It's almost that time again — since the initial launch in 2021, Windows 11 has received annual feature updates in the second half of each year, and 2025 is no different in that regard. What is a bit different this time around is the number of interesting things to talk about in this update. That's because there really aren't any.

Windows 11 version 25H2 is the first feature update to ship with no new features announced by Microsoft, now or for the foreseeable future. It's the grand return to boring updates for Windows, and it's unfortunate to see.

It's an enablement package

But there isn't much being enabled yet

If you've followed the Windows development scene, you're likely familiar with the concept of enablement packages. These are feature updates that don't actually contain any new code for your system. All they do is flip a switch on your Windows install that changes some features from disabled to enabled. These features are rolled out via the monthly cumulative updates you receive, and then enabled by the enablement package.

This also means that Windows 11 version 25H2 shares the same development branch as version 24H2, and thus, all the updates they receive going forward will be the same. This makes it easier to support users on both versions, too.

The difference this time around is there actually aren't any new features to enable at launch. The only thing this enablement package is really changing right now is the version number displayed on your PC, and your support period. Because yes, despite using the same code, Windows 11 version 25H2 will be supported for an extra year compared to version 24H2.

Of course, that's not to say these two versions will be the same forever. Just as enablement packages can enable features already present in Windows 11 version 24H2, new features can be rolled out in the future that are only enabled in version 25H2, despite their code also being in the previous version. At this time, though, nothing like this has been mentioned.

Some features are being removed

"It's evolving, just backwards"

Rather than introduce any new features, Windows 11 version 25H2 mostly seems to remove some features that are no longer necessary. In a blog post, the company mentioned that PowerShell 2.0 is no longer available in this release, which makes sense considering this version of PowerShell is extremely old and has long been superseded. With it, Microsoft is also removing the Windows Management Instrumentation command-line (WMIC) tools.

Otherwise, the only other notable change is for commercial customers, who now have the ability to disable certain built-in Microsoft Store apps using Group Policy, so they can't be installed on the system.

Changes are coming

They're just not exclusive

While Windows 11 version 25H2 may not include any new exclusive features itself, Microsoft is working on a few new features for Windows 11 that will come at some point in the future. It just so happens that these will be available for Windows 11 version 24H2 as well as 25H2, at least based on Microsoft's wording. So what are they? Here are some highlights:

A new Start menu

Users have complained about the Windows 11 Start menu ever since the OS first launched, and after four years, it seems like Microsoft has finally listened. The company has been testing a new design for the Start menu that prioritizes your apps over the frustrating Recommended you used to see.

With this new design, in addition to your pinned apps, you can easily see your entire app list directly below it, with options to show them on a grid, list, or a new category setting that automatically groups apps into folders based on what they're meant to do. It's a pretty big improvement over the current design, and it will be nice to see it come to fruition when such a thing does happen.

Gaming handhelds are getting better

One of the biggest complaints levied against Windows in recent years is how poorly the operating system adapts to handheld gaming PCs like the Asus ROG Ally X or Lenovo Legion Go. This problem is exacerbated by the existence of the Steam Deck, which offers a far better handheld gaming experience, and even Lenovo has started moving away from Windows by putting SteamOS on the Legion Go S.

It took some time, but it feels like Microsoft is finally listening and trying to improve things in a significant way ahead of the launch of the ROG Xbox Ally duo next month. This pair of handhelds will ship with a new Windows 11 experience that lets you use the Xbox app as a full-screen home experience, removing the taskbar and Start menu to provide an experience optimized for a console-like device. Based on early hands-on with the devices, you can see that this experience will allow you to change settings like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection directly through the "home" experience in the Xbox app, so it's looking fairly promising.

Since these devices are launching in October, this feature should become officially available before then, but it's also possible it will roll out to the ROG Xbox Ally first and only come to other devices later.

Improvements for USB webcams and Copilot+ PCs

One of the most notable features of Copilot+ PCs, which started appearing about a year ago, is the advanced Windows Studio Effects, providing camera effects such as eye contact and background blur. Frustratingly, though, these features have always been exclusively available for the built-in webcam on your laptop, so if you use a higher-quality USB webcam, you lose that bonuses.

Well, a recent preview build of Windows 11 actually changes this, making it so you can use Windows Studio Effects with USB cameras, too. It's not clear when this will be available yet, but it's a very welcome change that brings Windows up to par with Macs, where external webcams already support this kind of feature.

Is this approach better than macOS?

Big annual updates can be fun

Windows 11 version 25H2 is put in an interesting position by launching around the same time as the latest version of macOS — macOS 26 Tahoe. Apple's latest OS release comes with a huge visual change with the introduction of Liquid Glass, which is applied consistently across the operating system and all of Apple's built-in apps. This update also introduces a major redesign for the app launcher, along with a few other changes.

Apple typically invests a lot more into its annual updates, so even if there are only a couple of changes, they're still fairly significant, and the company tries to provide incentives for getting the latest version. It keeps things a bit more interesting, though a lot of users don't care about getting system updates at all.

Windows 11 is sometimes like this, but it's been much less consistent. Version 22H2 was a fairly major update with improvements to touch support and much more, but version 23H2 was also an enablement package. Then version 24H2 was fairly big again, and now we're back to being incredibly boring.

Those who see their machines as mere work tools will probably be happy to have something stable, reliable, and unchanged over time. If it's not broken, there's no reason to fix it. But that's not exactly what Microsoft is doing, because new features are still being rolled out. Microsoft just kind of does it whenever it feels like, instead of targeting a specific annual update to do it.

That takes away a bit of the excitement out of an update, and it makes it a little harder to follow what's new, since you always have to be paying attention rather than just wait for the typical timeframe for an annual update. It also just makes it seem weird that different versions of the OS have different support periods when Microsoft fully acknowledges that they use the same code and development branch.

We don't know exactly when Windows 11 version 25H2 will roll out to the general public, but for now, it doesn't seem like there's much of a reason to be excited about it.