24H2 Upgrade via Windows Update, major mess now

Every time i get the urge to update to 24H2 i come here and have a read through the problems.
I might leave it 6 months i think.

Both my computers are now updated to 24H2 26100.2454 using Windows Update.

I use a Microsoft 365 subscription.
I use OneDrive on both computers.
I use BitLocker on both computers.

All has gone smoothly with no problems.

TraderGary said:

Both my computers are now updated to 24H2 26100.2454 using Windows Update.

I use a Microsoft 365 subscription.
I use OneDrive on both computers.
I use BitLocker on both computers.

All has gone smoothly with no problems.

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I have a question. Don't you basically use microsoft office and a stock trading app? Is that the only programs you use on your machine? No disrespect intended I am just curious.

I have a lot of programs and dabble in virtual machines, games etc so it's not surprising you don't have any issues imho.

That said, I have not been offered it through windows update yet, so when I do get it I will have to see if I have any issues.

I know at my work here we blocked it as it was causing significant problems with certain applications after we did some testing. As well as some bugs that have been quite frustrating. Mainly in the UI

andrew129260 said:

I have a question. Don't you basically use microsoft office and a stock trading app? Is that the only programs you use on your machine? No disrespect intended I am just curious.

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Yes, Microsoft Office and Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation are used every day. I actively use OneDrive every day. I use Microsoft OneNote every day. Like most forum members, I use a broad suite of Windows utilities. I'm an active amateur photographer and have an Adobe Photography subscription. I work a good bit with Lightroom and Photoshop. I worked a few decades ago as a corporate Microsoft Windows software engineer and I still dabble a bit with Visual Studio, C#, and C++. I make a Macrium Reflect X image of System One every evening. I do use a VM for testing. I'm a very active computer user. I'm not a gamer and don't play any games.

andrew129260 said:

I have a lot of programs and dabble in virtual machines, games etc so it's not surprising you don't have many issues imho.

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I like to think that I don't have many issues because I don't feel a need to hack the OS.

andrew129260 said:

That said, I have not been offered it through windows update yet, so when I do get it I will have to see if I have any issues.

I know at my work here we blocked it as it was causing significant problems with certain applications after we did some testing. As well as some bugs that have been quite frustrating. Mainly in the UI

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I've worked from my own home for several decades, so I don't have any corporate support requirements. I report only to my wife!

TraderGary said:

Like most forum members, I use a broad suite of Windows utilities..........
.....I worked a few decades ago as a corporate Microsoft Windows software engineer

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Thats awesome :)

TraderGary said:

I like to think that I don't have many issues because I don't feel a need to hack the OS.

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I don't really modify my OS either. I do change a lot of settings from the default, do some simple reg key changes and things like that, but I don't remove or modify windows core files or add third party programs to replace the start menu or things like that. I have some minor issues every now and then (usually a programs fault and not a windows one), but it is never as drastic as some other people report on here. I never had a windows update fail on my personal machine except that one time I posted here. Luckily repair install fixed it. However, work environments and other people's machines I have experienced it of course.

It does make me wonder. I think a lot of the time it comes down to badly written drivers and software, and things like that. I frankly am amazed how well windows works at all considering the amount of configurations there are. Having said that, I think microsoft definitely can improve their handling of certain things. There are a lot of aspects of windows that should be better explained or have more options.

I do run into people having problems with windows a lot, but that's my job.

andrew129260 said:

It does make me wonder. I think a lot of the time it comes down to badly written drivers and software, and things like that. I frankly am amazed how well windows works at all considering the amount of configurations there are. Having said that, I think microsoft definitely can improve their handling of certain things. There are a lot of aspects of windows that should be better explained or have more options.

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@andrew129260 I agree with these comments 100%. It is mind boggling to me to open up Sysinternals System Monitor and observe how much is going on inside Windows every fraction of a second, even when it is supposedly at 'idle'. Amazing that Windows works at all.

