Windows 11-24H2 installations with certain update statuses can no longer install further updates. Only a manual correction will help.
Last Christmas, a problem with Windows 11 24H2 installations became known that they cannot install further updates if they were installed from an installation medium with certain update statuses. Microsoft has now given up looking for an automated solution to this problem or developing a fix-it tool – The only option available to those affected is manual correction.
Microsoft has confirmed this decision by setting the entry in the Windows Release Health announcements to “resolved”. Specifically, the problem description is that a Windows 11 installation on version 24H2, which was installed from a CD (sic) or USB drive with integrated October or November updates from 2024, can no longer install any further security updates. This also includes media created with the Windows Media Creation Tool at those times. However, installations that have downloaded the updates via Windows Update and applied them do not have this problem.
Windows update dropouts: only manual solution available
The entry on the problem from Microsoft has had the status “resolved” since the end of last week. However, it still only contains the previous workaround as a solution: The problem can be solved by overinstalling with an installation medium that contains at least the security updates from December 2024 – i.e. was created from December 10, 2024 –. Microsoft does not mention a fix-it tool, script or other options, such as registry changes.
Such an updated medium can be created with the Windows Media Creation Tool, which is available on Microsoft’s Windows 11 download website. This either downloads an ISO file that can be transferred to DVD or creates a bootable USB stick with the Windows installation; this should have at least 8 GB of space.
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/55122353
What a hot mess Windows has become. It’s over, Microsoft. Give it up. Your precious hacks on top of hacks on top of half-ass fixes on top of even more hacks of half-ass fixes has finally become unfixable.
It’s time to move on.
Are you suggesting the build a new OS from the ground up? It’d certainly be interesting
That manual correction: installing Linux.
I manually corrected mine with Mint, 10/10, do recommend.
I REALLY want to see normies “manually correct” their machines after bragging with Windows supremacy for so long
Normies don’t tend to perform OS installs from slipstreamed update media.
normies
bragging with Windows supremacy
I don’t think that’s as common as you think it is. Most Windows users see Windows as part of the computer, a tool to get the job done. As a DIY’er (basically a tool normie) I don’t brag about the supremacy of my Kobalt tools, I just drill the damn hole
As far as I know a lot of Windows users are unhappy with Windows itself but can’t/won’t make the switch for various reasons. I don’t mean them, they are usually very nice.
I mean those people who judge you for not using Windows because “Linux is crap because of drivers and updates” (as if those were uncomplicated/unproblematic on Windows) and then blame every tiny inconvenience on Linux. One dude I used to play games with topped it when they blamed my Linux distro for him experiencing lags claiming Linux was “messing with the game server” (before that they used to say “switch back to Windows” every time I encountered lags or similar).
Most users could work with Linux without problems. They are using their browser, maybe a mail client and maybe some office suite to write stuff. If you mention this on the internet, there will always be someone who shows up and complains that his personal workflow with some obscure software that powers the nuclear reactor that he is running as hobby in his home won’t work with Linux.
It’s kind of the same with discussions about commuting/bicycles/cars. If you’re discussing that maybe more people could commute by bike, the same people will show up and complain that this would not be possible for them because they live on a remote mountain top in the scorching desert far away from civilization and it’s raining every day where they live.
MS Office’s lie of WYSIWYG and the idiotic requirements to follow absurdly complicated formatting guidelines and them not rendering the same from system to system or even correctly is the most brutal offender. If we used simplistic markdown without page-breaking in the GUI, there could’ve been no point to buy Office, but we don’t, and itso hsppens I had encountered many times where some arbitrary cosmetic request like ‘you can’t have less than X lines per page’ caused people toy with formatting or rewriting their documents… only for it showing differently on the other side >:ç Thus leading to even worse things like PDF.
It being the most used piece of office software renders the voluntary switch close to impossible.
Let’s be honest: That totally is a monopolistic tactic of Microsoft and regulators would do great to force this open. Force them to release a Linux Office. Force them to really make their file format transparent so that everybody can write working parsers
I agree. They need to be either pressured or abandoned.
