Windows 10/11 PCs Stuck on Version 23H2 — Not Upgrading to 25H2
Hi everyone, I’m having an issue in my office environment. Some laptops are still running Windows 23H2, and they should be updating to 25H2, but: Windows Update shows no feature update Update Assistant / Installation Assistant doesn’t offer 25H2 Devices are connected to the network normally No obvious update errors appear I would like help understanding why these PCs are not receiving the 25H2 feature update. Any suggestions on troubleshooting steps, policies to check, or logs to review would be appreciated. Thank you!
Need help answering questions about transitioning to Win11
For context: I plan to upgrade to Win11 (by making a fresh install) sometime this or next month, but there are quite a few complicated questions i need to figure out before i do. I am the tech guy in the family, so i do know how to handle a lot of the PC issues, but hardware and OS stuff arent really my specialty, thus im asking these questions on a forum. Besides Win10 support ending, another reason why i want to reinstall windows is because i want to finally switch to an SSD from my 11 year old HDD. Why i want to make a fresh install is because i have some garbage on my PC that i cant so simply get rid of. So a clean install would probably be the best option. Additionally, my motherboard (ASRock Z370M Pro4) Does not have the TPM2.0 which is required to install Win11, but from the information i found it does feature a headder for a TPM chip. So i would also need to buy such chip. PC specs if relevant: Mobo - ASRock Z370M Pro4 CPU - I5-8400 RAM - 16GB GPU - RTX2060 Main questions: 1) What do i need to look out for when buying a TPM chip? I am unsure about the details about the TPM chips. From what im getting at, Win11 specifically requires TPM 2.0 or better, so im assuming i need to pay attention if the chip im buying supports that version. Whats more important is, are all TPM chips the same? Do they all feature the same connection for the header on the motherboard? Do different motherboards or motherboard manufacturers have different TPM chip models that i need to specifcially look for? I really wouldnt want to spend money on getting a wrong kind of chip that doesnt even help my issue. I would also appreciate, if someone knows or can figure out if my motherboard (ASRock Z370M Pro4) actually can get a chip required for Win11, or that info about having a TPM headder only refers to an older model that actualy wouldnt be useful for Win11, meaning this whole plan to upgrade to Win11 is a bust. 2) Is UEFI boot mode something special or something that my current installation simply didnt have? I read somewhere that Win11 also requires Boot mode to be set to UEFI. Curently my Win10 is installed as Legacy boot mode (it was originally installed as Win8 11 years ago). From what i understood, that is something that cannot be changed to a windows that is already installed. Did i undertsand it right, that its simply a setting you choose when installing Windows, and choosing the UEFI should be no issue when installing a fresh Windows (im also assuming Win11 wouldnt even give the choice if it only accepts one option) 3) Can i install Win11 straight away, or do i need to reinstall Win10 first? Right now i have Win10 installed. I have a Win10 key, and its assigned to my Microsoft account. If i were to install a fresh Win11, could i simply log in with my account that only has Win10, and it would just accept it as the free upgrade to Win 11? Or do i need to install a fresh Win10 and then upgrade it to Win11? Also my OS is Win10Pro, does that mean i would need to get Win11Pro? 4) Is it possible to save/export Windows settings? It would be convenient if i can somehow export my current Windows settings to that new fresh Win11 install. Is that something possible? Like the windows account saving up some windows settings, or being able to make an exportable file that can be imported into the new install (even if the Windows versions dont match)? This isnt anything major, since if its not possible it would just be a hassle going through all of the many Windows settings that exist nowdays 5) Does Win11 allow for Equalizer enhancement settings? On Win10 In the sound pannel, choosing the audio device and going to its porperties in the Enhancements tab you can add Equalizer to the audio device. I absolutely need to have this feature, because my current speakers have an awful high pitch sound, i need to tune it down. Why im asking the question if this feature still exists in Win11 is because both my moms and brothers laptops (both running Win11) dont have this feature. So im concerned. is it something that got removed from Win11, or they dont have it because they have laptops, not