[24h2 / lts 2024] Windows 11, version 24H2: What’s new for IT pros

[6Foot2]

Link: Windows 11, version 24H2: What’s new for IT pros - Windows IT Pro Blog

 

Windows 11, version 24H2, also known as the Windows 11 2024 Update, is now available through Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) and Windows Update for Business. You can also download it from the Microsoft 365 admin center[1], Software Download Service (via Installation Assistant, the media creation tool, or ISO), and Visual Studio Subscriptions.

 

Today marks the start of 36 months of support for Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 11, version 24H2[2]. We recommend that you begin a targeted deployment in your organization now to validate that your apps, devices, and infrastructure work as expected with the new release. To help you plan, this post outlines some of the features and enhancements that help you power exceptional experiences while helping secure your corporate data, apps, and people on any device...

 

[Olliedawg]

Interesting! I'll be downloading the ADMX tomorrow & having a play around on my test machine!

[3s-gtech]

I’ll replace the wims on our MDT servers ASAP I think - we haven’t pushed 11 widely yet so I don’t want to push out older versions much.

[jthompson]

Hoping it'll play as okay with MDT as 23H2.

 

Nice to have better native support for different archive filetypes, but still no ability to encrypt an archive, so 7-Zip will stay for now.

[CHiLL]

Surprisingly it's already on our VLSC, which usually only appears after couple of weeks from release.

[Jaan]

Awesome we have access to this also. Is 24h2 the LTSC version or is the LTSC version seperate to this? Just we don't have the LTSC version listed in Volume Licensing so wasn't sure if is it in fact the same thing.

[jthompson]

Awesome we have access to this also. Is 24h2 the LTSC version or is the LTSC version seperate to this? Just we don't have the LTSC version listed in Volume Licensing so wasn't sure if is it in fact the same thing.

 

I don't think so. From the blog post:

Today marks the start of 36 months of support for Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 11, version 24H2

 

EDIT: LTSC 2024 is a separate release, which is also now available. Seeing both in VLSC today.

Edited October 2, 2024 by jthompson

[Jaan]

I don't think so. From the blog post:

 

 

EDIT: LTSC 2024 is a separate release, which is also now available. Seeing both in VLSC today.

 

oh right i can't see the LTSC, does it have a funky name? any chance of a screenshot?

 

Thanks

 

EDIT: found it

Edited October 2, 2024 by Jaan

[Olliedawg]

FYI : To disable windows recall you can do so using the new 24H2 admx. I don't trust it, so it's getting disabled for now.

 

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows AI > Turn off saving snapshots for Windows (ENABLE)

[jthompson]

WMIC is apparently deprecated and off by default in 24H2. One of our computer startup bat scripts uses wmic to query the installed version of a piece of software, so doesn't work. Will have to switch to using a PowerShell method of doing it instead.

[jthompson]

Office 2024 is also in VLSC now, in case people are testing out upgrades.

[azc]

WMIC is apparently deprecated and off by default in 24H2. One of our computer startup bat scripts uses wmic to query the installed version of a piece of software, so doesn't work. Will have to switch to using a PowerShell method of doing it instead.

 

Oh no, some of my favourite WMIC commands are WMIC BIOS GET SERIALNUMBER and WMIC BASEBOARD GET PRODUCT

[6Foot2]

Oh no, some of my favourite WMIC commands are WMIC BIOS GET SERIALNUMBER and WMIC BASEBOARD GET PRODUCT

 

Do these Powershell scripts work instead?

 

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_BIOS | Select-Object SerialNumber

 

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_BaseBoard | Select-Object Product

 

*I am using a Chromebook, and so I can't test Powershell scripts.

 

[mavhc]

FYI : To disable windows recall you can do so using the new 24H2 admx. I don't trust it, so it's getting disabled for now.

 

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows AI > Turn off saving snapshots for Windows (ENABLE)

 

update as soon as possible! - turn off all new things!

[3s-gtech]

Microsoft, so new doesn't always mean good. Or, you know, legal (especially under FOIA).

[ZeroHour]

WMIC is apparently deprecated and off by default in 24H2. One of our computer startup bat scripts uses wmic to query the installed version of a piece of software, so doesn't work. Will have to switch to using a PowerShell method of doing it instead.

Details: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/wmi-command-line-wmic-utility-deprecation-next-steps/ba-p/4039242

 

WMIC:
Wmic /namespace:\\>namespace< PATH >Class< Get >Attribute1, Attribute2, … Attribute n<

PowerShell:
Get-CIMInstance -namespace ' >namespace< ' -query 'select * from >Class<' | ft >Attribute1, Attribute2, … Attribute n<

[jthompson]

Using Get-CMIInstance to query for installed software is apparently a bad idea, since Windows will run the installer to check/repair the installation (https://matthewdavis111.com/powershell/finding-installed-software/#avoid-get-ciminstance-and-get-wmiobject)

I'm now checking for installed versions by looking in the registry at HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\. Much faster than doing it the wmic way.

 

I'm using a PowerShell script for it, but I guess the registry could be queried in other ways, too.

Edited October 3, 2024 by jthompson

[Norphy]

My favourite way to query for software in PowerShell is the Get-Package command. It seems to get everything apart from AppX packages.

[Norphy]

Annoyingly, this version is sufficiently different from the last for there to be no enablement update. This means that a computer needs to be updated with this, it needs to run the full Windows setup routine. What's doubly annoying is that my organisation is supposed to be rolling out Windows 11 in the next year or so, but they've only approved up to 23H2. This essentially means that we're going to have to do two major updates within a year to 18 months of each other.

[Olliedawg]

Annoyingly, this version is sufficiently different from the last for there to be no enablement update. This means that a computer needs to be updated with this, it needs to run the full Windows setup routine. What's doubly annoying is that my organisation is supposed to be rolling out Windows 11 in the next year or so, but they've only approved up to 23H2. This essentially means that we're going to have to do two major updates within a year to 18 months of each other.

 

I'm sure i've heard of people pushing the update out through WuFB by setting the feature edition to "24H2". Not tested myself though!

[jthompson]

I'm sure you'll be able to in-place upgrade, but it's just that there isn't an "enablement package" update that just switches on new features already installed by regular cumulative updates. That was the case with the later Win10 feature updates where the OS was pretty mature and so the changes were pretty minimal.

[Norphy]

Yeah, you can In-Place upgrade, but that takes anything from an hour as opposed to a couple of minutes. Plus there's the sheer size of the download too.

 

I don't work for a school, so I don't have a nice update window to do work like this any more. An update like this takes the user offline while it's in progress. It's a nuisance and it looks like we'll have to do it twice in a relatively short amount of time.

[mavhc]

Or tell the people who approve the versions of the issue and get them to approve the new one, thus saving the business loadsa money

[Norphy]

It's not that simple for a business on the scale of the one I work for.

[mavhc]

The larger the scale the more money they'll save, but just make sure you've pointed this out, and then when people complain in 6 months you point their complaints at this other department