I feel like they would need to rewrite it completely in that case, partially because no one knows how their legacy code works and partially because it’s completely broken.
Google with it’s billions and a promise of more free data did great with how office formats work. They set some little limits of what user can do compared to MS Word so ending up with a broken table or whatever is harder, and they aslo strong-armed their way into adoption with their obvious mechanics of real-time collaboration.
I’m not sure about MS users coming to Linux, but their marketshare was already bled by Google. And if in some scenario Google releases their own internal XML format for these, I guess it’d work too.
If you can only do X and Y is marginally similar how easy do you think it is to switch to Y?
I have customers that are unable to handle cables I described in great detail. They are afraid. Trying to push them to do anything is hard af.Some of them just don’t want to take responsibility if they do something wrong under your instructions.
It’s more of a prison for me. I just had to buy a new Win11 machine cause the software I depend on is cutting Win10 operation this year. Sucks
Welp, guess I won’t be able to fix my Windows install
I made the switch too! I bought a MacBook! After 40 years of MS OSes, Outlook-online and Windows 11 made me quit. And so far so good!
Microsoftatemyface
- Manually insert USB drive with bootable Linux ISO of choice
- …
- Profit!
2 is usually install, using a live version of Linux kinda sucks.
“Consent required for free use” I doubt this is legal in the EU.
I just copy pasted the article into the post so people can read it without having to consent
It sadly is, or at least the data protection agencies don’t act against it. They only declared it illegal under the digital services act for big gatekeepers like facebook.
That could mean 2 things ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
That’s just what I like to see from an OS developer. “We fucked it up, but dunno how to fix it…”
IMO, to keep Windows competitive with Linux they need a complete rewrite from absolute scratch. It’s realistically the only way that’s going to keep Microsoft on top in the long term. And they’ll never do it because of how expensive it’ll be.
the only way that’s going to keep Microsoft on top in the long term.
You underestimate the complacency of the masses.
I rather think you do.
There will come a point where working around Windows quirks takes up more time than it does to simply seek and learn something else. This is organically how most people seek to find alternatives to software and begin to jump ship.
This is why PHP, as a programming language was replaced. Despite its popularity it became increasingly inconvenient to use. As such, they created other languages to replace it. They took the time to create an entirely new development language to sidestep the inconvenience of using PHP…
The same will eventually happen to Windows. Unquestionably.
There’s a massive difference between the average Windows user and the average PHP developer. It’s a false equivalence.
The regular computer user who just needs their apps to run won’t likely make the effort to enter an entirely new ecosystem as long as those apps run. Even with the most user-friendly distros, the barrier of entry is still high. And when their apps break? They’ll reinstall Windows or pay someone else to fix it.
I love shitting on Microsoft as much as the next penguin, but they’re not idiots. Even if some of their decisions are questionable, Windows is still a major part of their business, and they won’t just let it degrade to a point where Linux converts are a significant threat to their profit.
(I did not downvote you, by the way, that was someone else)
There’s a massive difference between the average Windows user and the average PHP developer. It’s a false equivalence.
Yeah, except I’m not equating developers to end-users. I’m equating the two situations at hand. Because they’re equivalent situations…
This. 😄
They rewrote the taskbar and Start menu for Windows 11, and left out stuff like being able to move the taskbar or even have separate taskbar items for each instance of an application. Rewriting the whole OS would be a disaster.
It’s the only possible solution. The issue with Windows version to version is they merge shit into the base without worrying about how it affects the codebase as a whole. That’s why we have 2-3 different ways to access different menus.
My guess is that they’ll keep adding to WSL until Windows is just a legally ambiguous closed-source wrapper around Linux. They’ll make the GPL’d part so convoluted that they’re the only organization able to maintain it, which will force people to continue using their proprietary wrapper. Basically Android but for PCs.
It’s entirely possible.
You should never rewrite a large program:
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/
I’ve been developing software for likely longer than you’ve been alive.
That article you posted makes a supposition; that the developer is just misreading existing code to be poor when it’s actually really good–which is absolutely not the case with Windows…
I’m approaching 60.
How old are you? I’m guessing you are like 40. You don’t even know who Joel is.
