Windows 11 22H2 is rolling out to Insiders on the Release Preview channel

The next  major update to Windows 11 is almost ready to go. Microsoft has announced that Windows 11 22H2 is now rolling out to members of the Windows Insider program on the Release Preview channel.

In other words, this is the last stop before the OS update rolls out to the general public in the coming months, assuming no major bugs are found. So what’s new in Windows 11 22H2?

While the update won’t bring any massive overhauls to Microsoft’s desktop operating system, it does include a number of small, but significant changes.

Among other things, Microsoft is bringing back some features that were available in Windows 10, including support for app folders in the Start Menu and the ability to drag and drop files to app icons in the Taskbar to open a file with the corresponding app.

Some new features include:

• There are new touchscreen gestures, (like swiping up from the bottom of the screen to access the Start Menu or swiping up from the bottom right corner for Quick Settings).
• Task Manager features an updated design with an optional dark mode and side panel navigation that collapses when you’re not using it, to take up less space.
• Live Captions offer on-device, automatic captioning of any audio playing on a PC. Positioned as an accessibility feature, it’s easy to imagine this feature coming in handy for folks who aren’t deaf or hard of hearing.
• Voice Recorder has been replaced with a new Sound Recorder app with more options.
• The Clipchamp video editor comes pre-installed, and while it’s free to use for basic video editing, you’ll have to pay for a subscription to use some of its best features.
• You can access the snap layout shortcuts by dragging an app to the top of the screen.

The folks at Windows Central have a pretty good writeup of other new features coming to Windows 11 22H2 (although the post is a little outdated, as it suggests you’ll need to pay to export 1080p videos using Clipchamp, which is no longer true).