[German]Microsoft has given users of Windows 11 23H2 a minor or major scare on November 2024 Patchday. A bug in update KB5046633 caused users to receive the message that version 23H2 had reached "end of life". An upgrade to the buggy 24H2 would be necessary. The bug has now been confirmed.
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Update KB5046633 for Windows 11 22H2-23H2
I mentioned it in the blog post Patchday: Windows 11/Server 2022 Updates (November 12, 2024). On November 12, 2024, Microsoft released the cumulative update KB5046633 for Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2. The update included various security improvements to the aforementioned Windows versions that are not described in detail.
Ende of Support for Windows 11 22H2
If you look at the information in the Windows 11 Life Cycle, it says that Windows 11 Home and Pro in version 22H2 will no longer be supported as of October 8, 2024. Only the Enterprise and Education versions will still receive support.
Windows 11 Home and Pro version 23H2, on the other hand, will continue to receive support until November 11, 2025 – in other words, for another full year. It should be borne in mind that the two Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2 mentioned use the same code base and the distinction is only made via an enablement update.
Windows 11 23H2 reported End-of-Life
Users who then installed the cumulative update KB5046633 for Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2 were surprised to see the end-of-life for Windows 11 23H2.
In the Microsoft Answers forum, there is the post Why does it say my version of Windows has reached the end of service? from November 13, 2024, where someone complains about a corresponding message. He wrote that he had "recently received some automatic Windows updates". Since these were installed, he has received a message that his version of Windows has reached the end of its service life. However, he is using Windows 11 Pro 23H2, which is still in support. He asks if anyone else has this problem?
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Many users are also complaining about the bug in this Microsoft Answers forum thread. On reddit.com there is this thread and this discussion on the same topic. The update history from the screenshot above is documented there and you can see that update KB5046633 was installed under Windows 11 23H2.
In Windows Update, those affected are then shown the entry "Get the newer version of Windows to stay up to date" with the note that Windows has reached the end of its service life. In other words, the operating system will no longer receive security updates and must be updated to the next version.
This is a bug
I had heard reports of this in passing over the last few days. In this German comment, Bolko points out that Microsoft has confirmed the above message as a bug. However, there is still no official confirmation in the Windows 11 Update Health Status dashboard or in the support article for update KB5046633.
In the Microsoft Answers forum, there is this thread in which a community moderator (referred to as an independent advisor) named Ramesh Srinivasan (IA) writes that Windows 11 23H2 will be supported until November 2025. A bug in the latest quality update (KB5046633) causes the message "End of service" to appear after installing the update.
The error should be ignored until further notice. This article with similar statements can also be found on Windows Latest.
Similar articles:
Microsoft Security Update Summary (November 12, 2024)
Patchday: Windows 10/Server Updates (November 12, 2024)
Patchday: Windows 11/Server 2022 Updates (November 12, 2024)
Patchday: Windows Server 2012 / R2 and Windows 7 (November 12, 2024)
Patchday: Microsoft Office Updates (12. November 2024)
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