Using a custom NTLite ISO for upgrades, as well as installs

[flutek]

Help pls can i borrow some preset so i have a basis for a working preset and not working preset?

Please visit: https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-choosing-a-preset.3284/

 

[Away]

22H2 images updated to the latest CU's are virtually identical to 23H2 images, except they're missing the KB5027397 23H2 Enablement Package.

Starting last year, new 23H2 features got hidden inside 22H2's CU's. The Enablement Package simply unlocks those features, and updates the version string from 22621 to 22631. Removing KB5027397 reverts 23H2 back to a 22H2 feature experience.

Download this KB, and apply it to your current ISO:

https://catalog.sf.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/caa3ff4a-6420-4341-aeae-33b2d7f463be/public/windows11.0-kb5027397-x64_3a9c368e239bb928c32a790cf1663338d2cad472.msu

No new files or features will be installed, so it won't break your removals. But some Windows settings might be different.

could you explain this more? that sounds interesting.

 

[garlin]

Due to Windows operating as a Software-As-A-Service product, not every successive release is a completely new platform. Instead MS plans several years in advance that they will create a base version of Windows, and gradually extend the same platform over several iterative (smaller) changes.

W11 21H2 was build 22000. It was a completely different release than W10 before it. To perform an upgrade, Windows renames the old Windows folder to Windows.old and installs a complete new Windows folder.

22H2 was build 22621. It's considered a different release than 21H2. And upgrade from 21H2 gets you Windows.old.

23H2 (build 22631) was designed as a planned extension of 22H2. They share the same code base and updates. What makes 23H2 different from 22H2 is the installation of an Enablement Package. Think of it as a personality switch. If you have 22H2 with the latest updates, all of the 23H2 features are hidden inside the same code.

All you need is to install 23H2 Enablement Package, and now Windows behaves as 23H2 instead of 22H2. There is no Windows.old.

This simplifies work for MS, since they can easily maintain 22H2 and 23H2 in parallel. But it was designed to work this way. Notice the picked branch numbers are very close to each other.

24H2 was build 26100. It's considered a different release than 23H2. And upgrade from 23H2 gets you Windows.old. We started a new cycle.

25H2 is build 26200, it also shares the code base with 24H2. An updated 24H2 image with the 25H2 Enablement Package gets you 25H2 behavior.

26H2 is expected to be 26300, also sharing the code base with 24H2/25H2. Once again, MS will install a 26H2 EP sometime in September or October to make your 24H2 or 25H2 system a 26H2.

27H(?) is expected to be a new Windows, and we will start a whole new cycle.

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What is a 25H2 ISO? It's a later version of 24H2 with newer Monthly Updates and the 25H2 EP pre-installed. This is why if you have a recent 24H2 system, the "upgrade" to 25H2 is near instantaneous. All the files needed were there the whole time, because they're hidden inside the same Monthly Updates that 24H2 installs.