Brand new laptop has outdated 22H2 and Windows update won't give me an upgrade to 23h2 or 24h2. What to do?

antspants said:

You need to be connected to Microsoft at least once when adding a new key to Windows for digital storage. Sorry but I go by Brink.

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I completely agree. I don't think cereberus is refuting this. In fact, if anything, he is pointing out that regardless if you have linked your log in to a Microsoft account or you have chosen to use a local account instead, because the license is stored on the MS activation servers this is the procedure that is used to validate the license. I've seen examples of this where even though I obtained "validation" offline once I connected to the internet MS requested validation yet again. Admittedly, this was on older operating systems but it gave me enough reason to realize that authentication was validated by means of MS servers.

I use my Microsoft Account only for games and apps from Microsoft Store. I use a local account in Windows. My digital license automatically activated Windows when old system was damaged and I had to reinstall it. So local or Microsoft account is irrelevant. One can never sign in with a Microsoft account if he doesn't need apps and games from the Store. Windows will still activate after each new installation. Also no key is needed to reinstall, the official Windows 11 ISO contains both Home and Pro and if the key is embedded in BIOS the appropriate version will be picked. If there is no key in BIOS, just click I don't have a key and you will see a list of versions to select. Just make sure you select the appropriate version Home or Pro and proceed with the installation. Windows will activate automatically when connected to the internet. The version, 21H2, 22H2, 23H2, 24H2 or 25H2 makes no difference, it should activate anyway. If you don't want to make a new installation, you can upgrade first to 24H2 using the ISO and in October to 25H2 using the 25H2 Enablement Package (link will be posted in the respective thread). If you encounter any issues because probably you bypassed compatibility before, just bypass it again to upgrade. When using the 24H2 ISO to upgrade, disconnect from the internet to prevent Windows Update messing with drivers during the process.

PS: 24H2 is infamous for activating BitLocker and silently encrypting your drives on Windows 11 compliant PCs. Make sure you check BitLocker status after the upgrade, decrypt all your drives, if needed and then disable BitLocker to have peace of mind.

spapakons said:

I use my Microsoft Account only for games and apps from Microsoft Store. I use a local account in Windows. My digital license automatically activated Windows when old system was damaged and I had to reinstall it. So local or Microsoft account is irrelevant. One can never sign in with a Microsoft account if he doesn't need apps and games from the Store. Windows will still activate after each new installation. Also no key is needed to reinstall, the official Windows 11 ISO contains both Home and Pro and if the key is embedded in BIOS the appropriate version will be picked. If there is no key in BIOS, just click I don't have a key and you will see a list of versions to select. Just make sure you select the appropriate version Home or Pro and proceed with the installation. Windows will activate automatically when connected to the internet. The version, 21H2, 22H2, 23H2, 24H2 or 25H2 makes no difference, it should activate anyway. If you don't want to make a new installation, you can upgrade first to 24H2 using the ISO and in October to 25H2 using the 25H2 Enablement Package (link will be posted in the respective thread). If you encounter any issues because probably you bypassed compatibility before, just bypass it again to upgrade. When using the 24H2 ISO to upgrade, disconnect from the internet to prevent Windows Update messing with drivers during the process.

PS: 24H2 is infamous for activating BitLocker and silently encrypting your drives on Windows 11 compliant PCs. Make sure you check BitLocker status after the upgrade, decrypt all your drives, if needed and then disable BitLocker to have peace of mind.

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I am the same. I use local account for Windows OS. I still use an MS account for email and Office. Sadly, this gives them enough to wreak havoc on my OS with One Drive. I find myself always having to reconfigure settings and whenever their is an upgrade I have to go through the process all over again. Ideally, MS will find your key but not always. This is why it helps to have a copy of your product key on hand to enter manually. I don't know why this happens but it happened to me once and once is enough.

Thank you for the reminder on Bit Locker. I don't think I checked that on my X299 build. That was a direct ISO install without the help of Rufus so I probably need to check that. Ah well, one PC at a time.

antspants said:

You need to be connected to Microsoft at least once when adding a new key to Windows for digital storage. Sorry but I go by Brink.

