14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft removed the Windows 10 Threshold 2 (also known as November Update) ISO download links during the weekend, but the company hasn’t provided a reason to explain why users are now allowed to get the new version only from Windows Update.
But according to Microsoft MVP Greg Carmack, the decision to remove the ISOs might have something to do with activation issues that were first spotted one week ago and which are currently investigated by the Windows team.
In a post on Microsoft’s Community forums, Carmack says he already contacted the company via the MVP Communications Channel and learned that Threshold 2 ISOs have been replaced with the original version released in July.
As a result, Threshold 2 is only available via Windows Update for now, but there are reports claiming that Microsoft pulled the plug on this channel too, most likely as it’s investigating issues. The company says this isn’t the case, and Threshold 2 is being rolled out in stages.
Activation issues
Carmack explains in his post that some Windows 10 installs aren’t properly activated once Threshold 2 is deployed.
“This may have to do with a glitch also reported here on Monday that on Clean Installs that media was reading embedded Windows 8 keys to only activate the embedded version, even on PC's that also had a Digital Entitlement to Pro version. Since the version menu was then hidden, there was no way to install Professional without a workaround,” he explained in his post.
Furthermore, he adds that the Windows team is most likely looking into the issue, which means that more details could be provided to users soon.
“Since there is no response from the Windows 10 Team yet we assume they are scrambling to resolve issues with Entitlement activation which unfortunately was the only feature not able to be tested (or Stress Tested, as August proved) by the 5 million Insider previewers, who used keys.”
We’ve also reached out to Microsoft for more information on exactly what went wrong with Threshold 2 and will update the article should we get an answer. But if there are indeed major issues that block the update from working correctly on some PCs, do not expect a mea culpa anytime soon.