Upgrading to Windows 11 23H2 with Patch Management

Products

• Patch Management Solution
• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

Windows 11 version 23H2 has been released since 31 Oct 2023 and you may be planning to update your clients to Windows 11 23H2.

Is there a way for patch management to facilitate this process? 

Environment

ITMS 8.6, 8.7, 8.8

PM 8.6, 8.7, 8.8

Resolution

Note: If you need to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11 (since the suggestions presented later on only work if you are already in Windows 11), Software Management Solution is a better fit for such process.  Please refer to the following KB Article Upgrading to Windows 11 using Software Management Solution

ITMS supports Windows 11 23H2 as far as managing client machines with that version. See the following support statement Windows 11 23H2 Support Statement

Now, regarding Patch Management and Altiris PMImport Metadata for Windows 11 v23H2 support, there is not a "direct" way to enable updating Windows 11 machines to 23H2. What we have provided to customers as guidance has been the following:

• KB5027397 (since PMImport version 7.3.1387) could be used to upgrade to Windows 11 23H2 from version 22H2 using a small (179 KB) enablement package (bulletin MSNS23-10-W11-5027397):
  
  
  
  
• Note that because of the significant codebase difference between Windows 11 21H2 and 22H2 Microsoft doesn't provide a similar way of upgrading from the 21H2 version.
• In testing, you are able to upgrade to Windows 11 23H2 successfully using this package:
  
  
  
  
  
• You may notice MSNS23-10-W11-5027397 even targets computers with 23H2 already installed (although actual deployment will not happen as it was not required).
• Microsoft doesn't officially support this scenario (using 3rd party tools outside of Windows Update or WSUS) but packages are downloaded from the official Microsoft Update Catalog and signed by Microsoft:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Just to clarify the possible upgrade sequence, there is no bulletin for ISO-based upgrades to Windows 11 23H2, and customers are expected to upgrade to Windows 11 22H2 using the SBSP-Windows11_22H2 bulletin and then use the MSNS23-10-W11-5027397 bulletin to complete the upgrade to Windows 11 23H2.