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You are confusing an MS account with the MS activation servers. MS accounts are on completely different servers to the MS activation servers.

You can setup an installation without an MS account as a local account, and enter a key and you will get a digital licence so long as you are connected to the internet. Once you enter a valid key in activation setttings, Windows contacts the MS Activation Servers automatically and saves a record of your hardware id (unique to each mobo).

Thereafter if you clean install, Windows checks your hardware id against the activation server records and if it matches, Windows automatically activates.

Of course, it is getting harder to install Windows 11 without using an MS account but it is still possible.

@Brink can confirm the above is correct i.e. you do not need an MS account to get a digital licence.

The MS account link is designed to allow you to transfer the digital licence to a new hardware id. In essence, the link says ays you own digital licences for hardware ids A, B, C. If you login on a new mobo, you can search (in effect) for digital licences belonging to you allowing you to transfer digital licence.

If you use a local account only on a pc, then there is no record of your digital licence in an MS account, and hence it cannot be transferred.

So long as you are reinstalling Windows on same mobo, it is irrelevant if you have a local or MS account.
If you want to transfer the digital licence you need an MS account.

Note the MS link with Windows was introduced 1 year later than 2nd W10 release 1511 release i.e. 1611 and was called anniversary edition, as people complained they lost their licence if they had to replace a failed mobo even though they upgraded from a retail W7/8 licence.

I'm not sure if that's actually correct (at least fr Win 11 Pro > Home editions. I usually install via dism /ApplyImage and choose at the OOBE prompts - school / work computer and for login option Domain join -- works 100% with local account.

It's been ages since I've had to activate Windows -- in the dim and distant past I might have had to use an Ms account to activate Windows but I haven't needed to activate Windows for a long long time in spite of having 4 or 5 different Windows versions. There doesn't seem to be any problem with a digital license. Even if you need to use one for initial Windows activation you can always return to using a local account later. (Again I don't know about W11 Home but certainly for other editions).

Cheers
jimbo

cereberus said:

You are confusing an MS account with the MS activation servers. MS accounts are on completely different servers to the MS activation servers.

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I am not sure why you're assuming I don't know any of this. My question to the OP was in relation to a Microsoft account as they feared losing their OEM license.
I believe I also informed them that it doesn't matter anyway, as the key is almost 100% guaranteed to be embedded.

Microsoft should ask users of their consent before automatically encrypting their drives.

Easy, follow this . . .

Works EVERY TIME.

Upgrade to Windows 11 24H2 from Windows 11 23H2, 22H2 or older on Unsupported Hardware​

This works for both Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Professional.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC657pIDyOc

Trying to learn said:

Hi everyone.

A few days ago, we bought a brand new laptop from a long-standing national company's local store here in Europe. I was very surprised to discover that the Windows 11 Home (OEM) on it is 22H2 (build 22621.4317). I thought that allowing Windows Update to work, without trying to restrict it, would have made it offer me 23H2 or 24H2. But it's not happening. It only says "Get the newer version of Windows to stay up to date. Your version of Windows has reached the end of service. Learn more" The learn more link leads me to a MS page that doesn't explain how I can get 23h2 or 24h2. I don't know what to do, so that I can have an in-service version? (I did the bypass thing during setup so that I could make a local account on it, as we don't need or use MS accounts. But I can't imagine that should be the cause of the problem.) Do you know if there's a simple way for me to upgrade the version on this OEM?

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I found that Currys in the UK sold one of my customers a Lenovo laptop that had Windows 11 Home 22H2 installed. That was not too much of an issue as I simply downloaded the iso for 24H2 and over installed from that.

The MAIN issue was that when I tried to register the laptop with the Lenovo web site it said it was already out of warranty by 18 months.

Why are retailers such as Currys selling old stock as new?

/Mike Williams

MikeWilliams_UK said:

Why are retailers such as Currys selling old stock as new?

