do is now being made available in the European Economic Area, with all these fresh moves in tow.

Finally, there’s a big move with Copilot+ PCs in the introduction of a supercharged search leveraging AI for the Settings app. You can type a natural language query in the Windows 11 search box on the taskbar to find any setting you want, such as ‘change my desktop wallpaper’ which will bring up the relevant part of the Settings app.

Also with Narrator, the screen-reading tool built into Windows 11, AI now produces descriptions for images on web pages (or other content) where that alternative (alt) text hasn’t been provided.

Analysis: A gradual rollout of nifty powers

Bear in mind that this is an optional update as noted, so if you grab this now, you may encounter bugs. Given that, the generally perceived wisdom is that most users will be better off waiting until the preview update becomes a full release, which will happen next month (on June 10 to be precise).

If you can’t wait to test out some of these features, then jump on this upgrade by all means – you’ll find it by checking in Windows Update as usual. However, remember that these features are all labelled as having a gradual rollout, so it may take a bit of time for some of this functionality to filter through to your PC. In this case, that’s another reason to be patient and wait until June.

There are some nifty powers here, certainly, and the changes to HDR, the hardware FAQ in Settings, and extra file-sharing options are all welcome. The supercharged search is a definite highlight, but that’s only for Copilot+ PCs, so most people won’t get that.

Another noteworthy move is Cross Device Resume, which looks smartly implemented, and this is a space to watch because Microsoft is set to expand this ability in the future. We should see this become a much broader piece of work, allowing for all apps to be resumed in this way across your phone and PC eventually, not just OneDrive files.

In short, this should be Microsoft’s equivalent to Apple’s Handoff feature, or at least that’s the theory based on weighty clues the company recently dropped (and swiftly retracted).

You might also like...

• Hate Copilot? You might change your mind if this hint that it’ll extend your laptop’s battery life is true
• Can’t upgrade to Windows 11? This Linux project wants to save your old PC from the scrapheap when Windows 10 support ends
• Been hiding from Windows 11 24H2 due to the fuss about all the bugs? There’s nowhere to run now as Microsoft’s made the update compulsory