Windows 23H2 MCTs available, including .ISO

fg2001gf11F · Nov 1, 2023

Keith Weisshar said:
How long does it take for MCT to be updated to build the correct 23H2 ISO instead of the old 22H2 ISO?

MS time, they take forever to do anything.

MCT still created an old 22H2 Build 22621.1702.

To get the 23H2 ISO I had use direct download, the ISO has a big 5.7GiB install.wim.

I will have to split the install.wim to fit on a FAT32 installation USB Flash.

The ISO is 226x1.2428 so it still needs a cumulative update from W.U. to get to 226x1.2506.

Split install.wim to fit in FAT32 media:

Wynona · Nov 1, 2023

CountMike said:
View attachment 76026

Thanks @CountMike.

BrianInEngland · Nov 1, 2023

fg2001gf11F said:
MS time, they take forever to do anything.

MCT still created an old 22H2 Build 22621.1702.
To get the 23H2 ISO I had use direct download, the ISO has a big 5.7GiB install.wim.

I will have to split the install.wim to fit on a FAT32 installation USB Flash.
The ISO is 226x1.2428 so it still needs a cumulative update from W.U. to get to 226x1.2506.

View attachment 76131

Split install.wim to fit in FAT32 media:

View attachment 76132

Can't you use an NTFS partition? I have no trouble booting from and installing Windows with an NTFS drive. In fact my Windows setup folder is stored on an internal NVMe partition, it shows up as an available boot drive. I guess it depends on which motherboard/BIOS is used.

SIW2 · Nov 1, 2023

Depends if the bios will search ntfs partitions, many don't.

One way is to split the wim.

another way is a smallish fat32 partition on the usb stick which contains the folders:
efi
boot
sources
the only thing in the sources folder is boot.wim.

Plus:
the full sources folder copied to the root of a larger ntfs partition. It can be another partition on the usb stick .

That way boot.wim will boot up, when you select "install now" setup.exe searches all drives for the installation media, so it will find it on the ntfs partition.

You can put the full sources on the root of any partition and it should be found.

fg2001gf11F · Nov 1, 2023

BrianInEngland said:
Can't you use an NTFS partition? I have no trouble booting from and installing Windows with an NTFS drive. In fact my Windows setup folder is stored on an internal NVMe partition, it shows up as an available boot drive. I guess it depends on which motherboard/BIOS is used.

Yes, depends on the Bios and the age of the PC.
My old PCs can boot from NTFS even when using UEFI, but not the newer ones.
There are several different ways around the issue but prefer to use a FAT32 USB flash than works on any machine.

pparks1 · Nov 1, 2023

fg2001gf11F said:
MCT still created an old 22H2 Build 22621.1702.
To get the 23H2 ISO I had use direct download, the ISO has a big 5.7GiB install.wim.

I had the same experience.

Did you actually do an install from that larger download? When I installed, it showed 23H2 as installed, but there were lots of things not on the machine that would indicate it's actually 23H2. For example, I had no tabs in notepad. Windows Co-Pilot wasn't there. These things should all be in a clean install of 23H2, right?

fg2001gf11F · Nov 1, 2023

pparks1 said:
I had the same experience.

Did you actually do an install from that larger download? When I installed, it showed 23H2 as installed, but there were lots of things not on the machine that would indicate it's actually 23H2. For example, I had no tabs in notepad. Windows Co-Pilot wasn't there. These things should all be in a clean install of 23H2, right?

Yes, I used it to Upgrade from Windows 10 on a Laptop that is not even supported and got all the features including Copilot.
The Build is 22631.2428, then W.U. go it up to 22631.2506.

Edition Windows 11 Pro
Version 23H2
Installed on ‎11/‎1/‎2023
OS build 22631.2506
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22677.1000.0

pparks1 · Nov 1, 2023

fg2001gf11F said:
Yes, I used it to Upgrade from Windows 10 on a Laptop that is not even supported and got all the features including Copilot.
The Build is 22631.2428, then W.U. go it up to 22631.2506.

Edition Windows 11 Pro
Version 23H2
Installed on ‎11/‎1/‎2023
OS build 22631.2506
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22677.1000.0

Hmm.

I got the 6.2GB ISO file from the direct download. Rather than an upgrade, I setup a VM and installed this ISO clean. ( I used Hyper-V with a gen2 VM) I said that I don't have a product key, and i used a local account on the box rather than using a Microsoft account.

The install went fine, and i ended up with 22631.2428 as shown below.

Yesterday when I ran Windows Update, I didn't have anything. But today when creating this message and getting the screenshot here, I now have an update.

I'm going to load this and see if it changes anything.

pparks1 · Nov 1, 2023

i ran that update and now have 22631.2506.

