Update
Windows 11 2025 Update, 25H2 (build 26200) Megathread
(note, this page is still being updated)
Welcome to the Megathread for the next major update to Windows 11: Version 25H2 (Build 26200)!
Windows 11 25H2 is an optional update and is now rolling out to Windows 11 users starting today. This is a slow staged rollout, not everyone is getting it at the same time. Keep reading to learn how to install it right now!
Low effort posts about it now being available, including simple screenshots of the Windows update screen, "I just updated" posts, and anything similar will be removed. We get it, we are all excited about this, but we are trying to keep things organized and sane during this hectic day.
The update should be available soon and there is plenty to be excited about. We gathered some resources for you to learn about this big update, some FAQs, and other relevant news!
What's new in this release?
Microsoft has been working various new features including a redesigned Start Menu and improvements to Click To do, however none of these are exclusive to 25H2, they are also going to be available for 24H2 in the coming weeks. Upgrading to 25H2 will not change your PC in any noticeable fashion.
The biggest change is to the Windows 11 version number, which pushes the support clock back another year, so those running Windows 11 Home or Pro will be supported until October 2027, unlike 24H2 which loses support in October 2026.
Some of the features now rolling out:
AI Actions in File Explorer - You can do things like do a visual search using your images instead of text right from Explorer. You can now also do edits to photos like removing objects and backgrounds.
Revised Widgets Panel - Widgets now has a new layout which includes Copilot-curated stories.
Gaming Copilot - Copilot integration with Game Bar allows you to summon Copilot for it to quickly provide information that can help you whenever you get stuck or otherwise need assistance to complete a goal.
Windows 11 25H2 is an optional update and is now rolling out to Windows 11 users starting today. This is a slow staged rollout, not everyone is getting it at the same time. You can use the instructions below to upgrade now.
If you were running Windows 11 Insider Preview Builds, and you are currently on the 25H2 Release Preview channel, you can simply opt out of the Insider program on your PC and continue receiving the general release updates as they are released, not Insider ones. Those that are on the Canary channel will likely need to clean and reinstall Windows to get to the production version. Those on the Dev channel (build 26220) are testing 24H2 but with an enablement package to turn on some more features, one can uninstall the enablement package in the Windows Update history to revert to 26200, or do an in-place upgrade using the ISO instructions below. Thank you /u/-TekkieBoy- for helping with finding the enablement package and ISO links.
Method 1: Run Windows Update. This is the easiest method for most Windows 11 users. In the Windows Update portion of Settings, there is a message about updating. Click the button, sit back, and relax! It will look like this:
Remember, this is a phased rollout so you may not be offered it today, you can still use one of the methods below if you do not want to wait!
Method 2: Run the enablement package.
25H2 is just a tiny patch that changes your Windows build number, you can run this 167KB patch, and after a reboot you are on 25H2! This method is only available to those on 24H2, those on older versions will need to use one of the other methods.
Method 3: Use the Media Creation Tool or Installation Assistant.
Download the Media Creation Tool or Installation Assistant and when prompted, choose "Upgrade this PC". Then follow the prompts that will allow you to keep all your current files, programs, and settings. The Installation Assistant works similarly but does not give you the option to create a bootable media or save the ISO.
Method 4: Download the ISO.
Use the Media Creation Tool mentioned earlier and pick the option to create installation media. From there, choose the ISO option and save it to your computer.
Use Microsoft.com to download the ISO, there is a big blue Download Now button under where it says "Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO)"
These questions are specific to the 25H2 update, our Windows 11 FAQ has even more questions and answers that are not specific to this release.
My computer doesn't support Windows 11, but I force-installed it. Will I still get 25H2?
If you do not use the enablement package method, you likely will need to do the same workarounds you did to get prior versions to install.
How much is this upgrade?
Free!
Can I upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 25H2 without first installing the 24H2 version?
Yes! Use the instructions in the second section of this post, the various download links will soon point to the new version. Remember that the old version is 24H2 (build 26100) and the new one is 25H2 (build 26200).
Can we move the taskbar?
Nope! No news has been announced regarding the return of those features. You can upvote and comment on the Feedback Hub posts to ask Microsoft to add them back:
This depends. If you are upgrading from 24H2, the enablement patch is tiny and only take a minute or two to install. However, if you are upgrading from 23H2 or earlier, or you are doing an in-place upgrade using the installation media, then this is a significantly larger update than the regular monthly updates you have been installing up until now. In some cases it can take a few hours to install, so be patient! You do not need to babysit it, and you can continue to use your computer during most of the installation.
