Microsoft recently published a new blog post that confirms what has been suspected since March: the next version of Windows will be called Windows 11 25H2 and it will be more of a minor update.
Microsoft compares Windows 11 25H2 with version 23H2, which was way more manageable than the mess of 24H2. But “minor” doesn’t mean it won’t have any new features. On the contrary!
What’s new in Windows 11 25H2?
Even though the Windows 11 25H2 update is expected to be only around 1 MB in size, Microsoft is still preparing a few adjustments for Windows 11 with it. These adjustments include a new Start menu with a grid and category layout, as reported by Windows Latest.
Users will then be able to categorize their apps themselves into specific groups—for example, creative apps, games, streaming, social media—to access them more quickly. However, a certain number of apps must be present in a category for it to be visible.
Windows Latest
There will also be a new feature that throttles your CPU usage when you’re idling or away from your PC for a long time. The main goal here is to reduce power consumption and extende battery life.
The first Windows 11 Insiders can already test 25H2 via the Canary Channel. Previously, there were some serious bugs that affected the OS’s stability, causing Microsoft to pause testing for a while.
The good news is, updating to Windows 11 25H2 is a lot simpler and more straightforward than it has been in the past. You only need to restart your system once to get the new version. Still, Microsoft recommends updating to 24H2 first before stepping up to 25H2.
Why is Windows 11 25H2 a minor update?
As Windows 11 25H2 doesn’t contain any far-reaching changes for the operating system, Microsoft is not calling it a complete feature update. That would set expectations too high.
It’s also natural that the next Windows 11 version update would be somewhat smaller again, given how tumultuous the 24H2 update turned out to be, causing numerous problems for users that had to be repeatedly rescued via emergency updates and rollout blocks.
All the new features introduced in 24H2 will, of course, be included in 25H2. Users who are lagging behind will therefore receive a large package anyway if they haven’t been keeping up to date.
It’s likely that Microsoft will finalize and deliver Windows 11 25H2 to users in October 2025. Support for Windows 10 was supposed to end at that time, but Microsoft also recently announced an extra year of free Windows 10 security updates… with a catch.
