Trickling Out the 20H2 Release
OK then, it’s official. According to the MS 20H2 Release Info/Status page, the company is ramping up offers of the upgrade only slowly. You can see their statement on this topic outlined in red in the lead-in graphic for this story. I’m not sure what this has to do with ensuring “a reliable download experience,” because I’ve had only a few difficulties in downloading MS upgrades and updates, ever. Sigh.
Sometimes, It’s Hard to Be Patient…
I’d wondered about upgrade availability already myself. Right now none of my 5 eligible 2004 PCs has qualified for a download. On 3 of my 4 eligible Lenovos, I’m now aware of a documented “blocking factor.” Both of my X380 Yogas and my X390 Yoga all have Conexant audio circuitry. This appears as Issue Detail #2 on the already-linked Status page (“Errors or issues during or after updating devices with certain Conexant audio drivers”).
This is weird because the issue dates back to May and I’ve had zero difficulties with updating similar PCs (with the same Conexant audio chips) to the Release Preview Channel version of 20H2). The X1 Extreme doesn’t have Conexant audio (it uses Intel) but it hasn’t gotten an offer, either. Nor has my production desktop, which is based on an aging but solid Asrock Extreme7+ Z170 motherboard with i7-6700 CPU.
My old mini-ITX desktop, built during the 2012 end-of-year holidays successfully did a leapfrog upgrade from 1909 to 2004 last week to my astonishment and delight (see “Where 1909 Failed, 20H2 Succeeds“). But so far, each time I try any of the other 5 2004 PCs none of them gets the Download Updates button.
I’m mystified and more than a little bit frustrated. I’m 100% sure that a forced upgrade from the 2004 Setup.exe in the ISO I downloaded for the mini-ITX upgrade would work on the other machines. It may eventually come to that, but for now I’m sticking to waiting it out. How long I can stand to wait is anybody’s guess. I’ll keep you posted!
Author: Ed Tittel
Ed Tittel is a 30-plus-year computer industry veteran. He’s a Princeton and multiple University of Texas graduate who’s worked in IT since 1981 when he started his first programming job. Over the past three decades he’s also worked as a manager, technical evangelist, consultant, trainer, and an expert witness. See his professional bio for all the details.