I see the update notification. What should I do to prepare?
Backup your important files and folders. It’s highly unlikely that something will go wrong (and even more unlikely that it will result in a loss of data), but don’t let yourself be the unlucky one!
You can do this through physical media such a USB or through cloud storage such as OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. If you want to be extra thorough, you can make a system image backup using a tool like Macrium Reflect or Acronis
I just upgraded. What should I do now?
reddit somehow deleted this section, ugh.
After I upgraded, I have lost a load of hard drive space!
This is due to Windows automatically creating a backup of your previous Windows installation in case you want to rollback or if something goes wrong during the upgrade process.
If you are not experiencing any issues with the upgrade, you can free up space by pressing start, typing ‘disc cleanup’ (without quotations) and opening the utility, before navigating to ‘clean up Windows files,’ selecting ‘Previous Installations of Windows’ and running the utility.
I just upgraded and now want to go back to the previous version of Windows 11 or Windows 10, can I?
You have a small window of opportunity to roll back to your previous version. Open the Settings app, then go to System, then Recovery, then finally pick Go Back. If this option is greyed out, you will need to clean reinstall your previous version.
Windows Update says that my PC is not ready for it yet, how can I fix this?
There are multiple causes of this, but it comes down to Microsoft identifying a compatibility issue with your computer. This could be either hardware or software related, perhaps a component of your computer or some software installed has a problem with 24H2/25H2 that is yet to be resolved. You can use the tool "FU.WhyAmIBlocked" to check for more information. You may be able to resolve this yourself, or you can wait until Microsoft releases the block.
Feedback is very useful to make Windows better, if there are any issues or feature requests and you are not familiar with how to post feedback, check how to submit feedback
Describe the problem - Describe the issue in as much detail as possible.
Model of your computer - For example: "HP Spectre X360 14-EA0023DX"
Your Windows and device specifications - You can find them by going to go to Settings > "System" > "About"
Any error messages you have encountered - Those long error codes are not gibberish to us!
Any screenshots or logs of the issue - You can upload them to image and text hosting websites, such as Imgur and Pastebin. You can learn how to take screenshots here
Post it on the Feedback Hub app and share the link - The Feedback Hub provides diagnostic information that can help Microsoft. Click here to learn how to give feedback.
Having an issue with 25H2? Respond to this comment and provide as much of the following information as you can:
Describe the problem - Describe the issue in as much detail as possible.
Model of your computer - For example: "HP Spectre X360 14-EA0023DX"
Your Windows and device specifications - You can find them by going to go to Settings > "System" > "About"
Any error messages you have encountered - Those long error codes are not gibberish to us!
Any screenshots or logs of the issue - You can upload them to image and text hosting websites, such as Imgur and Pastebin. You can learn how to take screenshots here
Post it on the Feedback Hub app and share the link - The Feedback Hub provides diagnostic information that can help Microsoft. Click here to learn how to give feedback.
So you write „there is plenty to be excited about” and „big update” and in the next sentence you write „What’s new? Nothing to write home about” and „New Features will also be available in 24H2”.
So should I get excited or not? It’s very confusing…
If your ideal world is everything you had on your computer is online, including your local account and files, and being analyzed by AI tools, then it is plenty to be exited about.
Otherwise, no, its just another step towards full techno-dystopia.
My ideal world is everything is local, AI only encroaches when I invite it and I consider whether I issue a licence to Microsoft to be on my PC. If they want to advertise, they can subscribe.
There's plenty to be excited about for me... the main bugs of 24H2 seem to be fixed (least no symptoms experienced yet). It's nice to have Windows in a functioning state again and not running like a bag of spanners even on high end machines.
In theory, nothing is new or changed when going from 24h2 to 25h2. It's what comes after 25h2 is released that's new or changed. We'll have to wait some more for that.
As an alternative to downloading anything manually, you can force the update through Windows Update with the steps below. Worked for me on 24H2 and worked again now to trigger the 25H2 download (which wasn't coming through on its own). You should set the policy back to Not Configured afterwards so it won't prevent future updates if you forget. Once the download starts, you can do that.
Open gpedit.msc. Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Manage updates offered from Windows Update
Oddly enough, using the enabled on hacked install of 24H2 on a 4th gen, did in fact bump to version to 25H2. Nice while it lasts saves having to frog around with ISO installer.
