Can't install Windows 11 23H2 with Microsoft's Media Creation Tool? This is why

Windows 11 23H2, officially known as Windows 11 2023 Update, has been out for a short while now, available to those who want to upgrade from 22H2.

However, there's a catch, and that's regarding installing the latest incarnation of Windows 11 with the Media Creation Tool (which is used for a fresh install of the OS via a bootable USB stick or DVD).

If you go this route, even though Microsoft states that the current release version of the Media Creation Tool is the 23H2 update, in actual fact, it still fetches 22H2 instead.

Microsoft has admitted this is the case, as Neowin reports, and in a tweet, Gabe Frost, a Senior Director and Group Product Manager at Microsoft, informed us that those wanting to install 23H2 via the tool will just have to hang on a bit longer.

That's because there's optimization work still to be done for getting 23H2 live with the Media Creation Tool, and it will take a couple of weeks. As noted, the expected arrival date is November 15, or around then.

Otherwise, your only option for a 23H2 upgrade is to use the Windows 11 Installation Assistant, but that's only good for an in-place upgrade (on a PC running Windows 10 - so it's no use for a clean install on a new computer).

Windows 11 23H2 comes with all the goodies that some folks have already grabbed via the Moment 4 update, and that includes the major upgrade for Microsoft's desktop OS this year, namely the addition of Copilot.