If you are still on Windows 11 24H2, the October updates were your last ones

Two dates matter here and only one of them got any attention. Microsoft's Windows release health page, current as of 21 October, now reads that "the Windows 11, version 26H2 phased rollout has reached full availability for devices running Windows 11, versions 25H2 and 24H2." Translated out of release-management English: the staged rollout is finished and every eligible PC is being offered the 2026 Update.

The second date is the one to act on. Microsoft's lifecycle page puts the end of servicing for Windows 11 version 24H2 Home and Pro at 14 October 2026. The security updates that landed on 13 October were the last that version will ever get. So a PC sitting on 24H2 because Windows Update never offered it anything newer is not heading towards a cliff, it went over one a fortnight ago. Version 25H2 runs to 13 October 2027 and 26H2 to 10 October 2028, which is what taking the update actually buys you.

Getting there is undramatic, as it was when 26H2 first shipped on 29 September. Because 24H2, 25H2 and 26H2 sit on one servicing branch, the update arrives as an enablement package. Windows Latest measured it at 174KB, against the 2GB-plus of an ordinary cumulative update, and it finishes in a single restart in under five minutes. The build number goes to 26300. Safeguard holds still exist, but at this stage they mostly catch machines on 23H2 or older.

Settings, then Windows Update, then Check for updates. If nothing turns up and you are definitely on 24H2 or 25H2, that is now the unusual case rather than the normal one, and Tendvane's Windows Update repair wizard exists for precisely that: a machine insisting it is up to date when it plainly is not.