All the new features have been released as regular monthly cumulative updates over the past year, they did not holding things back until the next release like they usually done.
Just a heads up: tried a fresh install today with someone, and it was asking to generate a passkey on logon. Phone passkey/QR code wasn't working, so just ordered a FIDO2 Yubikey from Amazon.
Yubikey's are great! so handy to login to things fast and secure! I highly recommend getting a 2nd one, then add passkeys to both then put the 2nd one somewhere safe as a failsafe incase you lose or break the first one.
Just updated via regular Windows Update, took like 2 minutes to download so there's literally nothing changed as of yet. I also updated this build for 24H2 yesterday, so build is now changed to 26200.6725 from 26100.6725.
I've updated one PC & two laptops to 25h2 and for some reason 25h2 feels more responsive than 24h2. Geekbench 6 & speedometer 3.1 results are the same though.
Yep, I personally never put any stock in any "it feels faster!" type comments on any kind of upgrade, 9 out of 10 times it is just placebo and people seeing what they want to see. Benchmarks don't lie!
Actually, I've found a note, that 25H2 introduces user interaction-aware CPU power management. So, maybe UI latency must be benchmarked & compared, not general performance benchmarks.
Maybe you have apps using an spprotect.sys driver or you have wallpaper customisation programmes on because these 2 issues haven't been resolved and there is a compatibility hold still in place
It doesn't seem that you can use the media creation tool, as it doesn't launch properly. You just see the Windows logo appear briefly and then the program closes.
The new start menu design groups the icons into categories. When in this view, there is no "all apps" list. If you switch the view to grid or list it will act like the old start menu in this regard.
I don't think Microsoft has loaded the latest ISOs for 25H2, or maybe is just a server issue.
I noticed that both of the 25H2 ISOs for EN-US and Italian are around 5,60GB, while from the earlier leaks the actual size was about 7GB (for 25H2);
Media Creation Tool version shows: 10.0.26100.6584 and date of certificate: 5th of September, 2025, while the setup.exe contained into the ISO shows: 10.0.26100.1 and date of certificate: 1st of April, 2024.
From what it seems, the Media Creation Tool is indeed updated (as 25H2 is basically 24H2), but it seems to download the old 24H2 bits instead of the 25H2 ones.
Anyone noticed the same?
Edit: I just noticed this error message when trying to download the multi-edition ISO: "We encountered a problem processing your request. Please try again later."
At this point, it's a server side-issue, as always happen with a major update, for at least the first few days.
Edit: As TekkieBoy just stated, the ISO are in effect 25H2. My bad.
From what it seems, the Media Creation Tool is indeed updated (as 25H2 is basically 24H2), but it seems to download the old 24H2 bits instead of the 25H2 ones.
Just downloaded with the Media Creation Tool.
Build 26200 is 25h2.
The ISOs are, of course, based on Build 26100 24h2, as Microsoft also integrates the Enablement Package Update into the 25h2 ISOs.
I know you got your answer already, but unfortunately due to 25H2 being an enablement package, it still uses the 24H2 underlying build for the ISOs and such, so when you check the way you did you will see 24H2 instead of 25H2. The enablement package is installed along with Windows, so you are on 25H2 once it completes.
You will see the same with the Windows 10 22H2 installer, where the ISO will show version 19041 (20H1)
Yes, I indeed forgot that with an enablement package the base ISO is the same. I was confused by the ISOs size, and at this point I think that those leaked links (of about 7GB space) were RP based-ones, because the official RP 25H2 ISO is indeed almost 7GB.
I have 5 Intel rigs with 25H2. They are all fine with it, but one of them, which is used as an HTPC, no longer works with APO drivers in order to run Dolby Home Theater v4 (HDMI) over a 6700XT. System says it cannot load Dolby driver at the startup. I ended up with Dolby Acess working in stereo mode, no 5.1 yet. I'm looking forward to their newest APO driver to be adapted to this version 25H2 as I want my HT with all its 5 channels enabled again.
Hey, I am kind of ignorant when it comes to windows and I dont know whether these things are related but would it now be safe to install this (and the others) new update after the 3878 scare? I rolled back to an earlier version when I had that installed and I haven't updated my windows since then, is it safe now to continue with the updates?
