In-place Upgrade Windows 22H2 Multi-session Image to 24H2

I would like to request this feature in Nerdio, If Microsoft is not able to provide the in-place upgrade for multi-session images Nerdio has a good opportunity to work with Microsoft and provide this feature exclusively in Nerdio only.

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Carl Long
Thank you for submitting your feature request—we truly value input from our community.

Next steps:
     • We will review your request and update its status as it progresses through our evaluation process.
     • If any clarification is needed, we'll follow up with you directly in the comments.

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Vikin

I am also interested in this currently i have to deploy a brand new image and migrate the changes to it to move from 21h2 to 24h2.

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Timothy Cochran
(Edited )

How to Upgrade an AVD Image to 24H2/25H2 (Unsupported but Works)

Microsoft does NOT support in‑place upgrades for AVD images.
They want you to deploy a fresh Marketplace image instead.

If you still want to upgrade your existing image, this method works, but make a backup first.

Before You Start

Create one of the following:

  • Snapshot
  • Azure Backup
  • Shared Image Gallery version

Do NOT skip this!

1. Set Windows Update to Target 25H2

Open gpedit.msc:

Computer Configuration
 → Administrative Templates
   → Windows Components
     → Windows Update
       → Manage updates offered from Windows Update

Enable:

  • Select the target Feature Update version
    • Windows product version: Windows 11
    • Target version: 25H2

Run:

gpupdate /force

Then check for updates and let Windows upgrade.

2. Disable WinRE (Recovery Partition)

Azure / AVD doesn’t use it and it often breaks during upgrades.

reagentc /disable

You can delete the recovery partition afterward if you want.

DiskPart Steps to Delete the Recovery Partition

Open an elevated command prompt and run:

diskpart

List the disks:

list disk select disk 0

(Your OS disk is almost always Disk 0 in an AVD image.)

List partitions:

list partition

Look for the Recovery partition. It usually shows as:

  • Type: Recovery
  • Size: 750 MB
  • Often the last partition on the disk

Select it:

select partition <#>

Delete it:

delete partition override

Exit:

exit

Optional: Expand the OS partition to reclaim the space

If the Recovery partition was at the end of the disk:

diskpart 
select disk 0 
select partition 4 ← your OS partition 
extend 
exit

3. Clean Up Old OS Files (Optional)

Run:

cleanmgr.exe

Select:

  • Previous Windows installations
  • Windows Upgrade Logs

4. IMPORTANT: Stop BitLocker From Breaking Sysprep Image

Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 automatically enable BitLocker during Sysprep, even if you never turned it on.

If you don’t disable it, your captured image will boot with:

0xc000000f
winload.efi missing or corrupt

Do this BEFORE running Sysprep or creating Gallery Image:

Verify BitLocker is OFF:

manage-bde -status c:

If enabled: 

manage-bde c: -off


Disable the BitLocker service:

sc.exe config bdesvc start= disabled
sc.exe stop bdesvc

Block device encryption (service should do this but just in case):

reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BitLocker /v PreventDeviceEncryption /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Then capture your image as usual.

5. Deploy to AVD

Your hosts should now provision normally without BitLocker corruption or winload.efi errors.

Credit

Original BitLocker discovery:
http://blog.itprocloud.de/Rollout-Image-BlueScreen-0xc000000f-24h2/ 

 

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