Re your comments how MS have handled the introduction of 24H2 I feel strongly they should be making it much clearer to users that 24H2 is a major update to the OS. They are significant changes at the heart of the OS including real changes to driver frameworks and models. Not surprising there are some having driver issues.

I have had no issues re upgrading to and using 24H2 on two computers. My desktop PC gets used all day every day and gets a bit of hammering at times. When I upgraded my new Asus Vivobook to 24H2 two days ago I had already decided I wasn't going to wait for Windows Updates to do it for me as I wanted more control over the process. I used the Windows 11 Installation Assistant to update from 23H2 to 26100.1742.

I do think it is critical for ALL users of Windows 11 to have a full system image backup of their computers. I have three such backups of my computers updated weekly on multiple external drives.

One tip for anyone planning to update to 24H2 (not using Windows Update) is disconnect all external devices (except mice and keyboards) from the computer before starting.

andrew129260 said:

<snip>

I do run into people having problems with windows a lot, but that's my job.

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I end up doing a good bit of support for family and friends. I fully appreciate what you do.

TraderGary said:

worked a few decades ago as a corporate Microsoft Windows software engineer

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you as well

Marcus Vinicus said:

Re your comments how MS have handled the introduction of 24H2 I feel strongly they should be making it much clearer to users that 24H2 is a major update to the OS. They are significant changes at the heart of the OS including real changes to driver frameworks and models. Not surprising there are some having driver issues.

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Even if you tell them the average user would not understand it or get it. Most of them don't know how to adjust their computer settings at all.

This is a hot take, but in my personal opinion, the average user should not be using windows at all unless they need a specific windows only program for some reason. (Or a gamer)

In my personal opinion, (don't shoot me!) I really think most people should have chromebooks, or some other stripped down OS. Macs are fine as well but they are insanely pricey. (That new m4 mac mini is nice though - for apple anyway, good price on that)

The average person I see everyday uses their computer as just a bigger web browser, and you just don't need a big OS like windows or mac OS for that. The security concerns and everything can be avoided by just not using them. Malware, botnets, and threats alone would be reduced a ton if people were not using these beefy operating systems just so they can use chrome to browse the web. It's ridiculous frankly. The amount of wasted bandwidth on windows updates to update and patch flaws are a ton for something that just isn't needed by the average user.

That is why I give people chromebooks. I give them it, they are good for 5+ years, and I never have to troubleshoot anything ever again. Nothing breaks, they don't get failed updates, or problems with software etc. It just works, and it's dang cheap. It does exactly what most people need a computer for. It handles everyday tasks and you can do a decent amount of things on them. And they don't get malware or anything else scary. The only thing they can get tricked by is the bad ads or scams.

I have a Chromebook and love that thing.

@andrew129260

One of my brothers who isn't a techie/geekie sort of guy upon my recommendation bought a Samsung Android Tablet. Does what he wants and isn't as complex as Windows.

Marcus Vinicus said:

@andrew129260

One of my brothers who isn't a techie/geekie sort of guy upon my recommendation bought a Samsung Android Tablet. Does what he wants and isn't as complex as Windows.

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yup even that or an ipad is better. Chromebooks are even more secure than them though but still thats a huge improvement imho compared to windows for the average joe.

TraderGary said:

Both my computers are now updated to 24H2 26100.2454 using Windows Update.

I use a Microsoft 365 subscription.
I use OneDrive on both computers.
I use BitLocker on both computers.

All has gone smoothly with no problems.

Click to expand...

Are you using your Microsoft Account to login to Windows 11? Just curious.

Lately I have been seeing many Windows users getting their Microsoft Accounts locked out or disabled and this leaves them unable to log in to Windows. This is why I am against using a Microsoft Account to log in to Windows.

Nipdawg said:

Are you using your Microsoft Account to login to Windows 11? Just curious.

Lately I have been seeing many Windows users getting their Microsoft Accounts locked out or disabled and this leaves them unable to log in to Windows. This is why I am against using a Microsoft Account to log in to Windows.

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Not them, but I am using a microsoft account to log into windows. I have 2fa enabled with a hardware security key.