It’s bad form to attack me personally instead of the argument.
Joel addressed your argument that the code is misread throughout the entire essay. Code is easier to write than read.
Stating the fact that I’ve been in development for longer than most people I converse with have been alive isn’t attacking anyone. If you feel attacked by someone because they have a difference of opinion, then you need to go outside.
You don’t even know who Joel is.
I know who Spolsky is. I just don’t have an overabundant need to blow smoke up his ass like his word is that of Gods.
Joel addressed your argument that the code is misread throughout the entire essay.
Go get your reading glasses and go back to reread my previous post. It’s not my argument that code is misread. I was literally directly quoting him. So if Joel says it, it’s the word of God to you, but you misinterpret something I’m saying (which he’s actually saying) and now all of a sudden you have an issue with it?
That’s pretty telling that maybe your reverence for Joel is getting in the way of your brains thinky-thinky party.
My age isn’t important to the argument. That’s not an opinion.
I noticed now that I posted my age you didn’t respond with yours.
Go get your reading glasses
You can’t get past personal attacks. First it was I’m too young. When that attack didn’t work, it’s now I’m too old.
Unless you work at Microsoft on the code, you have absolutely no basis for your claim that the entire code base should be thrown out. I use Linux. There are frequent bugs that require me to type in a command manually to work around. It would be insane to claim that all of Linux (I’m also referring to all the gnu tools, window managers etc) should be thrown out and start fresh.
My age isn’t important to the argument.
I didn’t bring up your age to make an argument about it. I simply pointed out that I’ve likely been developing software longer than you’ve been alive and to my credit this statement is almost always true, especially given that very few in their 60s would use a federated social platform, it’s a reasonable assumption. You’re the one who made it about age–and you keep doing so in your replies.
I noticed now that I posted my age you didn’t respond with yours.
Why do you feel entitled to know my age?
You can’t get past personal attacks.
You’re the one fixating on age, and you clearly misread my initial post. You’re counter-arguing against the source you provided, misrepresenting and misunderstanding what your own source said. You’re only arguing against those points because you mistakenly thought I had made them. So, I responded in kind. In typical boomer fashion, you entered this thread dismissive of others, framed everything around your age as if it automatically makes you right, and now blame others for your misunderstandings. Truly a sight to see.
It’s objectively true that building on a poor foundation is a bad idea and it’s also objectively true that sometimes if the foundation is bad enough it’s easier to simply rebuild the whole damn thing from scratch than to attempt to patch bad code. As I said, I’ve been a developer for decades. I’m a subject matter expert here. Just because I don’t work for Microsoft doesn’t mean my critique of their monolithic software is invalid.
Unless you work at Microsoft on the code, you have absolutely no basis for your claim that the entire code base should be thrown out.
It’s an opinion backed by decades of expertise with the product. I’ve not only used every single version of Windows extensively, but I also write software for Windows. That’s not experience you can casually dismiss. I don’t need to work at Microsoft to recognize that its poorly designed from the ground up and that each new version builds on a flawed foundation.
I use Linux. There are frequent bugs that require me to type in a command manually to work around. It would be insane to claim that all of Linux (I’m also referring to all the gnu tools, window managers etc) should be thrown out and start fresh.
Calling your operating system “Linux”–when Linux is just the kernel and not the OS–doesn’t really help your argument here.
Moreover, the various Linux distributions have a strong foundation around the linux kernel. Windows does not. I don’t understand how anyone could seriously argue otherwise.
There was absolutely no reason to bring up that you were coding longer than I was alive other than to imply that your age is a reason why the argument is invalid.
Funny how you use your age as an argument but see it as entitled when I point out the reverse.
Calling your operating system “Linux”–when Linux is just the kernel and not the OS–doesn’t really help your argument here.
I specifically referenced Gnu tools, window managers, etc. What is wrong with you?
I think they’re more likely to just ditch consumer OS’ entirely. Its not their moneymaker anymore, that’d be cloud service subscriptions (O365 and Azure) and enterprise licensing. Hell, they’d probably have huge success with VDIs if they could market it right (until an internet outage hits the wrong person)
