Solved Should I upgrade to 25H2 at this time?

cheaterslick · Nov 5, 2025

Hello,

I'm not one to instantly jump to upgrades but I'm getting a notice offering to update from 24H2 to 25H2.

Is there any must have benefit to doing this? Or can it wait?

Any feedback would be most grateful, thanks

Ghot · Nov 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
Hello,

I'm not one to instantly jump to upgrades but I'm getting a notice offering to update from 24H2 to 25H2.

Is there any must have benefit to doing this? Or can it wait?

Any feedback would be most grateful, thanks

The "update" just downloads and runs the Enablement Package.

25H2 is just 24H2 with some features "enabled".
Those features are already present in 24H2, but disabled.

Make a full OS backup, then use the Enablement Package. If you don't like 25H2, you can restore 24H2 from your backup.

Get ready for Windows 11 version 25H2 - Enablement Package and ISO downloads available

UPDATE 9/30: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/windows-11-version-25h2-now-available.40396/ Windows IT Pro Blog: How easy is it to move to Windows 11, version 25H2? As easy as a quick restart if you're on version 24H2! Today, Windows 11, version 25H2 became available to the Windows Insider...

www.elevenforum.com

Microsoft did the same thing when they went from 22H2 to 23H2.
Like so...

KB5027397 Enablement Package for Windows 11 version 23H2 Feature Update

UPDATE 7/18: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/windows-11-2023-update-version-23h2-is-now-broadly-available-to-all.26877/#post-481661 Microsoft Support: Summary Windows 11, versions 22H2 and 23H2 share a common core operating system with an identical set of system files. Therefore, the new features...

www.elevenforum.com

Sir_George · Nov 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
Hello,

I'm not one to instantly jump to upgrades but I'm getting a notice offering to update from 24H2 to 25H2.

Is there any must have benefit to doing this? Or can it wait?

Any feedback would be most grateful, thanks

I haven't found any "must have" features or security benefits...of course that's just my opinion.

Ghot · Nov 5, 2025

As for me... I don't notice any difference. ^^
Other than the very mild Task Manager bug... 25H2 runs fine.

Note:

And you can completely avoid the Task Manager bug, by closing Task Manager with the "End task" instead of the "X" in the upper right corner.

cheaterslick · Nov 5, 2025

Ghot said:
The "update" just downloads and runs the Enablement Package.

25H2 is just 24H2 with some features "enabled".
Those features are already present in 24H2, but disabled.

Make a full OS backup, then use the Enablement Package. If you don't like 25H2, you can restore 24H2 from your backup.

Get ready for Windows 11 version 25H2 - Enablement Package and ISO downloads available

UPDATE 9/30: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/windows-11-version-25h2-now-available.40396/ Windows IT Pro Blog: How easy is it to move to Windows 11, version 25H2? As easy as a quick restart if you're on version 24H2! Today, Windows 11, version 25H2 became available to the Windows Insider...

www.elevenforum.com

Microsoft did the same thing when they went from 22H2 to 23H2.
Like so...

KB5027397 Enablement Package for Windows 11 version 23H2 Feature Update

UPDATE 7/18: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/windows-11-2023-update-version-23h2-is-now-broadly-available-to-all.26877/#post-481661 Microsoft Support: Summary Windows 11, versions 22H2 and 23H2 share a common core operating system with an identical set of system files. Therefore, the new features...

www.elevenforum.com

It all depends on what features are being enabled. Some may be good, others not so good.

- I'm already reigning in Copilot
- I don't want Recall
- And I'm already wary of having AI to take over my machine eventually giving me less control over it.
- And Bitlocker and OneDrive still need to be disabled.

How does the 25H2 update/upgrade affect them?

Ghot · Nov 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
It all depends on what features are being enabled. Some may be good, others not so good.

- I'm already reigning in Copilot
- I don't want Recall
- And I'm already wary of having AI to take over my machine eventually giving me less control over it.
- And Bitlocker and OneDrive still need to be disabled.

How does the 25H2 update/upgrade affect them?

I didn't get any of those things.
They're all fairly easy to disable or uninstall.