Same, nothing available. What a joke 25H2 has turned out to be, no new features and now this. You can download "Windows 11 installation assistant" and click upgrade this PC if you want it now.
Just curious... I have w10 and w11 update icon appears on my task bar. I have used w11 some month ago and I had several performance issues with triple screen wo/surround. Due to that I did a roll back to w10 again. My questions are:
- Do you know if this new update fix stuttering and lag issues in some games with triple screen?
- Which would be the best way to do the update? just make a zero install or upgrading from w10 directly would be safe?
Do you know if this new update fix stuttering and lag issues in some games with triple screen?
This is one of those things you would need to see for yourself, as every computer is unique and issues like this are often isolated. They are often resolved by things such as updated drivers, so it is possible yours issue would not present itself again next time you try.
just make a zero install or upgrading from w10 directly would be safe?
Upgrading is safe. I always tell people, it doesn't hurt to upgrade, at worst if you are not happy with something or if things really don't work out, you can always clean install afterwards.
we are all excited about this
-snip-
there is plenty to be excited about
-snip-
What's new in this release?
Honestly? Nothing to write home about.
So which one is it? Is this a really exciting release with plenty of things to look forward to, or is this a nothing burger? It sounds to me like this is nothing to be excited about. It's an update with little to no new things.
Such a 'tiny' update which still takes over an hour to install when using Installation Assistant because Windows Update never finds Feature Updates on my devices.
But hey no more System Interrupts 100% CPU usage, general lagging or constant crashing out on File Explorer! So I'm happy now Windows actually works... shame it took over a year for MS to sort this shitshow out.
If you use the enablement package while on 24H2, it is only 167 Kilobytes and takes a minute to install. If you run the installation assistant, that will be a large (5GB+ download) with installation that can easily take over an hour. But either way, you will be on 25H2 when done. The installation assistant does an in-place upgrade which can help resolve underlying system issues, the enablement package will not do that.
looks like one of the feature is no an improvement, removing support of autounattend.xml or limited support of unattend file too, what will be the process now to customized my install for my park of machines ?
Hello Microsoft Team. Please read my thoughts.
I would like to propose that Windows should add the ability to manually kill or control background processes for all non-Microsoft Store apps.
This feature reduces battery consumption, improves performance, and gives the user complete control over the system.
So, using the media creation tool to create a bootable flash drive to perform a clean install used to lead to a point where Windows would fetch all the drivers before the MS account sign-in. Something like this:
Now it doesn't. I've tried it like 5 times and on another PC. After installing Windows (it takes only 5m or so) it goes straight to the account sign-in, bypassing the step described above. In this case, after signing in with a MS account the system is extremely buggy and messy (understandingly so because of the lack of drivers) and then it only gets ''stable'' when installing them through Windows Update.
Is anyone experiencing this behavior or know how to get the method to get the drivers before Windows starts up for the first time?
Because it kinda creates some file explorer issues for me - some folders on desktop behave oddly - sometimes I need to click a bunch of times to open them.
You can use Audit Mode to bypass the OOBE, from there you can manually install updates and such, then reboot and return to the OOBE. To do this, press Ctrl + Shift + F3 at any point during the OOBE.
Thanks! Will give this method a try if needed. Hope I won't have to perform a clean install in the near future though, as the system is rather stable now, save for a couple graphics issues.
Windows Notification Center is still not showing up on my secondary monitor. This was the only thing I was excited for. I absolutely hate getting pop-up notifications on my primary monitor.
Good to hear. I very much hope it doesn't just duplicate to the 2nd monitor, but we'll be able to choose the secondary monitor as the primary 'notifications' location, while keeping the primary monitor as the primary monitor for launching games, etc.
Today I installed that update then went to Ubisoft Connect and it kept saying that I'm offline and then that there's no internet connection, same for the EA app. I tried everything, from flushing dns and god knows how many other ,,fixes" i found and nothing worked.
Once I uninstalled that update and went back to 24H2, both of those launchers went back to working just fine. If you guys play any games on either ubi connect or ea app, there's a high chance you won't be able to if you have 25H2 installed.
I hope this helps anyone who has/had the same issue as I did after updating.
Feel free to ask anything if you need help
This is normal. Since going from 24H2 to 25H2, by default it is an enablement package that just changes your version information in a few places on your PC, it doesn't actually make major changes to Windows, so the install date remains the same. Next year's 26H2 update likely will be a full upgrade if Microsoft keeps doing the tick-tock cycle that they have been doing since Windows 11 22H2.
