MS-DEFCON 2: Windows 11 24H2 is out!

By Susan Bradley

It’s not that 24H2 was unexpected — but we had very, very little notice.

You won’t be surprised by this advice: Don’t take the 24H2 update just yet. Nobody has had time to react to today’s announcement — much less examine the changes, check out the new features, and assess the effects of the update on existing systems.

I considered raising the MS-DEFCON level to 1 because of the suddenness of the news, but 24H2 is not exactly an emergency. So I’m raising the level to 2. I recommend that you use your preferred delaying tactic to prevent 24H2’s installation until we’ve gone through our testing and you reach your own comfort level. As usual, I suggest Steve Gibson’s easy InControl app.

In all likelihood, Windows 11 24H2 will be dribbled out to users in accordance with individual update settings. If you’ve turned on Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available, expect it soon.

Another reason for moving to MS-DEFCON 2 is that the late September updates have a few problems. For example, KB5043145 caused reboot issues, as I reported in the forum topic Preview updates cause issues – KB5043145. A few days after my post, Microsoft announced that it had discovered the root cause and that the fix would be deployed as a known-issue rollback coming in future updates. We won’t know whether that one, or others, will be fixed in the October updates, so caution is warranted. I’ll be looking into side effects next week.

Here are a few things that we expect to see in the October update for Windows 11. This short list comes from Microsoft’s KB5043145 support post, as linked above.

That last bullet point makes no sense to me. We are talking about changes to the Windows 11 Settings page for Delivery Optimization to make it look more like … Windows 11? What?

Note that Windows 11 24H2 is a major Windows update, a complete OS replacement. Therefore, get backed up before you venture forth.

Meanwhile, Windows 10 is still receiving updates and changes as well. The following changes are included in the September preview update, which in turn are included in the October updates:

Although the Windows 10 updates did not trigger blue screens, I still recommend that you defer these updates for now.

The Windows 10 October release will include changes to single sign-on as a result of required changes to ensure compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Economic Area (EEA). Fixes are included for Windows Server to ensure that File Explorer and taskbar won’t stop responding.

Finally, the update fixes an issue where Microsoft Defender for Endpoint work folders files fail to sync when Defender for Endpoint is on.

Microsoft has released the 24H2 Group Policy templates and spreadsheet in anticipation of the 24H2 release. Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 11 2024 Update (24H2) can be downloaded here, and the Group Policy Settings Reference Spreadsheet for Windows 11 2024 Update (24H2) can be downloaded here.

My recommendation for business users is to review the impact of 24H2 in your organization and begin to test the release before deployment. A good place to start is Microsoft’s Inside this update page.

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