- Node labels `beta.kubernetes.io/metadata-proxy-ready`, `beta.kubernetes.io/metadata-proxy-ready` and `beta.kubernetes.io/kube-proxy-ds-ready` are no longer added on new nodes.
  - ip-mask-agent addon starts to use the label `node.kubernetes.io/masq-agent-ds-ready` instead of `beta.kubernetes.io/masq-agent-ds-ready` as its node selector.

    * setting `ENABLE_METADATA_CONCEALMENT=true` in kube-up will now set a `cloud.google.com/metadata-proxy-ready=true` label on new nodes. In v1.16, the metadata proxy add-on will switch to using that label as a node selector.
    * setting `KUBE_PROXY_DAEMONSET=true` in kube-up will now set a `node.kubernetes.io/kube-proxy-ds-ready=true` label on new nodes. In v1.16, the kube-proxy daemonset add-on will switch to using that label as a node selector.

    kubelet does not start pods that require networking before
    [networking is ready](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/43014).
    This change may require changes to clients that gate pod creation and/or
    scheduling on the node condition `type` `Ready` `status` being `True` for pods
    that need to run prior to the network being ready.
* **Enhance Kubelet QoS**:

- Containers which specify a `startupProbe` but not a `readinessProbe` were previously considered "ready" before the `startupProbe` completed, but are now considered "not-ready". ([#92196](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/92196), [@thockin](https://github.com/thockin)) [SIG Node]

- The e2e suite can be instructed not to wait for pods in kube-system to be ready or for all nodes to be ready by passing `--allowed-not-ready-nodes=-1` when invoking the e2e.test program. This allows callers to run subsets of the e2e suite in scenarios other than perfectly healthy clusters. ([#98781](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/98781), [@...

- When initializing nodes using external cloud-providers, the process now waits for the providerID value to be available before declaring the node ready. This ensures that nodes are not marked as Ready prematurely due to communication errors with the cloud-provider. The providerID and zone labels are necessary for integrations such as load balancers to function correctly. Users can choose to opt out of this behavior by setting...

- Fixed a regression introduced in 1.22.4 where Azure load balancers were not kept up to date with the state of cluster nodes. In particular, nodes that are not in the ready state and are not newly created (i.e. not having the `node.cloudprovider.kubernetes.io/uninitialized` taint) now get removed from Azure load balancers. ([#109933](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/109933), [@ricky-rav](https://github.com/ricky-rav))...

### Windows support improved

- [Performance dashboards](http://perf-dash.k8s.io/#/?jobname=soak-tests-capz-windows-2019) added support for Windows

- Fixed a regression introduced in 1.23.0 where Azure load balancers were not kept up to date with the state of cluster nodes. In particular, nodes that are not in the ready state and are not newly created (i.e. not having the `node.cloudprovider.kubernetes.io/uninitialized` taint) now get removed from Azure load balancers. ([#109932](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/109932), [@ricky-rav](https://github.com/ricky-rav))...

* A new `TaintNodesByCondition` admission plugin taints newly created Node objects as "not ready", to fix a race condition that could cause pods to be scheduled on new nodes before their taints were updated to accurately reflect their reported conditions. This admission plugin is enabled by default if the `TaintNodesByCondition` feature is enabled....