Summary
- Microsoft hints at Windows 11 25H2 release soon.
- A major update block for Windows 24H2 has finally lifted.
- More PCs are now eligible to get the 24H2 update.
Last month, Microsoft quietly dropped a major hint that suggested we aren’t far away from the release of Windows 11 25H2. The company hasn’t officially confirmed the Stable release of the upcoming major Windows 11 update, but it’ll likely arrive in the October-November timeframe if the software giant sticks to its previous rollout strategy. In addition to giving the final touches to Windows 11 25H2, the company is hard at work to push Windows 11 24H2 to more eligible PCs.
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Microsoft has recently lifted an update block that prevented the Windows 11 24H2 update from appearing on the Windows Update page in Settings on certain PCs. In other words, not only will more PCs get the 24H2 update, but those computers should also run without issues, or at least without those that were previously reported.
Microsoft finally removes a key barrier holding back Windows 11 24H2 rollout
In May this year, Microsoft made the Windows 11 24H2 update available for everyone, except PCs that were put under the “Compatibility hold” category. The company had to take that step because of growing reports of unstable performance after updating to 24H2, though the reasons for implementing that update restriction varied across devices. PCs that are based on Intel’s Alder Lake or newer processors and running Easy Anti-Cheat (cheat-prevention used in multiplayer online PC games) applications also fell into that category.
However, the good news is that Microsoft has lifted the compatibility hold, making Alder Lake+ PCs eligible to safely download and install the Windows 11 24H2 update via the Windows update page in Settings. That said, these PCs may still not get the update if there is another compatibility hold. In that case, it’s better to wait for Microsoft to lift the update block than to install the update manually via the media creation tool to ensure stability.
On its official Release Health page, Microsoft has also highlighted that some Alder Lake+ PCs may still be running an outdated version of the Easy Anti-Cheat, which could also prevent you from installing the 24H2 update. Your PC will display a warning if that’s the case and request you to update to the latest version of Easy Anti-Cheat, which is super easy. All you have to do is launch the game you play often, because Easy Anti-Cheat gets updated automatically when the application starts.
It took Microsoft almost a year to fix this issue, but again, the company hasn’t lifted all the update blocks it applied. That will probably take more time. Hopefully, it’ll lift all those compatibility holds before the official rollout of Windows 11 25H2 Stable.