However, still no tabs in Notepad, no copilot.

fg2001gf11F · Nov 1, 2023

pparks1 said:
i ran that update and now have 22631.2506.

However, still no tabs in Notepad, no copilot.

Did you update the MS Store? The new version of notepad is updated from the store.
Copilot will not show up with a Local Account, I had to switch to MS account verify credentials and reboot.
Once I got Copilot I switched back to my Local account and Copilot remained available.

Keith Weisshar · Nov 1, 2023

The Media Creation Tool still hasn't been updated with 23H2 to the same version as the direct ISO version. It's November 1, 2023 and after 1PM Eastern Time. Clean install of 23H2 will have the new Outlook app preinstalled instead of the old Windows Mail app and it will not have Cortana either. Clean install of the old MCT USB will still have the old Cortana and Mail app which won't be removed during upgrade with Upgrade Assistant. I have already filled out the feedback form at the bottom of the download page requesting the media creation tool to be updated but they haven't done it yet.

pparks1 · Nov 1, 2023

fg2001gf11F said:
Did you update the MS Store? The new version of notepad is updated from the store.

Thank you sir. That's the problem here. I was just using the local account for testing, hadn't used anything in the store yet...so had none of those updates.

I guess I just assumed these changes would be in the OS ISO, not a separate downloadable update from the store.

fg2001gf11F said:
Copilot will not show up with a Local Account, I had to switch to MS account verify credentials and reboot.

Yeah, i setup my testing MS account on my VM and now have co-pilot on the taskbar.

Wisewiz · Nov 1, 2023

Interesting. I haven't logged into my MS account in ages, and am not now logged in, either, but when I updated from 22621.2428 to 23H2 with KB5031455 and the Enablement Package (KB5027397), I had ALL of the features listed in @Brink's initial post about 5031455, and I never had the MS account loaded at all, nor did I have to use the MS Store.

The MS mind works in mysterious ways. Kinda like a lunatic's.

TairikuOkami · Nov 1, 2023

So many expectations, so little to offer, actually nothing really, I guess we will not see any real changes till Windows 12?!

fg2001gf11F · Nov 1, 2023

Keith Weisshar said:
The Media Creation Tool still hasn't been updated with 23H2 to the same version as the direct ISO version. It's November 1, 2023 and after 1PM Eastern Time. Clean install of 23H2 will have the new Outlook app preinstalled instead of the old Windows Mail app and it will not have Cortana either. Clean install of the old MCT USB will still have the old Cortana and Mail app which won't be removed during upgrade with Upgrade Assistant. I have already filled out the feedback form at the bottom of the download page requesting the media creation tool to be updated but they haven't done it yet.

They have to make a different Media Creation Tool because even compressing to install.esd it is bigger than 4GiB.
I think they will have to split the install.wim in two .swm filess to make them fit in a FAT32 installation media.

Bree · Nov 1, 2023

pparks1 said:
However, still no tabs in Notepad, no copilot.

Copilot needs an MS account. Even then that doesn't guarantee you'll get it. Only two out of my three supported 22621.2506 machines have it (and that's not a typo, they already had Copilot in 22H2 22621.2428 and haven't been offered 23H2 in windows Update yet).

Notepad should be easy to sort out though. Open the Store and get an update.

fg2001gf11F · Nov 1, 2023

Bree said:
Copilot needs an MS account. Even then that doesn't guarantee you'll get it. Only two out of my three supported 22621.2506 machines have it (and that's not a typo, they already had Copilot in 22H2 22621.2428 and haven't been offered 23H2 in windows Update yet).

Same happened to one of my machines I had Copilot with 22631.2428 and disappeared with 22631.2506.

Bree · Nov 1, 2023

fg2001gf11F said:
Same happened to one of my machines I had Copilot with 22631.2428 and disappeared with 22621.2506.

Those of mine that had it, still do after getting 22621.2506.

Wisewiz · Nov 1, 2023

Bree said:
Copilot needs an MS account.

I keep seeing this, but my experience contradicts it. I'm on a compliant 23H2 22631.2506 machine, logged in on my Local Account (Haven't used the MS account in ages), and Copilot is very much on and active on my machine, taskbar icon and all. I just woke it up and used it to ask this question and get this standard answer, and I am still not logged into my MS account.

It warns me that sometimes its answers are wrong. Yeah, well.

fg2001gf11F · Nov 1, 2023

Bree said:
Those of mine that had it, still do after getting 22621.2506.

Sorry I had typo, I meant same happened to one of my machines I had Copilot with 22631.2428 and disappeared with 22631.2506.
I still have Copilot on all 22621.2506 machines.