Still Stuck on Windows 11 Version 22H2? You Can Upgrade to 23H2

With Windows 11 version 23H2 finally available in stable after months of preview releases, you’d think that we were past the silliness. But we’re not. Many users are still stuck on Windows version 22H2 despite having fully compatible hardware.

No worries: You can still upgrade to the latest Windows 11 version. Here are some of the ways you can do so.

Windows 11 Installation Assistant. This one is the most reliable but it also takes the longest: Just download and run the Windows 11 Installation Assistant from the Download Windows 11 website. It requires you to also download and run the PC Health Check app, which makes sure your PC is compatible, before proceeding. But it has always worked in my experience.

Windows 11 Installation Media. The Media Creation Tool on the Download Windows 11 website has finally been updated to 23H2 and you’ll want to make USB-based installation media with it even if you’re already on Windows 11 version 23H2: This versatile tool can be used to install or upgrade to Windows 11, of course, but it also includes the latest Windows 11 recovery tools. It’s a no-brainer.

Windows 11 ISO. You can also download the latest Windows 11 installation media in disk image (ISO) format and then upgrade straight from that without needing to first create USB-based installation media: Just double-click on the ISO file to mount the disk image in the file system and run Setup.exe. You’ll be given the choice to upgrade.

Enablement package (eKB). Thanks to readers in this forum thread, this method is the only official method I know of to upgrade from Windows 11 version 22H2 to 23H2 on Windows 11 on Arm, and it only takes several minutes. Make sure your PC is fully updated with Windows Update, directly download the KB5027397 enablement package—more information about it can be found here—and run it. You’ll have to reboot the PC so the eKB can install offline, but when you get back into Windows 11, you’ll see that you’ve been upgraded to 23H2. This is almost certainly the least time-consuming way to upgrade, assuming you’re already on 22H2 and fully up-to-date. (And to be clear, this works on a Mac if you’re using Parallels Desktop: That’s how I installed it.)