I never had any issues with my microsoft account. I used to use a local account for a long time, but a microsoft account is better for security. Since I have a laptop and take it a ton of places, I want to have the best prevention of the password being reset or bypassed. Microsoft accounts prevent this. A local account can have it's password reset at boot fairly easily making bitlocker pointless.

Having said that, I don't use onedrive or office 365. I have onedrive removed from my windows image.

andrew129260 said:

Not them, but I am using a microsoft account to log into windows. I have 2fa enabled with a hardware security key.

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Good security setup.

andrew129260 said:

[...] Since I have a laptop and take it a ton of places, I want to have the best prevention of the password being reset or bypassed. Microsoft accounts prevent this. A local account can have it's password reset at boot fairly easily making bitlocker pointless.

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Mostly true. In certain conditions with a Windows setup, you can still access the account data. Remember, the Administrator account still exists in Windows 11 and by default the account is disabled. I have access end users data, when requested, even if they had a Microsoft Account used for Windows logins.

andrew129260 said:

Having said that, I don't use onedrive or office 365. I have it set to sign into apps separately and not just set to auto sign into everything.

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I don't like it when a Microsoft Account signs in to everything, as it usually does it automatically then. Controlling logins is good.

Nipdawg said:

Are you using your Microsoft Account to login to Windows 11? Just curious.

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Yes.

Nipdawg said:

Lately I have been seeing many Windows users getting their Microsoft Accounts locked out or disabled and this leaves them unable to log in to Windows. This is why I am against using a Microsoft Account to log in to Windows.

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My Microsoft Account uses Windows Hello. I'm not going to get locked out because I have my face and fingers with me at all times!

TraderGary said:

My Microsoft Account uses Windows Hello. I'm not going to get locked out because I have my face and fingers with me at all times!

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Your identifiers will be accessible, however, if the Microsoft Account cannot authenticate, you cannot login. Just letting know you this because I hate seeing users getting locked out with no recovery.

Nipdawg said:

Mostly true. In certain conditions with a Windows setup, you can still access the account data. Remember, the Administrator account still exists in Windows 11 and by default the account is disabled. I have access end users data, when requested, even if they had a Microsoft Account used for Windows logins.

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Depends if bitlocker is enabled, afaik through the research I have done. I have bitlocker enabled though, and the built in admin account name is changed, and disabled.

Nipdawg said:

Your identifiers will be accessible, however, if the Microsoft Account cannot authenticate, you cannot login. Just letting know you this because I hate seeing users getting locked out with no recovery.

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If they get locked out and have no recovery methods added to their account, that's on them.

andrew129260 said:

Depends if bitlocker is enabled, afaik through the research I have done. I have bitlocker enabled though, and the built in admin account name is changed, and disabled.

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True. Bitlocker is the stopper in accessing data externally. However, if the recovery keys are accessible, then the data is accessible (different scenario).

Nipdawg said:

Your identifiers will be accessible, however, if the Microsoft Account cannot authenticate, you cannot login. Just letting know you this because I hate seeing users getting locked out with no recovery.

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My recovery is BOTH my password and my biometrics. I will NOT be locked out.

BTW I turned OFF my external password. For someone to get into my account externally, that someone has to be me.

TraderGary said:

My recovery is BOTH my password and my biometrics. I will NOT be locked out.

BTW I turned OFF my external password. For someone to get into my account externally, that someone has to be me.

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Same here !!!
In any case I tend to use an Internet proxy / gateway from a Linux NAS so double line of defence too. Disk encryption is a pain if you ever need to recover data from a broken disk.

I can't be bothered with bitlocker, disk encryption etc etc -- if I have HDD / SSD / NVME failure - just replace it and restore data from offline backup. Incidentally HDD /SDD /NVME failures (certainly total failures) are fortunately very rare these days -- also I don't use a laptop now so "theft / loss" of laptop doesn't bother me either. I use several MiniPC's now --I have 1 dedicated to trading so that stuff is all taken care of.

cheers
jimbo