Among the many problems with Windows 11 on Arm, Microsoft does not provide ISO symbol registry downloads: Yes, you can get preliminary ISOs in the Windows Insider program, but they are continually converted and do not constitute the final version. Shipping versions of the product set.
This will have to change.
I suspect this will be the case: Microsoft maintains easy-to-use download sites on Google for its supported client versions of Windows, Windows 11, and Windows 10. Each offers a way to download Windows installation discs in symbol registry (ISO), only in x64/x86 format. Forms. (Options vary depending on the formula. )But nothing for Arm, even though Windows 10 on Arm dates back to 2017 in a solid version. And Windows 11 on Arm has been available since that formula first shipped in 2021.
But here we are in this time segment.
This time period is marked by two intertwined anomalies. The 24H2 edition of Windows 11 is publicly available as I write this, but only on the new Snapdragon, Microsoft will continue to test 24H2 and likely load new features, ahead of its second, more widespread release in October, which will be available. on all compatible PCs, adding the vast majority based on x64 (Intel and AMD).
In May, I wrote a tip describing how to upgrade to Windows 11 24H2 without delay and without worry: despite downloading a Windows 11 Insider Preview edition of ISO 24H2, anyone upgrading to 24H2 wouldn’t want to log in to their PC on Insider. The resulting program and installation would be fully supported and maintained usually through Microsoft in the solid version. That is, in the future, only get the monthly cumulative general updates, like anyone who employs 23H2/22H2.
This is wonderful advice, but now, almost two months later, there are two caveats and a new one is added: the ISO I mention in the advice has been replaced by newer versions and it is not transparent whether they will work in the same way. . And this advice was never implemented in Arm64: while Microsoft offers a separate download page for Arm64-based Windows 11 Insider Preview ISOs, the page I connected to, which offers many more ISO download versions, doesn’t.
Microsoft makes this unnecessarily complicated.
(For those using x64 and needing to upgrade to Windows 11 24H2 edition, it’s conceivable that the most recent edition is indexed on the general Windows Insider Preview download site, “Windows 11 Insider Preview (Release Preview) – Build 26100. 863,” available today This article focuses on Windows 11 on Arm, but what I describe below is suitable for everyone, regardless of the platform you’re using. Hopefully, one day Microsoft will leave this blank and provide all of its users with the same downloads.
Related to this, I received some questions about whether the 24H2 edition of Windows 11 and its updated Prism emulator will enjoy existing Windows 11 on Arm PCs like those based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 1, Gen 2. . .
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Paul Thurrott is an award-winning generational journalist and blogger with 30 years of industry experience and 30 books. He is the owner of Thurrott. com and host of three technology podcasts: Windows Weekly with Leo Laporte and Richard Campbell, Hands- On Windows, and First Ring Daily with Brad Sams. In the past, he was a Senior Generation Analyst at Windows IT Pro and a writer for SuperSite for Windows from 1999 to 2014 and Principal Domo for Thurrott. com at BWW Media Group from 2015 to 2023. You can succeed at Paul via email , Twitter or Mastodon.
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