Uninstall and Reinstall OneDrive in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall or reinstall OneDrive for only your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. OneDrive is built-in to Windows 11 by default. With OneDrive, you can sync files and folders between your computer and the cloud, so you can get to your files from anywhere -...

www.elevenforum.com

Completely Disable and Remove Copilot in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to completely disable the Windows Copilot preview feature and remove Copilot from the taskbar, Windows Search, and Microsoft Edge for all users in Windows 11 and Windows 10. Copilot in Windows provides centralized generative AI assistance to your users right from...

www.elevenforum.com

Uninstall or Reinstall Recall in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall or reinstall the Recall feature for all users in Windows 11 on Copilot+ PCs. Recall is an experience exclusive to Copilot+ PCs that will help you easily find and remember things you've seen using natural language. To help provide you with that...

www.elevenforum.com

All the Ancient Secrets are in here...

Windows 11 Tweaks - Leader Board.

These are tweaks I've seen asked for... many times. They are collected here for easy access. All of these and more can be found in the Eleven Forum Tutorials Make sure to read the "notes" in the various tutorials. At the bottom of the first post in all the "tutorials", there are links to...

www.elevenforum.com

The "trick" to the tutorials is read everything in the tutorial a time or two, till it makes sense.
@Brink puts everything or a link to things, that you need to know, in every tutorial,
...along with pertinent notes and warnings.

cheaterslick · Nov 5, 2025

Ghot said:
I didn't get any of those things.
They're all fairly easy to disable or uninstall.

Thing is I only upgraded to 24H2 last month. Given all the problems with it that I've been reading about, I put it off until the last minute. That's why I'm wary of diving into 25H2 so soon.

Besides locked features. are there any fixes to 24H2 that are included with this?

Ghot · Nov 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
are there any fixes to 24H2 that are included with this?

Yes there are. That's why the regulars have all moved on to 25H2. ^^

I bought this old comp, for my internet romps
The wifey, she wanted one too
I got them to run, for our digital fun
With that ol' 25 - H2

Gimme that good old 25 - H2
Them that refuse it are few
I'll not yell and stomp if you fill up my comp
With that ol' 25 - H2

Our comps are fast, and we need them to last
I'm hoping, for one year or two
I grease up their parts, each day 'fore we start
With that ol' 25 - H2

Gimme that good old 25 - H2
Them that refuse it are few
I'll not yell and stomp if you fill up my comp
With that ol' 25 - H2

To the tune of...

Besides making backups before and after major changes, another thing the regulars do is keep a folder with all the tweaks we've done to Windows, or bookmark the relevant tutorials. So when folks ask questions or if awe ever have to clean install... things go much quicker.

For example, here's some of the Win 11 tweaks I've used...

Aarrooooooo... sorry, full moon.

echo2446 · Nov 5, 2025

Just a regular user with virtually no tweaks here. I've noticed zero difference from 24H2, although I haven't looked for any. I don't use Task Manager, so I am not affected. Copilot on my Intel 12th gen computer doesn't behave any differently.

cheaterslick · Nov 5, 2025

So in everybody's opinion so far, 25H2 runs better than 24H2?

Or there really isn't much of a difference?

Ghot · Nov 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
So in everybody's opinion so far, 25H2 runs better than 24H2?

It's subjective. It "seems" to run smoother to me.
Like I said... make a backup... then there's no worries. ^^

Bree · Nov 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
I don't want Recall

You won't get Recall unless you have a Copilot+ PC. To be a Copilot+PC it requires an NPU capable of more than 40 TOPS.

The only processors that meet those specs are the Arm-based Snapdragon Elite X+, AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, and Intel Core Ultra 200V series.

Microsoft said:
Copilot+ PCs are a new class of Windows 11 hardware powered by a high-performance Neural Processing Unit (NPU) — a specialized computer chip for AI-intensive processes like real-time translations and image generation—that can perform more than 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS).

Copilot+ PCs developer guide

Developer guide for Windows Copilot+ PCs.

learn.microsoft.com

Ghot · Nov 5, 2025

Dirtyflash said:
I have no interest in being a beta tester for MS

25H2 has been released to the stable (non-Insider) channel.

