Downloads for Windows 10 November big-bang build axed by Microsoft

A funny thing happened over the weekend: Microsoft made its latest Windows 10 download – billed as its first major update – disappear. And it hasn't come back. Sure, you'll eventually be able to get the build, version 1511, via Windows Update, so no one's losing out. But if you were hoping to use Microsoft's media creation …

[hplasm]

And nothing of value

was lost.

[ZSn]

Cannot?

You cannot use it to install windows 10. Have those ISOs speed in some way or am iIIreading this wrong?

[Anonymous Coward]

The demand was so high, they sold out.

[Anonymous Coward]

\o/

------->

[Colin Miller]

caching?

rather than have each computer upgrade to the latest build of Windows 10 via gigabytes and gigabytes of Windows Update downloads

I thought that Win10 Home shares patches between machines on the same network, thus they only have to be downloaded once. Machines on a corporate network will normally connect to a WUS server, which controls and caches which updates will be applied.

[mANgLEr]

The volume licensing centre is letting me download the November 15 release ISOs still. I will rip the crap out of it with NTLite. Yes, I know that would make it a blank ISO.

[Chris G]

Forward planning

At MS seems to be 'what can we do by 5 o clock?' At least as regards OS development and release.

The general impression is that they are making it up as they go along.

[Arctic fox]

@Chris G "The general impression is that they are making it up as they go along"

I am constrained to agree. It now appears that they have reinstituted the facility.

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-restores-windows-10-november-update-media-explains-why-it-was-pulled

[Test Man]

The last I heard is that the ISOs had a problem recognising the "Digital Entitlement" i.e. it activated the version of Windows based on the embedded key in firmware of supported devices instead of what is actually on the HDD/SSD.

This would affect anyone who may have bought a machine with "Home" or comparable version of previous versions of Windows, upgraded it to a "Pro" edition and then subsequently used the tool to install version 1511 of Windows 10.

[RonWheeler]

Annoying

Did my desktop PC last week direct to 1511. Apart from being fugly it works okay so went to do an old netbook on Sunday by same method - which had of course disappeared. Grrrrr....

[Forget It]

Muggins here

used MCT last week and managed to install the upgrade.

It fouled up on reinstalling my laptop's bluetooth driver and

that in turn broke the Send_To menu (all of it) and so I had to

get my hands dirty fixing it. I guess feedback from such not so trivial

incidents made MS pull the techie solution so they didn't have to cope

with the flack,

[Steve Davies 3]

Business as usual then?

Sometimes I really start to think that MS does absolutely no QC on what they release.

I am dreaming aren't I?

[pordzio]

Re: Business as usual then?

Seeing as they essentially fired their entire testing department..

[Sandtitz]

It broke the Send To menu for me too, the list was blank. I removed some suspicious looking files from AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo directory with size of 0 bytes and that fixed it. Haven't encountered other problems...yet.

[Terry 6]

Maybe, just maybe..

..... there's a secret group working deep inside Microsoft who are trying out different methods for shooting the company in the foot.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Maybe, just maybe..

That's probably the BOD you are talking about.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Maybe, just maybe..

No 'maybe' about it.

[brainout]

Re: Maybe, just maybe..

Or, trying to destroy it. Do we have a second-generation of seedpod people or did some militant anti-MSFT group infiltrate? Sure seems like one or the other.

Fire them all, including pseudo-Gates and the Board. But then will the 3rd generation (since Gates and Ballmer) be the same? How far down did the seedpods infiltrate?

For surely at the top, no sanity reigns.

[brainout]

Re: Maybe, just maybe..

OR, what we're seeing is a policy war. Factions pro and con independent installation. The con faction won.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow Reg, you folks were quick to pick up on this story while other (more on the ball) outlets broke it at the weekend.

I note the Reg's Editorial director is John Lettice, perhaps Mr Slug is more appropriate.

[Tim Brown 1]

What about the Dev VMs?

Anyone checked if the VMs at

https://dev.windows.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/windows/

have been updated?

(I only run Windows > 7 in VMs now and that's only for compatibility testing)

[RR1]

Still available on MSDN

I spotted build 1511 with a "new" tag next to it on MSDN the other day and looking now it's still available to download. This suggests it's not a quality control issue as presumably they'd have pulled it from MSDN as well if there were quality issues.

