Safe Windows 11 22H2 link available?

JPowers · Jan 10, 2024

Hello,

I just bought a new HP laptop and did a clean install of the latest version of Windows (23H2). At first, the driver download page for my laptop was down for about a week, but when they finally fixed it, the only driver choices given are "Windows 11" or "Windows 11 version 22H2 (64-bit)." The driver numbers are all identical, though. When I install the drivers, starting with the chipset, the files don't install properly and there's no confirmation dialog, only the extraction to the folder, followed by the spinning blue cursor. Some missing devices are filled in when I view the device manager, but quite a few are missing or are probably not installed properly, most importantly the video driver.

As a temporary fix, I thought I'd try downloading 22H2, but I can't find an official download. Someone else posted an Internet Archive link here:

Windows 11 x64 22H2 Build-22622 English Multiple Edition OEM ISO : Mircrosoft : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

I'm in the process of downloading the ISO (It's slow!). My question is if this is safe, and if not, how would I go about obtaining a clean 22H2 ISO directly from Microsoft? Thanks for the help.

This is the laptop in question, by the way...

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/hp-pavilion-plus-16-inch-laptop-pc-16-ab0000/model/2101718082?sku=7Y8V1AV

garlin · Jan 10, 2024

Actually if you extract the download links from both of HP's listed support pages (W11 & W11 22H2), the driver files are identical.

No need to find a genuine 22H2 image. 23H2 is just 22H2 with a different UI enabled on top of existing 22H2 updates, it doesn't require a whole different set of drivers.

JPowers · Jan 10, 2024

garlin said:
Actually if you extract the download links from both of HP's listed support pages (W11 & W11 22H2), the driver files are identical.

No need to find a genuine 22H2 image. 23H2 is just 22H2 with a different UI enabled on top of existing 22H2 updates, it doesn't require a whole different of drivers.

Thank you, but you misunderstood my post. Both sets of drivers don't work with 22H3. I've tried that. I'm trying to troubleshoot by downloading the 22H2 ISO, then using the 22H2 drivers before contacting HP. I've never had this problem before.

JPowers · Jan 10, 2024

For example, the Synaptics driver says "This driver is not supported on this OS version (10.0.22631)." So, back to my original question, can someone please help me find 22H2, so I can at least give it a try?

garlin · Jan 10, 2024

Use AveYo's MediaCreationTool script.

MediaCreationTool.bat/MediaCreationTool.bat at main · AveYo/MediaCreationTool.bat

Universal MCT wrapper script for all Windows 10/11 versions from 1507 to 21H2! - AveYo/MediaCreationTool.bat

github.com

Click the "down arrow over a tray" icon on the gray header bar's right corner to download the file. Run as Administrator.
This will download an older version of Media Creation Tool and create a legitimate 22H2 ISO.

JPowers · Jan 11, 2024

garlin said:
Use AveYo's MediaCreationTool script.

MediaCreationTool.bat/MediaCreationTool.bat at main · AveYo/MediaCreationTool.bat

Universal MCT wrapper script for all Windows 10/11 versions from 1507 to 21H2! - AveYo/MediaCreationTool.bat

github.com

Click the "down arrow over a tray" icon on the gray header bar's right corner to download the file. Run as Administrator.
This will download an older version of Media Creation Tool and create a legitimate 22H2 ISO.

You're amazing, thank you! I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.

Ghot · Jan 11, 2024

You could also...

category:w11-22h2 - Browse known builds

category:w11-22h2 - Browse known builds on UUP dump. UUP dump lets you download Unified Update Platform files, like Windows Insider updates, directly from Windows Update.

uupdump.net

It downloads a tool that will build a 22H2 ISO, one click.

This is what you just downloaded.
Extract and double click the file in RED box to build the ISO...

It will take a while to build the ISO. The command prompt window will "seem" to have finished, about half way through. Wait till it "tells" you it's finished.
It will say something like... "Press zero to exit" when it's really finished.

garlin · Jan 11, 2024

Looking at HP's driver set for Synaptics, they're enforcing an arbitrary 22621 version check in the install batch script, but the actual driver version (19.5.35.94) matches with Microsoft Update Catalog's available driver for 21H2 systems (19.5.35.84).

Personally, I'd say HP's QA team is ~~lazy~~ wrong.
They're disallowing a driver version that's close to the one Windows Update might offer you.

I would just un-(7-zip) the SP driver files, and from Device Manager manually import the INF files from the extracted folders.

JPowers · Jan 11, 2024

Ghot said:
You could also...

Thank you for the link. Someone else on another forum posted that website, but I wasn't able to find out which included the full version and not just the update files. Garlin's script worked, so I'm ok for now. This is good information, thank you!

garlin said:
Looking at HP's driver set for Synaptics, they're enforcing an arbitrary 22621 version check in the install batch script, but the actual driver version (19.5.35.94) matches with Microsoft Update Catalog's available driver for 21H2 systems (19.5.35.84).

Personally, I'd say HP's QA team is ~~lazy~~ wrong.
They're disallowing a driver version that's close to the one Windows Update might offer you.

I would just un-(7-zip) the SP driver files, and from Device Manager manually import the INF files from the extracted folders.

Everything installed and updated fine last night on 22H2. Thank you so much! Nothing was missing from device manager, except for "HP Application Enabling Software Driver, which I don't recall the ID of, but Windows Update installed it for me. (Someone on HP's support forum posted a link to the driver, but I decided to see if updating would take care of it.)

