Win 11 24H2 adventure

[SlowClick]

TLDR: This is just a narrative - comments are ok but advice is not needed because I've got it running fine.

Others have suggested that ppl should not still be on 23H2, but should be on 24H2 instead. I looked up how to do this, and saw that it was going to be available as an update 'real soon'. Well, I couldn't wait, so I re-joined the Insider Program (Release Preview Channel) and was offered 24H2 as an update. Bonza! Let her rip!

BTW my PC is just over a year old and has been running perfectly. i5-13500 and RTX 3070, a Gigabyte B760 DS3H AX DDR4 mobo.


All went well - until partway through the setup stage, when I got a GSoD (that's a Green Screen of Death), which is apparently a special BSoD reserved for Insider Program builds. The error was something like 'setup failure'. It offered to restart for me, but didn't, so I pressed the power button and restarted that way. My PC said it was recovering the previous installation, so all seemed good.

Soon it was up and running again, but I ran Windows Update just in case and was offered 23H2 (recovery version), and since that seemed like a good idea I let it run. When that finished and the PC restarted it said that Windows was not activated. WTF? I had the key handy so put it in, but it said the key was wrong ... However there was an option 'I have changed hardware' so I clicked that, it asked if the PC was <insert my PC name>, I clicked the check box, and after a few seconds it was activated and back to normal. Happy old Slowclick!

Soon after that I got the WIn11 Installation Media from MS, used that to fetch an ISO, then used RUFUS to make installation media. I might do a clean install later ... but will probable wait for 24H2 before I do that. In the meantime I've got a recovery tool.

Lessons:
1) don't fiddle with PCs if you are over 80 years old
2) if you ignore 1), make an image of the system drive first.

What an adventure!

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Let me however make a key suggest for OTHERS. Before you do a WinOS feature update, first wipe your driver installs all out and reboot before starting such an upgrade. Also it's better and safer to simply download the full OS ISO which would include the latest updates to date. You can publicly download the full 24H2 ISO as it IS readily available now since about 2 weeks ago. Once you make a Win11 24H2 USB Flash Drive, wiped out your drivers and rebooted. Then run the setup.exe off the usb drive to start the upgrade process. Feature Updates should be avoided through Windows Updates, as it's a lengthier process and could sometimes run into problems. Feature Updates (22H2, 23H2, 24H2) are basically a whole new OS so it should be treated as such.

[Quint]

Sounds like the typical Insider experience.
Bad Motha's advice is ideal btw

[Oyun Arşivim]

Are you really 80 year old?

[SlowClick]

Yes - born early 1944. Some old ppl were early adopters of IT - I've had PCs in my house since about 1983, and except for that 1st one and this last one, I built and maintained all my PCs myself, as well as a hundred or so for customers and employers.

Thank you Bad for your comment ;-) I knew you'd have something sensible and current to say! I looked for a 24H2 ISO yesterday but didn't find one, but just now I did find one, but it requires being part of the Insiders Program. After yesterday's adventure I'm not going to rush into this again. I'll wait at least until it's offered through the regular update channel, but get the ISO instead, as it should be available from the regular update site.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Messaggio originale di SlowClick:

I might do a clean install later ... but will probable wait for 24H2 before I do that.

This is my option I plan to do myself. I want to try 24H2 too but I'm not going to until microsoft has an official ISO for it that does not require us to be in the Insider Program (full public release). Then I will get that and do a clean re-install of my system and try it there. I'm probably going to also buy a spare SATA SSD for about $20 and install it on that (removing my NVME SSD I currently use first) and then that way I'll have my current 23H2 install physically removed from the computer and sitting outside of it (so nothing can happen to it). If it doesn't work out or I don't like it I'll just shut down -> remove SATA SSD -> plug in NVME SSD -> Back to 23H2 -> format the SATA SSD and use it for storage.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Win11 24H2 ISO
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsinsiderpreviewiso

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Messaggio originale di Bad 💀 Motha:

Win11 24H2 ISO
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsinsiderpreviewiso

Nope it doesn't work. It says right there "To access this page, you need to be a member of the Windows Insider program." It's not publically released as a ISO we can directly download yet and do a full clean install with.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yea no crap, just opt into that. Like WTF is wrong with WinOS users that they don't do that already. Many of us been on 24H2 since early June.

There is no needs to wait until Oct/Nov for MS to push it to you via WU.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Messaggio originale di Bad 💀 Motha:

Yea no crap, just opt into that. Like WTF is wrong with WinOS users that they don't do that already. Many of us been on 24H2 since early June.

There is no needs to wait until Oct/Nov for MS to push it to you via WU.

Windows Insider Builds of a windows version are NOT the same as the public release (also called Release Candidate / RC) versions that are released later. Windows Insider Builds are "Early Release" versions (also known as beta sometimes). This is why most people (me included) avoid them and rather wait for a full RC version later when it's released to the public. Both versions may have 24H2 stamped on them but they will have different build numbers because they are different revisions. Microsoft has always done this with every version of windows even in the XP days there were MSDN versions (which is what it was before Insider Program) that released first before the public release of service packs.

[A&A]

Beta or RC, doesn't really matter when there are no QA testers it in their offices anyway.

[Crashed]

Messaggio originale di 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

Messaggio originale di Bad 💀 Motha:

Win11 24H2 ISO
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsinsiderpreviewiso

Nope it doesn't work. It says right there "To access this page, you need to be a member of the Windows Insider program." It's not publically released as a ISO we can directly download yet and do a full clean install with.

You can sign up for the Windows Insider Program to download the ISO files, and using build 26100 does not require the system to be enrolled in WIP.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Messaggio originale di Crashed:

You can sign up for the Windows Insider Program to download the ISO files, and using build 26100 does not require the system to be enrolled in WIP.

That does not change the fact that this is an early release and not full release candidate version. Usually the public releases later are a lot more stable and usable. It's probably best to just wait for that.

[Crashed]

Windows 11 v24H2 is only considered "stable" on Arm64. For x64 it is still only available as Insider Preview.

This may just mean they rushed through certifications for "Copilot+ PC" systems while they still want to test for everyone else.

If you elect to upgrade to 24H2 because you have an AMD processor, note that the performance tuning update is available as a Cumulative Update Preview for 23H2.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If you're going to install a preview update; then why not just install the entire 24H2.
Preview updates should be avoided really cause if if that's bugged you have to use system restore, or wait 2-3 months for a hotfix instead of 1 month, maybe if you had actually waited.

There's nothing wrong with 24H2, if people install it right.

I've explained many times how to properly install Win11; via the EU method so you get proper Uninstall options. Unlike what will happen if you install it and select United States for example.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧Kei]

beta builds or whatever you wanna call it like insider build isn't worth ruining your pc for, just wait for it to release