[Geoffrey W]

Re: Still available on MSDN

Link? Cannot find it.

[Geoffrey W]

Re: Still available on MSDN

Never mind. You meant as a subscriber download

[Putters]

Is this the Cumulative update from mid November ?

If so, the damn thing has tried to update several times so far, only to complain it "couldn't complete the update" and then "restoring to previous setting", or something like that anyhow. Phaffed around for a couple of hours last night trying to either stop it attempting to install or successfully install it and gave up. Got a PC with a boot time of about 10 minutes as a result at present.

If I could get the missus's "Work from Home" to work on the playing-around-with-Linux box upstairs, then this (the main PC) would go the same way ... my Work from Home works on it and the bits of Office 2010 we use too, so I don't think I'd miss much.

[Mike 9]

MSDN

The 1511 ISO files are still available to MSDN subscribers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: MSDN

You can also get them using a JS hack without having to be a subscriber.

[martinusher]

What's the point?

Having 'upgraded' a Win7 machine to Win10 to check it out I can think of nothing on this Earth that would cause me to perform a mass upgrade of functioning Win7 machines. Win10 gives you a bunch of irrelevant eye candy, a Windows Store (really useful in a professional setting....) and a certain lack of stability and driver support that makes using it even more of crap shoot than usual.

I await the upgrade with interest....but as with everything Windows, better the Devil you know.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Luckily I spent Saturday downloading all three versions.

Downloaded both the 32Bit and 64Bit Versions, but the 'Both' Version is a bloater.

I wish Microsoft would understand that most people run Windows 10 on SSDs and having 16GB Spare is no mean feat. The last Media Creation Tool ('Something happened...') was a real pain when you're short on space, as is Windows 10 Update, on a Windows 7 Machine.

I run a multi-boot OS Machine i.e. Linux / Windows + VM Images of various earlier OSs. 16GB Spare is not something I have lying around even on a fairly large SSD.

Quite pleased I downloaded these before they disappeared. I used it to upgrade, seemed to have worked, didn't check the Send To menu, will have another look.

Seems a completely mad decision to pull them, I'm wondering if its because it doesn't produce an individually unique 'fingerprinted' install of Windows 10.

[joed]

Re: Luckily I spent Saturday downloading all three versions.

"I run a multi-boot OS Machine i.e. Linux / Windows + VM Images of various earlier OSs. 16GB Spare is not something I have lying around even on a fairly large SSD." - you better check your other OSs as MS - via said update - started enforcing removal of incompatible and privacy violating products (they have monopoly for this;).

[Henry Wertz 1]

They probably don't

"I wish Microsoft would understand that most people run Windows 10 on SSDs and having 16GB Spare is no mean feat. "

Probably most people still run Win10 on spinning rust. That said, it would be good to cut down the requirements for these things.

[jnemesh]

IT "Pros"???

IT Pros don't use Windows 10. Most are busy keeping malware OFF the systems they are responsible for!

[zen1]

But why?

"So if you wanted to bring a bunch of Windows 7 machines up to the latest Windows 10, you'd just pop into each of them a DVD or USB stick built from the latest MCT download, and save yourself a lot of time and bandwidth."

But why would I want to ruin a perfectly good and functioning PC?

[johnwerneken]

Actually, Threshold 2 and the iso and the update are all back now.

[Forget It]

ElReg explains for us:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/25/windows_10_download_explained/

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I'm wishing I hadn't wasted last Saturday downloading 10.9GB of ISOs (32,64,Both)

So now we have a new version of 1511, that leaves (lack of) PRIVACY settings intact.

You can bet with the new vagueness of Windows 10 Update versioning, the new ISOs are still called 1511. Nothing like MS to confuse things.

[The Average Joe]

We need more home computers borked!

I really want to see those computers borked!

Well if your computer is more that 3 years old and you install win10 and it corrupts the hard drive do NOT reinstall win10 or win7. Tell the user the poor little computer was on it's last leg and now you need to by a new desktop or laptop.

What should happen is they go get an iPad or Android tablet and forget this steaming pile called Microsoft Windows.

Time to upgrade...