I'm not impressed with my experience with HP, so far. The laptop is really well built, but not having drivers install properly in a new PC/laptop is something I've never experienced before. Only after a PC becomes obsolete have I had problems with drivers, but that's rare. It wasn't just Synaptics, though. Synaptics was the only driver that gave me the error message. There were several things missing in the device manager and the NVidia driver didn't install at all. I had to manually right click, then select update driver. Even then, it didn't install the control panel until I connected to the internet.

Absolutely none of the drivers gave me any indication that they were done installing, nor did they tell me to reboot, which I did anyway out of habit. You just click, a window pops up confirming that you want to install the driver, it extracts, then nothing happens other than the spinning blue circle next to the cursor. There was absolutely no confirmation that the drivers had been installed. It's bizarre. When I'd try to reboot a few times, it would tell me that something was still open/running. Have you heard of this before? (Not the reboot dialog, but the lack of confirmation.) I've owned Dell, Asus, Lenovo, and HP years ago, but this has never happened to me.

I suspect that this is a fairly new laptop, so hopefully things will improve. I intend to contact HP and tell them about my experience. By the way, although it's running well and fully updated, Windows Update didn't offer me a copy of 22H3, which I found interesting.

Ghot · Jan 11, 2024

JPowers said:
but I wasn't able to find out which included the full version and not just the update files

The full versions are the ones that don't say: Update Preview.

JPowers · Jan 12, 2024

Ghot said:
The full versions are the ones that don't say: Update Preview.

That's what I thought, but the link the guy provided here only allowed me to download a few small files. I didn't check the file size until today and it's only something like 17kb:

Select language for Windows 11, version 22H2 (22621.3007) amd64

Select language for Windows 11, version 22H2 (22621.3007) amd64 on UUP dump. UUP dump lets you download Unified Update Platform files, like Windows Insider updates, directly from Windows Update.

uupdump.net

I assumed these were just the update files because it downloaded so fast. I didn't realize they were that small, so maybe it's a bad link?

Ghot · Jan 12, 2024

JPowers said:
That's what I thought, but the link the guy provided here only allowed me to download a few small files. I didn't check the file size until today and it's only something like 17kb:

Select language for Windows 11, version 22H2 (22621.3007) amd64

Select language for Windows 11, version 22H2 (22621.3007) amd64 on UUP dump. UUP dump lets you download Unified Update Platform files, like Windows Insider updates, directly from Windows Update.

uupdump.net

I assumed these were just the update files because it downloaded so fast. I didn't realize they were that small, so maybe it's a bad link?

No... you are just downloading a "tool" like MCT, but non-Microsoft tool.
"Building" the ISO will take about 30 minutes.

When it's all done... the ISO will be about 5-6GB

JPowers · Jan 13, 2024

Ghot said:
No... you are just downloading a "tool" like MCT, but non-Microsoft tool.
"Building" the ISO will take about 30 minutes.

When it's all done... the ISO will be about 5-6GB

I wish I had known that, thank you. So, running one of the files within the small download will download and create the ISO using files from Microsoft directly?

Ghot · Jan 14, 2024

JPowers said:
I wish I had known that, thank you. So, running one of the files within the small download will download and create the ISO using files from Microsoft directly?

Yeah.... the file in the RED box, shown in the small picture in post #17

zbook · Jan 14, 2024

For Windows / Synaptics problems please report them using the feedback hub.

Windows 11, version 23H2 known issues and notifications

View announcements and review known issues and fixes for Windows 11, version 23H2

learn.microsoft.com

Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app - Microsoft Support

Learn how to use Feedback Hub to report problems or send suggestions to Microsoft.

support.microsoft.com

garlin · Jan 14, 2024

zbook said:
For Windows / Synaptics problems please report them using the feedback hub.

Why? It's the HP driver repack that's actually broken.
It's hard-coded to only allow installation on 22621, and not 22621 or later.

SP149318 / install.cmd

Code:

REM  Detect OS version
set os_ver=
for /f "tokens=1,2 delims== " %%i in ('wmic os get version /value') do (if /i %%~i == version set "os_ver=%%~j")
if not defined os_ver echo [%date%][%time%][%~dpnx0] Could not get OS version >> %Logpath% & goto fail
ECHO [%date%][%time%][%~dpnx0] Detected OS version : [%os_ver%] >> %Logpath%

REM ================== Check if OS is 22621 ==================
ECHO [%date%][%time%][%~dpnx0] Check if OS version has met requirement >> %Logpath%
IF /I [%os_ver%] EQU [10.0.22621] echo [%date%][%time%][%~dpnx0] OS version match. >> %Logpath% & goto Install_DRV

echo [%date%][%time%][%~dpnx0] OS version missmatch. >> %Logpath%
goto unsupport_OS

Catalog version:

Microsoft Update Catalog

zbook · Jan 14, 2024

Please open device manager > expand mouse and other pointing devices > right click on synaptics > left click properties > click driver tab > post an image or share link > click details tab > under properties scroll to hardware IDs > post an image or share link

JPowers · Jan 14, 2024

Ghot said:
Yeah.... the file in the RED box, shown in the small picture in post #17

I'm sorry man. I wasn't trying to be annoying and spoon-fed. I didn't actually follow your instructions because I had already run the script garlin gave me to download 22H2. I was just asking for future reference, because that's a handy website. Thank you, I appreciate the help.

JPowers · Jan 14, 2024

zbook said:
Please open device manager > expand mouse and other pointing devices > right click on synaptics > left click properties > click driver tab > post an image or share link > click details tab > under properties scroll to hardware IDs > post an image or share link

Thank you for responding, but I'm just running 22H2 for now. I don't mind waiting for the update.