By
Delia
/ Last
update
January 26, 2022
Windows 11 uses an annual update approach, and the next major feature update will be called 22H2 or "Sun Valley 2" and is not expected to be officially released until the fall, but the major feature update is basically confirmed to be well on its way to completion in a few days.
February 4 - Feature Complete
All clues indicate that February 4 is the date that Microsoft set the status to "feature complete. This means that the features that are nearing completion at this stage will be new features that come standard with 22H2, so the main content of the new release is expected, while some of the designs that are still in the early stages of development will have to wait longer. After February 4, all other new features will be added to the Bulid branch for later versions. On the other hand, Microsoft will basically not add any more content changes to the 22H2 release.
March 4 - config complete
A month from now, on March 4, Microsoft will reach "configuration complete" status, after which Windows 11 22H2 is basically finalized, which means that there will be no more major design changes in the new version. In the months between March and the official release, Microsoft will only be doing some testing and bug fixing to get ready for the fall release.
In addition, switching branches will result in a series of new bugs in future Windows 11 previews, so it's recommended that those who have joined the Windows Insiders program and don't want to test Dev fancy features switch to the Beta channel in time.
Plenty of time for testing
Various features and major changes have emerged in the Windows 11 development branch in recent months, but not all of them will make it into the 22H2 release as of now. For now, users will almost certainly get a taste of significantly improved desktop performance and various changes to Settings in the new version, plus some major updates to widgets.
On the other hand, the expected revamp of the Windows 11 taskbar and some other features should come in a later feature update. Although this is a little hard to accept for some users.
There's still a long way to go before the fall launch, and Microsoft has learned a lot from past releases, so it will clearly spend most of its time testing and bug fixing.