proper PC towers? This PC has a realtech soundchip on the motherboard, but unlike a much older PC i had, this one does not have an application for realtec sound pannel. So i can handle equalizer-ing only from Windows saund pannel. In the unfortunate case, Win11 doesnt have this feature any more, i would have to find an alternative application that can do it. 6) Does Windows allow to connect multiple drives that use the same letter? The way i plan to make a fresh install of Windows is by removing my current HDD, install the new SSD. and install Windows on it. Of cource its going to install it as a C: drive. After the installation is complete i would like to reconnect my old drive (which is a C:) to transfer files to the new drives. Because both drives would be C: would Windows have any conflicts and not allow something to function because of that? 7) Is reusing my old HDD a bad idea? I plan on getting an M.2 SSD probably 500GB or maybe 1TB, but i also want to have a secondary HDD with 1-2TB. Using this PC now i realize 1TB is just not enough for me so i want to have more storage, but i dont want to spend so much on getting an SSD above 1TB, and HDDs in general are cheaper. The current HDD im using, i have been using for about 11 years. From what i know HDDs livespan is considered to be 5 years. Yet i havent really had any issues with my HDD. Is it a bad idea to reuse it as that secondary HDD in the new drive layout? Is HDD failure one of those that just come out completely out of nowhere and suddenly stops working without hinting at it beforehand?
Windows Update Lingering Failed Installs
I have 2 lingering installations that fail over and over after they were initially installed just fine. Is there any way to "clear" these out? I've tried a myriad of "fixes" from research but none have succeeded from clearing Windows Update database to uninstalling/reinstalling, etc. Anyone have any ideas as Microsoft is not responding after submitting this issue via Feedback Hub months ago. Any help to resolve this is much appreciated.
Windows update (KB5068164) throws an error WINDOWS 10!
Hello everyone! Around October this year I tried updating my PC which resulted in an error I haven't encountered before (screenshots will be uploaded), so I tried google-ing the error and try to understand more about it. Information on the internet suggested that I have a problem with my WinRE (windows recovery environment), so as someone might guess I tried fixing it. I quickly discovered that my WinRE is not even turned on which lead to an ever bigger discovery - my windows recovery partition was either too small or corrupted. It turned out to be the first one (too small). Internet pages like https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5068164-windows-recovery-environment-update-for-windows-10-version-21h2-and-22h2-october-14-2025-8fdc399d-0ac1-4022-81bd-7127e91933ec recommended rebuilding it while making it even bigger than before so you have space for the update which is exactly what I did. There was a link with instructions of course, so https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5028997-instructions-to-manually-resize-your-partition-to-install-the-winre-update-400faa27-9343-461c-ada9-24c8229763bf it is. Well, it did not work. After that I tried solutions from other articles which only made me lose my time on this. My last hope was to install this specific update from the Windows update catalog, however when returning to the first mentioned page (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5068164-windows-recovery-environment-update-for-windows-10-version-21h2-and-22h2-october-14-2025-8fdc399d-0ac1-4022-81bd-7127e91933ec) I saw that the update is registered only in Windows Update service and specifically there. Which means there is no other way to install it other than to just click update in settings. If anyone has had this problem and fixed it somehow, please don't mind sharing your way of dealing with it. People who have not experienced it, but think they might help, everything is greatly appreciated!Tech Community Live: Windows edition
Catch up on the latest in Windows at Microsoft Ignite, then join us with your questions at Tech Community Live! Engineering teams across Windows and Intune will be standing by to answer your questions live with three hours of back-to-back Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) sessions to help you better deploy and manage Windows in your organization. Save the date Select Add to Calendar to save the date and Attend to save your spot, receive event reminders, and participate in the Q&A. Can't make the live event? Post your questions in advance and catch up on answers and insights later in the week. Agenda Time Ask Microsoft Anything about… 8:00 AM PST (4:00 PM UTC) Managing Windows updates 9:00 AM PST (5:00 PM UTC) Managing AI and agents in Windows 9:30 AM PST (5:30 PM UTC) Windows backup and restore options 10:00 AM PST (6:00 PM UTC) Windows accessibility in the enterprise
