The latest major update for Windows 11 has been available for a few days... but not everything at Microsoft is working as it should.
Launching the 23H2 update for Windows 11 from a perfectly operational machine is possible. No problem there. Surprisingly, however, the famous MCT or Media Creation Tool has not yet been updated. This tool allows you to create an installation medium, which is then used to install Windows 11 on a machine without the need for successive deployment of the biggest updates. The problem is that, at present, MCT continues to install version 22H2 of the operating system, as Paul Thurrott, always well-informed when it comes to Microsoft news, explains.
There's a package size optimization underway for 23H2 with MCT. Rough ETA is a couple weeks ~11/15
- Gabe Frost (@bytenerd) November 1, 2023
Even more embarrassingly, the situation looks set to continue, as a member of the Windows development team replied to Paul Thurrott on X (formerly Twitter) to say that " the rollout date is loosely estimated at more or less 15 days ". So we shouldn't expect to be able to install Windows 11 23H2 via MCT before the end of November. Why such a time lag compared with Microsoft's usual practice? The official explanation published by Gabe Frost, in the same tweet, is that it's linked to "optimization of the system package size" and that it's obviously taking longer than expected/usual.
Officially, we won't know more about why this process is taking longer than on previous updates. Perhaps when the problems at Microsoft have been resolved? The fact remains that regular MCT users are the most annoyed. However, several people have pointed out that there is a (partial) solution to simplify the Windows 11 23H2 installation procedure. All you have to do is download the Windows 11 ISO file from the Microsoft website and, rather than using the MCT, take advantage of tools such as Etcher or Rufus, which allow you to create a bootable USB key on which you can place various ISOs and, therefore, a Windows 11.
