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.

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

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

 

We support 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, We don't have a "direct" way to enable updating Windows 11 machines to 23H2. What we have provided to other 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 our testing, we were able to upgrade to Windows 11 23H2 successfully using this package:
  
  
  
  
  
• You may notice MSNS23-10-W11-5027397 targets even 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 upgrade to Windows 11 23H2, customers are expected to upgrade to Windows 11 22H2 using SBSP-Windows11_22H2 bulletin and then use MSNS23-10-W11-5027397 bulletin to complete the upgrade to Windows 11 23H2.