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Technically unless it was sold and returned it is new. It's just old stock. If I bought a new computer at full price and found out it was old stock and already out of warranty, I would return it.

MikeWilliams_UK said:

I found that Currys in the UK sold one of my customers a Lenovo laptop that had Windows 11 Home 22H2 installed. That was not too much of an issue as I simply downloaded the iso for 24H2 and over installed from that.

The MAIN issue was that when I tried to register the laptop with the Lenovo web site it said it was already out of warranty by 18 months.

Why are retailers such as Currys selling old stock as new?

/Mike Williams

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I am not sure what is valid for UK, but here in Greece there is the factory Warranty and the final purchase Warranty. The first is two or three years from the manufacture date of the product. The second is two or three years from the date of purchase. So it doesn't matter if the factory Warranty has expired, once you register it is the purchase date that matters and defines the duration of Warranty. Here in Greece not everyone registers their products, but by Law the store is obliged to obey the Warranty from the date of purchase! Similarly, the date a Supplier buys a bunch of products from the manufacturer is valid for their return to the factory, if the factory Warranty has expired. Of course the date of purchase of the FINAL OWNER is valid even if the date of the Supplier or Retailer has expired. This is also true for buying refurbished products. The one year (or whatever duration the Retailer defines) Warranty counts from the date of purchase. You get the idea... So go ahead and register, don't worry. It is from the date YOU purchased that the Warranty duration counts, no the date of the Retailer, not the factory Warranty.

I would have probably taken the device back and goten a replacement. Something is not kosher that a big box store would have devices sitting on a shelf for 3 years and selling them as new. If I paid a "new" price I would be thinking about the 3 year old hardware that came along with the old Windows.

glasskuter said:

Something is not kosher

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Giving it more thought. I wonder if it was purchased, registered then returned back to the store years ago. Items can be repackaged to look like they are still new.

Lenovo laptop warranties start from the date of purchase. Registration isn’t required, and you can check the remaining warranty by entering the serial number.

Celery said:

Lenovo laptop warranties start from the date of purchase. Registration isn’t required, and you can check the remaining warranty by entering the serial number.

View attachment 161465

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The Lenovo Vantage app told me it was out of warranty, so I dug into into it further, that's when I found out that Currys had sold her a laptop that had presumably but not proven knocking around for ages as new.

Scannerman said:

If you prefer to enter your license key manually but don't know what it is try this:

I think it will also work with Win 11

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Wow, I didn't know that. That's pretty sad having to enter that long command line just to get a simple piece of information when it should be under something like "winver" instead. Make it easy for the end user to get to should they need to find out what it is.

There are simpler apps, like ShowKeyPlus available on the Microsoft Store app, or from GitHub.

WMIC is going away in future Windows releases, so this method will eventually stop working.

Winuser said:

Giving it more thought. I wonder if it was purchased, registered then returned back to the store years ago. Items can be repackaged to look like they are still new.

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No need for the shop to repackage the item. It might be some old stock never sold and out of factory Warranty. Who cares? As long as it is the date of the final owner purchase that counts. The item might also be sold cheaper than the original price because it is old. You can't have it all, both a very good price and current Technology. If something is a bargain, then something happens. It is either old unsold stock or refurbished or has some flaw. As long as Warranty starts from date of purchase and is the same duration as similar products, I wouldn't worry. I would be suspicious if Warranty was just one year while similar products have two or three.

MikeWilliams_UK said:

The Lenovo Vantage app told me it was out of warranty, so I dug into into it further, that's when I found out that Currys had sold her a laptop that had presumably but not proven knocking around for ages as new.

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Reading some of the replies about when the base warranty starts I decided to do a search and found this on the Lenovo site. https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht100121

spapakons said:

The item might also be sold cheaper than the original price because it is old.

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IMHO, it' should have been sold at a discount. Would you pay full price for a new car that sat on a lot for years. I know I wouldn't. In fact I bought a new 1988 GMC pickup at the end of the year and saved a couple of thousand dollars.