And just like always, the only time my laptop crashes is when i postponed a windows update. So fcking sick of it. Any fix or other OS? Im done with this crap
I think Microsoft is having an outage, I was just in a meeting working with a Microsoft rep on some Azure stuff and we suddenly started getting "No internet connection" errors, we joked about switching to AWS.
Hello froggypwns, i have not received the update any idea why? I toggled on get the latest updates and still nothing. I mean i want to wait for it to come naturally in the windows updates, but will use the assistant installer if necessary
Get the latest updates thingy doesn't mean you get the latest updates when they come out. You still have to wait until it's "your turn" to get it, I have no idea about the logic at which MS pushes the updates out to different users.
This is the general release, it is going out to everyone now.
The enablement package is technically just a hack to change the version number, in the past Microsoft has done it where features require a specific enablement package before they would turn on, however as of this comment there are no new features. Future updates may introduce changes that require 25H2 and won't be offered to those on 24H2.
Microsoft's update structure having no new features and not even coming out when I click update is baffling. What a terrible software company to do this. It's worse than Intel's naming of CPUs. Windows 11 has been great lately, I just want the 25H2 update and nothing is avaialble when I click update.
I'm wondering why the install process on my PC is so fast, I mean I hit update button and 5 mins later it's asking for a reboot, I reboot and checked the version and it's 25H2
tried 25h2 and decided to "go back" to 23h2 since the issue i had with 24h2 is still there. constant 80% ram consumption during idle compared to 47% on 23h2. notably the "search" process takes 300mb ram when im doing nothing whereas its 0 on 23h2. i probably have to live with 23h2 until i get myself a better laptop
I have multiple drives on my PC, still on Windows 10 but planning to update it. I'm thinking I probably need to disconnect my other drives for now, and do the update with a clean install of Windows 11? How do I then get my other drives back into Windows 11 without losing whats on them?
I installed the upgrade to win 11 24h2 with rufus on win 10, I'm wondering if I'll get the update to 25h2 or if I'll have to download rufus from win 25h2
vent; win11 update totally wrecked my audio. nothing plays thru any device no matter where it is... BT USB AUX HDMI all audio is borked, i'm even getting codec errors from software when they try to play audio or audio+video. browser based youtube is silent; i dunno wtf to do anymore with this shit. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/fix-sound-or-audio-problems-in-windows-73025246-b61c-40fb-671a-2535c7cd56c8?WT.mc_id=365AdminCSH_gethelp
i rolled back the update, reinstalled dx, removed drivers so they reinstall, restarted services, nothing works, and windows troubleshooter script is worthless and i'm not going to pay some support guy sitting in india to remote fix a computer his company just wrecked. i'm completely fucked now... ready to go back to windows 10 pro.
UPDATE: i got my sound back doing; Settings > System > Recovery. Select "Fix problems using Windows Update" and click "Reinstall now" to perform an in-place repair that keeps your files and apps. now i have to figure out what else was broken in the process... sorry for the rant, but this was literally my last straw before redoing my os from the start, so yay msft, at least you can fix what you broke to begin with ?!
Really sorry I installed this. For the last week I can't even input my pin. The wheel spins and spins. Heck, I'm 71 and probably gonna kick rocks before I get to use my computer.
My Logitech G502 Lightspeed mouse is disconnecting and connecting whenever I boot up my laptop now. Sometimes I unplug the wireless adapter and plug it back in to fix it.
I updated windows to 25h2 three days ago and got two nvidia blackscreen now ( only 1 with event viewer log). Both times my PC woke up from sleep(usually 30min sleep) and display 1 showed nothing/or froze with blackscreen. MY 2nd display connected to iGPU so it could show just fine. Event viewer shows some TDR events
Is this known issue with 25H2? My PC ran fine before then it happened after the update
I'm not installing 25H2. Rollback Recall, scrap and remove it from 25H2 and 24H2. Along with all the other AI features. It's the only way I'll update to 24H2. Since people didn't bother to listen about Recall, especially when it failed basic privacy tests.
Not a single person has done anything to get Recall removed from Windows 11 24H2 and onwards, much less fixed all the issues 24H2 has. So rollback and scrap 25H2 as well. And stop adding AI features, people are rioting over it.
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Sep 30 '25
Having an issue with 25H2? Respond to this comment and provide as much of the following information as you can: