Microsoft starts rolling out the annual Windows 10 feature update, Windows 10 22H2

One month after starting to roll out the annual feature update for Windows 11, Microsoft is doing the same for Windows 10. On October 18, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 22H2 — the one and only “feature update” for Windows 10 this year — is available to those who manually download it. 

The ISOs for Windows 10 22H2 (Build 19045.2006) are available today. Version 22H2 also is now available through Windows Server Update Services (including Configuration Manager), Windows Update for Business and the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). The support countdown clock for 22H2 begins today, with Home and Pro users getting 18 months of support for Windows 10 22H2 and Enterprise and Education getting 30 months.

Update: As expected, Microsoft also made available today, as part of its optional/non-security updates (for “Week C”) the promised missing features of Windows 11 22H2 Users can check out the tabbed file explorer, suggested actions, taskbar overflow and other Windows 11 22H2 supplemental features today. These will go out to mainstream users on the next Patch Tuesday, November 8.

Microsoft officials have been quiet about the feature list for Windows 10 22H2, other than to say it would be available as a “scoped set of features.” This is Microsoft’s way of saying a feature update is small enough to be delivered via an enablement package that activates the new features, which will make the update process fast and easy for those already running the previous release (Windows 10 21H2, in this case). Windows 11 22H2, in spite of its fairly small number of new features, was not delivered via an enablement package.
In July 2022, Microsoft entered the final test phase for Windows 10 22H2, making it available to testers in the “Release Preview” channel. As of today, Windows 10 22H2 is available today to “seekers” running Windows 10 20H2 or later.  This means Windows users who are running “select devices” with Windows 10 can proactively seek it out by going to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and checking for updates. Once the update appears, users can select Download and Install. For anyone running older versions, the 21H1 update will feel and update like a regular Windows 10 feature update.

Microsoft officials continue to decline to say how many of the 1.4 billion monthly active Windows 10 and 11 users combined are on Windows 10, but most industry watchers believe there are still relatively few running Windows 11 a year from its initial introduction. Microsoft will continue to support Windows 10 until October 2025.