Windows 11 Version 22H2, an Upgrade Story (Premium)

Because I review so many laptops, I have an unusually large pool of PCs on which to test whether Windows 11 version 22H2 is being offered. Granted, these are all brand new PCs, so what you’ll see with your own PCs, many of which are probably older, will of course vary. But this is still an interesting survey, I think.

Not surprisingly, I assume, this is how I spent most of Tuesday afternoon, the day that Microsoft released the Windows 11 2022 Update, which upgrades a Windows 11-based PC to Windows 11 version 22H2: I plugged in PC after PC, signed in, ran Windows Update, updating as frequently as needed, rebooting as required, and checking again. And I eventually reached that endgame where the Windows 11 2022 Update is offered, or, as was more often the case, was not.

But let me harp on a familiar issue before continuing. I noted above that one installs the Windows 11 2022 Update to upgrade to Windows 11 version 22H2. This is a fact, but my normal complaint involves how Microsoft always confuses the name of the update and the version of Windows you end up with. And when we spoke to Microsoft last week, on the record, this was borne out: we were told that Microsoft would almost always refer to this thing as the Windows 11 2022 Update. But that if you were to look at About Windows, or at System > About, that the system would report back as Windows 11 version 2022. Just trying to keep things simple here.

But here’s the thing: when you are offered the update via Windows Update, Microsoft notes that “Windows 11, version 22H2 is available.” Not once does the name Windows 11 2022 Update appear anywhere. For the love of God, Microsoft.

Anyway, I’ve tested what one can see when they check Windows Update for the 2022 Update on 10 PCs so far. (I manually updated several other PCs to 2022 because I’ve been working on the Windows 11 Field Guide, so I couldn’t include them in this test.) The update was only offered on three of them. One of them explained that the update was coming but that it was incompatible for some reason. And six of them reported absolutely nothing: not only did they not get the update, but they didn’t even acknowledge the existence of Windows 11 version 2022. That is bizarre to me.

Let’s look at each case.

You’re offered the 2022 Update

As noted, three of the review PCs were offered the 2022 Update: the ThinkPad Z16, the ThinkPad X13xs (which is based on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, interestingly), and the Acer Aspire Vero.

On each of these PCs, the installation proceeded identically and in a manner that most individuals will experience, though it’s rare for me since I rarely wait for Windows Update: you accept the software license terms, Windows Update downloads the update, and then Windows Update installs most of the update. That last bit is important: you can continue using the PC while this happens, meaning the installation doesn’t mostly happen while the PC is offline. This minimizes downtime.

You’re then promoted to reboot to complete the installation, or schedule it. The reboot time is minimal, and when you come back, you’ll be confronted by a familiar Desktop, with no obvious changes. There are, in fact, many changes, but most are subtle. More to the point, if you check the version, you’ll see that you’re now on Windows 11 version 22H2 and that the build number has been bumped from 22000.1042 (though this can vary) to 22621.521. Total time elapsed is about 45 minutes.

You’re told the update is coming but your PC is not currently compatible

I’ve only seen this happen once so far, on the HP Elite Dragonfly G3, but this will be the most common experience in the coming weeks, I bet: Windows Update reports that Windows 11 version 2022 “is coming soon,” and notes that there is nothing you need to do at the moment.

But a “Learn more” link was particularly disappointing in this case: it opened my web browser and navigated to the Microsoft Learn website describing safeguard holds, which are issues that prevent a PC from being upgraded to a new Windows version.

What it’s supposed to do is list the reason(s) why you can’t upgrade. But this section of the page is blank, and so I have no idea what the issue is. Like any HP, the Elite Dragonfly provides an HP Support Assistant app that can sometimes download newer drivers than what you see in Windows Update, but I tried that and it didn’t help.

Given this, I figured I’d try to force the issue and install 22H2 using Microsoft’s Installation Assistant. Nope: once again, I was told that “this PC can’t be upgraded to this version of Windows.” I like that it says “PC” instead of “device,” a stupid term Microsoft uses almost everywhere else, though I also would like more consistency there. But I was surprised it blocked me. Obviously, I could make it happen with a Setup ISO, but I will wait until the update is offered organically.

Nothing happens

The most common scenario, for now, is that the 2022 Update will not be offered at all, and that Windows Update won’t even mention that 22H2 is happening.

This was my experience on the HP EliteBook 865, Lenovo Yoga 16 7, ThinkBook 16p G3, and ThinkPad Z13, plus Mary Jo tested on her Surface Laptop 3 and got the same results. Of these, the ThinkPad Z13 is a bit surprising, since its stablemate, the very, very similar ThinkPad Z16, did get it. I can’t explain this, of course.

One more thing

Oh, there is one more thing: I did force an update on two PCs and got some interesting results.

The first was a non-supported PC, the first-generation Microsoft Surface Book, which runs on a 6th-Gen Intel Core processor. This upgrade went just fine, but when it was over, About reported the build number as 22621.382.

I manually upgraded the HP Envy 16 to 22H2, same thing, no issues, but when the upgrade was complete, the build number was reported as 22621.105.

The build number discrepancies? Again, I can’t explain it. That’s just what I’ve seen.