Dirtyflash · Nov 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
Hello,

I'm not one to instantly jump to upgrades but I'm getting a notice offering to update from 24H2 to 25H2.

Is there any must have benefit to doing this? Or can it wait?

Any feedback would be most grateful, thanks

If you're happy with the performance of 24H2, there's no need to upgrade to 25H2, considering it's just an enablement package that takes a few minutes to install. 24H2 is fully supported until about this time next year, by then you'll need to upgrade. I'm still on the 26100.1742 and will stay on until I need to upgrade to 25H2, even then I'll probably just stick with the public release build .iso I've downloaded for the 2 years it's supported, I have no interest in being a beta tester for MS with each monthly update, which can bring features that are of no use, or necessity.

glasskuter · Nov 5, 2025

While there not much difference in 24h2 and 25h2 NOW, without using the enablement package and actually getting to 25h2, you won't get the features planned for 25h2 such as new start menu. A difference I have noticed is that on all 3 of my machines, there is a noticeable smoother transition from page to page when using file explorer in 25h2.

Why put off getting 25h2 since you will eventually have to get it anyway if you want to continue to get updates. Makes no sense to me. Just like it made no sense that people hung onto Windows 10 until the last minute.

cheaterslick · Nov 5, 2025

glasskuter said:
While there not much difference in 24h2 and 25h2 NOW, without using the enablement package and actually getting to 25h2, you won't get the features planned for 25h2 such as new start menu.

The update (or upgrade) that appears makes no mention of any enablement package. It looks like it just goes straight from 24H2 to 25H2 without any prerequisite updates, service stacks or anything else. It might immediately install something additional after I upgrade, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

glasskuter said:
A difference I have noticed is that on all 3 of my machines, there is a noticeable smoother transition from page to page when using file explorer in 25h2.

glasskuter said:
Why put off getting 25h2 since you will eventually have to get it anyway if you want to continue to get updates.

Yeah, but I like to have other people deal with any bugs before I have to.

Some people like the challenge of those kind of headaches, but I don't.

glasskuter said:
Makes no sense to me. Just like it made no sense that people hung onto Windows 10 until the last minute.

They didn't want to have to buy new computers when the old ones were still working perfectly fine, that's why. I still have my old 2019 Windows 10 Pro machine and added ESR to it last week, giving me another year to use it. After that, we'll see...

Ghot · Nov 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
The update (or upgrade) that appears makes no mention of any enablement package. It just goes straight from 24H2 to 25H2 without any prerequisite updates,

The 1st sentence in post #2, explains that.

All of 25H2 is already IN 24H2. The Enablement Package (no matter which way you get it), just "enables" the 25H2 features.
The Enablement Package and the "update" do the same thing.
The only difference is one does it automatically, the other does it manually.

And the best part... even after running the Enablement Package... most of the features that get "enabled" only rollout... "gradually".
So you probably won't "see" them at first.

A perfect example is the new Start Menu. I'd say only about 10% of the folks that moved to 25H2, have seen it... yet.

You're worried about.... nothing.

Marcus Vinicus · Nov 5, 2025

I'm running 25H2 on my two machines. The Asus laptop (1 year old) has been upgraded from 23H2 > 24h2 > 25H2 (release preview channel).
The desktop PC (specs listed below) has had a full clean install of 25H2 (general public release builds). I've currently got no issues on either machine and am happy with 25H2.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a beta tester for Microsoft.

cheaterslick · Nov 5, 2025

Ghot said:
The 1st sentence in post #2, explains that.

I dunno, it seems kind of misleading to me. If they just called it a Service Pack (SP1, SP2, ...) it would make a lot more sense.

Ghot · Nov 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
I dunno, it seems kind of misleading to me. If they just called it a Service Pack (SP1, SP2, ...) it would make a lot more sense.

We've all gone through that, way back in Windows 10.
MS writes Windows. They decided to call Service Packs.... Feature Updates. Same difference.

Solved Should I upgrade to 25H2 at this time?

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

aka Mama Glass

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Semper paratus

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Similar threads

My Computers

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers