Windows 11 clean install question, offline install

DarrenLee02

I was wondering if someone could confirm this is doable... I have Windows 11, however when I went to 22H2 it broke a few things for me, so I rolled-back to the previous version. All is well. Now, I have a larger ssd I'm wanting to use for Windows, but I assume that during installation it will automatically update me to 22H2. I found online a cheat that allows 11 to be installed offline. Would this let me install 11 (I have a usb thumb drive with the an old installation version of 11 on it), then when it's up and running, install updates as per normal and skip 22H2?

facade

Can't you just clone the working drive using something like Macrium Reflect free?  then you don't need to fear the updates.

If your SSD is a reasonable make there will likely be a version of acronis available from the manufacturer, I use it with a crucial drive in the system, but I wouldn't recommend crucial as the MX500 has a fault that clocks the lifetime down 1% a week. 

Neil_Jones

DarrenLee02 said:

I was wondering if someone could confirm this is doable... I have Windows 11, however when I went to 22H2 it broke a few things for me, so I rolled-back to the previous version. All is well. Now, I have a larger ssd I'm wanting to use for Windows, but I assume that during installation it will automatically update me to 22H2. I found online a cheat that allows 11 to be installed offline. Would this let me install 11 (I have a usb thumb drive with the an old installation version of 11 on it), then when it's up and running, install updates as per normal and skip 22H2?

What broke in 22H2 then?

Are you sure the issue will not occur again with a clean install?  If it doesn't, then you have nothing to worry about.

The nature of Windows 11 (and 10 for that matter) is the online update requirements.  It will always download the latest update available.

(and the offline install isn't new either, the only change as far as Windows 11 is concerned is bypassing the requirement for an MS account - which is relatively easy to do.)

DarrenLee02

facade said:

Can't you just clone the working drive using something like Macrium Reflect free?  then you don't need to fear the updates.

My current ssd is 250GB and the new one is 1TB. I'm not sure if that's an issue, if it isn't it's a possible option.

Edit: Both Samsung

DarrenLee02

Neil_Jones said:

What broke in 22H2 then?

Are you sure the issue will not occur again with a clean install?  If it doesn't, then you have nothing to worry about.

It broke my audio, apparently it's an issue that WIn 10 22H2 has aswell, so no point going back to 10.

I figured if I could get Win 11 onto the ssd, then I can do normal Windows Updates procedures, allowing me to say no to 22H2.

facade

DarrenLee02 said:

facade said:

Can't you just clone the working drive using something like Macrium Reflect free?  then you don't need to fear the updates.

My current ssd is 250GB and the new one is 1TB. I'm not sure if that's an issue, if it isn't it's a possible option.

Edit: Both Samsung

Then you are entitled to download & use Samsung Data migration software, which will clone to a larger drive. I used it once, and can't remember if it is automatic, or you have to move some sliders to create a 1TB partition, but the instructions are on the Samsung SSD website.

When I used it I found that both SSDs ended up with the exact same serial number, so I couldn't connect the second one (even in an external caddy) as Windows will not let two drives with the same serial number exist. It is probably done so that any software keyed to the disc will still work.

22H2 broke my win 10 too*, I'm still recovering from it, there is obviously something well wrong, as microsoft are pushing out large weekly quality improvements at the moment.

* Something went wrong with the SATA controller- When copying multiple files or a single large file the speed ramps down to zero, and there is 100% disk usage. Then the PC won't reboot unless I turn it off and disconnect that drive.  I thought it was hardware but now I've changed the motherboard/CPU, the disc drive and the power supply, and it still does it.  I've just done a complete wipe and fresh install of win 10.

km1500

if you have the  W11 original installation files (setup.exe etc) then yes this can be installed offline

you can then google windows 11 update history and find tje microsoft update catalogue and download the latest fixes for the original release ie not go.to v22h2

DarrenLee02

Thanks to the suggestion of cloning my ssd, I'm going to use that method now. It will save days and days of reinstalling everything and getting it all back to how I like. I've ordered a nvme caddy off Amazon for the job.

Thanks for the advice! Though I'm sad to hear others have issues with 22H2 as well, sounds even worse than my problems with it. I don't know what Microsoft are up to, even this evening I've been reading about more things that that update has broken.