What is the Registry keys if you need to reset back to normal?

Susan Bradley wrote:

To use Group policy to move to Windows 11 while on Windows 10:

If you have group policy on Windows 10 Professional, drill down to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Update>Windows update for business. Look for “Select the target Feature Update Version.” Click to enable it and enter Windows 10 in the box, “Which Windows product would you like to receive feature updates for? E.g. Windows 11.”

Just to let you know, since the instructions are for moving to Windows 11 while on Windows 10, I believe that the bolded text in the quote above should read “… and enter Windows 11 in the box.”

Hi Susan. I used your link to download and execute the file which changes my registry for keeping my Win10 at 21H1. Thank you for making this easy to do.

Concerning the registry hack for 21H1 (or any of them), how are the .reg files applied to the Registry?

I have not upgraded to 21H1. Can I install the Registry key to stay on Windows 10 21H1 before upgrading to 21H1?

I just used your helpful instructions to set the Windows 10 Target Version to 21H2 via Group Policy.  If and when I decide to stop specifying a Target Version, which would I pick — Disabled or Not Configured?  Or does it matter?

Hi. Just wondering–my new laptop came with WIN 11. Can I use the listed WIN 11 upgrade keys to maintain the existing 21H2 version?

Casey H.

Somehow I’ve lost the “drill down” info to use policy to set the windows update target release version limit. I thought it started with Windows Administrative Tools but I don’t see what should be next. There isn’t a Computer Configuration option to drill down to. Computer Management doesn’t offer the templates. So, starting at the top, how does one drill down to set the limit? Does one start at Windows Administrative Tools still?

Edit: OK. Should have entered Group Policy in search window. Rough start today and sorry for the “rookie” brain fart. Thanks all for the assistance. Sometimes the obvious is too obvious for me.

pnshldn wrote:

Somehow I’ve lost the “drill down” info to use policy to set the windows update target release version limit.

Use InControl

Thank you for this!

Hello Susan,

This is in reference to MS-DEFCON 2 alert on 2022-09-08. In the Consumers and home users section, the last highlighted part of the “Start” instructions is “Advanced updates”. I don’t know if Dell altered their version of Win 10 Settings, but I don’t see “Advanced updates” in the available choices. The closest that comes to it is “Advanced options”, which takes me to the update information.

Right now I am on 21H2, and still have the August updates paused until 2022-09-12. If you gave the okay for installing the August updates, I must have missed it. Should I install August updates so I can then delay the September updates?

Thanks for you valuable information. Without it most of Win10 would be a mystery.

Your email says, “Using any of these Registry keys will keep the systems on 22H1 and prevent 22H2 from installing.”.  However, I don’t see a key for staying on 22H1.  Latest is 21H2.

Hi Susan,

I have been OK up to date by closing the Windows update to the end of each month, at the Start of the Month due to Australia being a day head of your zone on UTC, but now I am lost as I have one Windows 10 Pro and one windows 10 Home, both on version 21H2.

Please, how do I turn off the the windows Update Lock which is now on?

Also, can I leave the Windows  Lock on and still follow your instructions with the links to each of my laptops?

Do I have to follow each of the instructions, or just click the links in the appropriate Laptop?

Roger3

Hello,

So how do you prevent Win11 Pro 22H1 from upgrading to 22H2?

I don’t see a registry key up above.

Thanks

I installed the InControl utility about 3 weeks ago and it is ‘locked on’ to Win10 Home 21H2, until I release it. Therefore I assume I don’t need to apply Registry keys as well?

Appreciate any advice on this.

regards

GeoffB

GeoffB wrote:

Therefore I assume I don’t need to apply Registry keys as well?

Appreciate any advice on this.

Correct.

1. Being very limited in my Computer Knowledge, I once again ask, is this for Both Windows 10 Home and Pro?
2. I have Windows 10 Version 21H2 on each laptop and neither will accept Windows 11.
3. Do I have to do anything besides use the link for Windows above or do I just open my Windows delay and use the appropriate link?
4. As I am limited I would appreciate advice from a moderator.

Managers, I have read the replies, above and find that rereading the alert and with my ancient Laptop, I should not have to do anything until I receive the SMS that I can go again.

• Very sorry, but was TMI for a still learner at 80 Years of age.

Question on TargetReleaseVersion.  Should it be set to decimal or hexadecimal in the registry?

“TargetReleaseVersion”=dword:00000001
“ProductVersion”=”Windows 10”
“TargetReleaseVersionInfo”=”22H2”

Thanks

PKCano wrote:

Neither. It is a String Value. (“H” is neither decimal or Hex)

I am using Windows 10 Home I don’t see “String Value” as an option – only hex or decimal

PKCano wrote:

It’s there. Look again.

So I have to create a brand new TargetReleaseVersion in order to get a String Value – since my current TargetReleaseVersion is set to hex?

Got it.  Right now Info is set to 21H2 and I will update to 22H2 whenever AskWoody gives the go ahead.  Thanks

How would I set it if I wanted to lock in win 10 and still receive the new updates? I haven’t seen an answer to this anywhere.

joe wrote:

How would I set it if I wanted to lock in win 10

Set TRV to Windows 10. Don’t set version (21H2, 22H2…)

I cannot seem to get my Win 10 Pro machines to update to 22H2.

