Computer help request — that Windows 24H2 update

[Senex]

My PC is an Intel NUC Hades Canyon 8iHNK (16 Gb RAM) which came with Windows 10 Pro. It upgraded with no problems at all to Windows 11 Pro and then to update 23H2. Last autumn the Windows checker shewed that it was fit for update 24H2. However, a first try with 24H2 in November brought about a crash at about two-thirds through the final part of the installation and a reversion to the previous 23H2. There was no warning/advice notice about what had gone wrong to what needed to be done to prepare for a successful installation. At the end of December Microsoft pushed 24H2 through the automatic upload system, so in the hope that they’d actually assessed my computer and found it ready I let the installation go ahead—with exactly the same result as the time before. Come the end of January, another exact repeat. And now, just a week later, they’re trying again. I’ve postponed installation by a few days, which the system allows you to do, but it doesn’t seem possible to cancel the installation altogether and to prevent further “pushes” of an update that doesn’t work and just causes a lot of trouble. On none of these occasions has there been any helpful information.

(There is a massive 536,803 KB setupact log-file which I as a non-IT specialist just don’t understand but which ends, I see, in what looks like garbage: 2025-02-03 15:23:55, Info MIG CMultiSzMergeContentDelegateTemplateMethod: Merging HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\EventLog\TechSmith[Sources]: Src[߿;ÀĜ氘Ĝ癁;Ĝ;愔相픈ǰ`;;̔;ݿ;;߿;Ĝ;ǰÀĜ;㑐Ĝ;;㱐ġ;Ā⡲;)

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to keep Windows automatic update working but stop it downloading and trying to install one particular update (i.e. 24H2)? Also, how is it possible to discover exactly what is stopping the update from working and causing the reversion to the previous set-up? Finally, is there anywhere one can discover how to interpret a massive log-file reasonably quickly—is it just that garbage last line that shews where things all went pear-shaped?

(I did try a question in the Microsoft Community but as usual didn’t find much help there. The advice seemed to be to delete all drivers and then re-install one by one with downloads from all the individual manufacturers. How many of us have the time (or the trust) to do things that way? In any case, there’s no indication in my Windows 11 itself that I have any driver problems—and I got a couple of widely differing results when I tried a couple of driver-update programs.)

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Tell your machine it is on a metered connection. Then you can select which updates to install and when. Somewhere in the Windows cog symbol at the bottom of the screen. I kept my old laptop on Windows 10, not even the most recent edition either, until I bought a new laptop which came with 11 pre-installed.

 

[Foxhunter]

Fwiw

About 4 years ago on my previous desk top I had a similar experience. An upgrade failed during the install process and the machine reverted back to the previous version. My recollection is that over the months there were 3 further failed attempts until eventually succeeding on the fourth. I put it down to my pc being a comparatively rare Siemens machine, with something out of the ordinary in the configuration. I reckoned that there was a team in Microsoft somewhere analysing the fails and trying various fixes.

If it happened again I'd just let it keep trying.

 

[nlogax]

If you have Win 11 Pro you can apply group policy to prevent major SPs such as 24H2 but continue to allow WU to function for security updates and so forth. Have already done this to prevent that particular update getting onto my own PC and bricking the VR setup.

https://beebom.com/how-to-block-windows-11-24h2-update/

The latest Windows 11 24H2 update became generally available to users in October 2024. However, Microsoft followed a phased rollout due to numerous issues arising from the 2024 feature update. Now, in January 2025, Microsoft has decided to force update Windows 11 24H2 on all eligible PCs running the 23H2 and 22H2 builds. Many users are worried about 24H2’s unresolved bugs, which may affect system stability and degrade gaming performance in particular. So, if you want to block the Windows 11 24H2 update and stay on version 23H2 or 22H2, follow our tutorial below.

 

[david1212]

What capacity is the HDD/SSD drive partition with Windows 11 and how much is free?

The 24H2 update is akin to the Windows 10 to Windows 11 update renaming the existing Windows folder Windows.old and creating a new Windows folder. Hence you need free the size of your existing Windows folder + the size of the download + working space for temporary files.

I had an installation on a laptop that just became unusable while trying to update to 24H2. To give space on the 250GB drive also for Debian Linux, which I primarily use, and storage the Windows 11 partition was 80GB. I had installed very little, just Firefox and Libre Office. I have another of the same model laptop with a 500GB drive albeit spinning not solid state. On this Windows 11 had a 100GB partition and updated OK. Hence I cloned this then re-installed Debian Linux into 60GB rather than 80GB.

 

[Silver Cobra]

This has raised a rather interesting thought for myself regarding Windows 11 24H2. I have two Windows 11 systems, one being a desktop PC I bought from Cyberpower back in 2023, and the other an MSI laptop bought from Currys last year. The laptop has just had 24H2 installed on it, which it downloaded without me ever being asked if I wanted to or not, while the desktop has been displaying the update as available to download since the end of December but hasn't automatically downloaded it in the way the laptop did recently. Both systems are running the home version of Windows 11, so there should be no differences between them. I can only guess that Cyberpower must have changed some settings behind the scenes with Windows Update that disabled the automatic downloading of these major updates.

To be honest, I'm glad the desktop has yet to download 24H2 after hearing all the problems with it over the last few months. I play games on this system which use anti-cheat software (EASY Anti-cheat, Battleye, etc), and 24H2 was causing games using those to crash regularly. I don't know if that has been remedied yet, but for as long as I can get away with not downloading 24H2 on here, I'll continue to refrain from doing so. The laptop thankfully is only used for light gaming and web browsing, so the update shouldn't be a big problem on there.

 

[kirk781]

To be honest, I'm glad the desktop has yet to download 24H2 after hearing all the problems with it over the last few months.

Windows 11 is a giant hodge podge mess of privacy nightmares and bloat. The UI is inconsistent [old control panel and new], large scale Windows updates, lesser granular control for the user and whatever Copilot is.