Surface Pro 10: External USB-Keyboard not working after hibernate since update
Hello everyone, I am looking for a solution (and the cause) of the following problem: First, in brief: On my Surface 10 Pro (for Business, Win 11 Pro 25H2), my external USB keyboard no longer seems to be recognized after hibernation. Unplugging and plugging it back in does not help. The Surface needs to be restarted before the keyboard works properly again. If I disconnect the Type Cover during the error, it is also no longer recognized. Long version: The problem has been going on for about six months now. I've had this computer since then. Even with the previous Surface (Pro 6/7?), various keyboards had to be disconnected and reconnected after hibernation for it to work. Some Surface device users have reported this. On my current device, the error occurred with the 24H2 update. Several clean reinstallations did not improve the situation (I´ve installed the surface app). Only the installation with the prepared image from MS itself for this specific device did not cause the error for just a few weeks. The keyboard had to be disconnected and reconnected, but a restart was not necessary. With the 25H2 update, a restart is now necessary again for the keyboard to work. The error occurs with three different USB keyboards, regardless of whether they are connected directly or plugged into the Surface Hub. I think that when waking up from hibernation, the drivers are no longer loaded properly, but I have not yet found the location where this occurs. MS Support has tried hard to help, but I can't reinstall my work computer after every update. If I disable hibernation, the error only occurs when I leave the device in standby for a long time. However, this increases the start-up time considerably, which is why this is not an option for me and would hinder my work. Does anyone know the cause of the problem and can help me? Best regards, MichaelWindows 11 24H2+ - Dismal SMB performance with 3rd Party Storage
Ever since we have upgraded our machines to 24H2 and 25H2 respectively, we've been seeing very poor SMB performance while reading, saving and copying to both of our Isilon storage clusters when over the WAN. LAN transfers are probably affected, but masked due to low latency. We've engaged Dell support, and they have done a deep dive into the storage logs and have determined that it's either a 24/25H2 thing, or something in the middle network-wise. Older versions of Windows 11 have great SMB performance. When transferring files to Windows Servers of any version, performance is great. We've also noticed that newer Server 2025 instances have the same issue when copying files to the Isilon. Seems like that particular code base of Windows is having issues with 3rd party storage. We've even downgraded SMB dialect to 2.1 and made a host of changes client-side to SMB settings... still seeing the same result. Anyone else experiencing this???Safe place to download Windows 11 26H1 ISO image?
I heard Windows 11 26H1 is available but the ISO image download from Microsoft website is still 25H2. I don't want to enroll in Windows Insider Program on my working PC as it is not stable and might cause issues. I am wondering what is the best place to download Windows 11 26H1 ISO file currently? If you know a safe place to do that, please kindly let me know. ThanksAfter installing KB5065426, access to remote host no longer works with "Invoke-Command -Session"
Hello, we have noticed that after installing the KB5065426 update, there are problems accessing a remote host via Invoke-Command and executing further code in Powershell. Before installing the update, the following code worked to execute a script directly on the target host. $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName $hostname -Credential $credentials Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock $patchScript Once the update is installed, access breaks and you get the following error: Connecting to remote server (hostname) failed with the following error message : Access is denied. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic. CategoryInfo: OpenError: (System.Manageme....RemoteRunspace:RemoteRunspace) [New-PSSession], PSRemotingTransportException FullyQualifiedErrorId : AccessDenied,PSSessionOpenFailed Is there any information available about this? Unfortunately, we currently had to uninstall the update so that existing access to the remote host via “Invoke-Command -Session $session” would work.