I’ve installed a bunch of Win 10 Pro machines and applied the 3 reg keys during installation using sysprep and an unattend.xml file. This was with TRVI set to 21H2. I didn’t do this to necessarily limit to 21H2, but this was how I found I was able to suppress the Windows 11 prompting.

Now, in a VM, if I remove the TRV and TRVI values, leaving just ProductVersion (“Windows 10”), I get the Win 11 prompts back (“this hardware does not meet requirements” — my guess is due to lack of TPM), but I do not get offered 22H2. If I remove the entire WindowsUpdate reg key, it’s the same thing.

Also, again in a VM, if I instead set the TRVI to “22H2”, I still don’t get offered 22H2. It  seems my VM has permanently decided it would just be on 21H2. Can anyone confirm they were able start from 21H2 reg settings, and then somehow able to update to 22H2?

If I’m reading correctly, the instructions here say that if you set PV to “Windows 10” you stay on the Win 10 train with all updates, and don’t get asked for Win 11. So I’m a little bit disturbed that I’m getting the Win 11 prompt, after removing TRV and TRVI. Now, I didn’t start with just PV. I started with PV, TRV and TRVI. Then I removed the other 2 values. And this led to the Win 11 prompting.

Experimenting in a VM is super valuable, I can iterate quickly. But I am going to try it on actual hardware next, to rule out some oddness of the VM environment.

I find it hard to believe that the difference here is that I set it up in sysprep. There aren’t sysprep settings for this — the way I set it up is to add commands that add these values to the registry. So it’s just as if I’d run the reg add commands in a cmd prompt.

Thanks for any insights.

noob wrote:

I’m having a problem getting an update to 22h2. I do now have InControl installed and used that instead of my manual reg editing,

With Windows 10 Pro you don’t need InControl, registry hacks or pause.
You need GPEdit to set Windows version 10 and better add notify=2.

Check : https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/comments-on-akb-2000016-guide-for-windows-update-settings-for-windows-10/

Alright! I have news! This is my unlucky timing!

I used the awesome WuMgr tool (and VM snapshots) to exhaustively run through many update scenarios. The short story is, after applying

2023-02 Preview for Win 10 21H2 x64 (KB5022906)

the 22H2 feature update is no longer offered. This regardless of whether I set the target release to 21H2, 22H2, or unlocked; and regardless of whether I used InControl or gpedit to do the locking/unlocking. AFAICT both the InControl and gpedit methods are equivalent.

Starting from a fresh ISO 21H2 installation, using WuMgr I applied all previous updates one-by-one. I then used both methods (InControl and gpedit) to control version locking. In all cases, 22H2 continued to be offered when toggling 21H2 locking off (ie, either locking to 22H2 or unlocking altogether). Even as I started I intuited that this would be the case, because whenever the settings allowed 22H2 to be available, KB5022906 was no longer offered (all other 21H2 updates were still offered). So that told me that 22H2 and KB5022906 were probably mutually exclusive. But I continued to run through the updates one at a time, to be sure  that this would actually bear fruit.

Finally I ended up with no other updates available except for the KB5022906. Again, just to be clear, when I had the system locked to 21H2, only KB5022906 would show available. If I changed to 22H2-locked, only 22H2 feature update would show available. Then after installing KB5022906, the 22H2 feature update was no longer shown available.

The bad timing part here is that KB5022906 would obviously have only just come out (feb 14 2023). So no one would have experienced this until very recently.

We all know that available updates are based on prereqs, so sometimes an update isn’t made available until you install some predecessor. But another oddity in my journey was that only after applying 2023-02 security update (KB5022834), did the earlier dated 2022-08 security update (KB5012170) become available.

After KB5022906, About your PC shows

21H2 19044.2673, Experience 120.2212.4190.0.

When I rewind the state, unlock the target releases, and apply 22H2, About your PC shows

22H2 19045.2604 Experience 120.2212.4190.0

At this point, with target release set to either 22H2 or unlocked, WuMgr now does show the KB5022906 suddenly available again. However this time, the update is titled for 22H2 instead of 21H2, and the date is 2/21/23 instead of 2/14/23, even while the KB reference is the same. After installing it, the build# changes to match 21H2, in About your PC:

22H2 19045.2673 Experience 120.2212.4190.0

OK lastly, after reading KB5022906, I see it points to enablement pack KB5015684, which says that this update to 21H2 has the 22H2 features installed but “dormant” and that the tiny enablement pack (185k) will turn them on. So I feel quite confident that the correct update path for my existing 21H2 fleet is to install all updates, including KB5022906, then the enablement pack, then either remove the version lock or update the lock to 22H2.

What a ride!

Need some guidance please.

Windows 10 Home, Version 21H2, OS Build 19044.2846

At the moment by using the above registry key link I am on 21H2 but would like to upgrade to 22H2. I have downloaded the above registry links for 22H2 and the link to reset the values.

I am terrified of messing things up as I am not au fait with computers, (my nephew helped me to stay on 21H2 by using the above link and I took notes).

I intend doing the following:

Disconnect from the internet. Use the link to reset the values. Install the registry link for 22H2. Restart laptop and check for updates.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.