Today, Microsoft announced the release and availability of the Windows 11 2022 Update, the first major update to Windows 11 since the OS launched last year.
The last few years have brought enduring changes in the ways we live, work, and learn, with the PC playing a more critical role in our daily lives. Online options that didn’t previously exist for meetings, appointments, everyday tasks, and access to entertainment emerged out of necessity, but remain due to convenience and efficiency. We formed new habits; and they stuck. The PC has fundamentally connected us in more emotional ways than ever before. The rapid move to more flexible work and life also dramatically increased security threats for individuals and businesses, with 921 password attacks every second. With last year’s launch of Windows 11 Microsoft gave the PC a modern refresh; making Windows the best place to connect, create and play.
With the Windows 11 2022 Update, Microsoft is focusing on innovation in a few key areas:
- Making the PC easier and safer to use for everyone: To anticipate people’s needs and save their time, this release includes updates to the Start Menu, more accurate searches, Quick Settings, Widgets board improvements, and more.
- New accessibility features include System Wide live captions to automatically generate captions from any form of audio content on Windows 11, voice access (preview) allows users to control their PC and author text using only their voice, and Natural Voices for Narrator mirrors natural speech more closely, creating more pleasant-sounding audio to assist in reading or browsing the web.
- Empower people to be more productive: With enhancements to Snap layouts, new Focus sessions, Do Not Disturb and performance and battery optimizations, the Windows 11 2022 Update will help you be your most productive self.
- Making Windows the best place to connect, create and play: The Windows 11 2022 Update has Windows Studio Effects to improve video and audio calls, updates to the Microsoft Store experience, additional gaming features, and more.
- This update will enhance the Microsoft Store experience, including a Microsoft Store Ads pilot for developers and expansion of the Amazon Appstore in international markets, bringing over 20,000 Android apps and games to customers.
- Game Pass is built right into Windows 11 through the Xbox app, where players can access hundreds of high-quality PC games.
- With a new Controller bar, optimizations for windowed games, and new HDR calibration options, you’ll now have more gaming features than ever before on PCs running Windows 11.
- Delivering added security, management, and flexibility to the workplace: To meet the needs of this increasingly complex landscape, the new Windows 11 2022 Update delivers the critically important new security features and new management tools for increased IT efficiency.
- Microsoft Defender SmartScreen will help identify when a user enters their credentials into a malicious application and alerts them.
- Smart App Control blocks untrusted or unsigned applications, script files, and malicious macros from running on Windows 11.
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