windows 24h2 26100 to new beta insider 26120 build update says "pc can't be upgraded to this version of windows"

[myusrn]

Using latest vmware workstation pro 17.6.2 install on windows 24h2 x86_64 system i'm trying to take an existing virtual machine setup running windows 24h2 general availability release 26100.3037 to the new beta insider release preview build 26120.3360. 

When the microsoft update provided update for this process completes downloading and a little way into the installation process, e.g. 10 - 20% mark, it throws up a dialog stating "This PC can't be upgraded to this version of windows | Your PC isn't supported yet on this version of Windows. Windows Update will automatically offer you this version of Windows once the issue has been resolved.". See attached screen grab for complete details.

Historically on vm fresh installs of windows 24h2 and 23h2 you'd get messages like this if you didn't create the vm with TPM present, or 64GB+ of storage or 4GB+ of ram. I have all of these matters addressed in my vm setup used to initially create this windows 24h2 install i'm now trying to push a microsoft updated to the next beta insider channel preview build.

Anyone else seeing something like this and has worked out why and how to resolve it?

[Technogeezer]

I assume that you have run PC Health Check in the VM and that it's not throwing any errors?

You might want to check with Microsoft to see if they can give you any more information on why they are blocking this update. You may also want to provide feedback to Microsoft that the upgrade is failing. 

You don't say what CPU is being used on your PC. I've seen instances of Windows refusing to update/upgrade because the chipset that's being used is does not meet Microsoft's minimum specs (that is, 8th gen Intel Core or later).

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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
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[myusrn]

Hi @Technogeezer thanks for the follow up response.

The physical machine i'm running on is a current windows 24h2 [ / 25h2 beta insider preview builds ] capable hardware setup with intel 12th gen i7, 32gb ram and tpm chip / firmware.

The VM setup is configured properly to support windows 24h2 as confirmed by the fact that this is what is already running there that i'm trying to upgrade.

Turns out the issue was to do with VM storage. Normally a windows 24h2 system requires modern SoC + uefi + tpm + 4GB ram + 64GB storage. That said i have seen cases where because of the EFI and Recovery partitions that windows setup creates it doesn't see the full 64GB needed. 

In this case i expanded partition to 74GB and then the windows 24h2 general availability release 26100.3037 to the new beta insider release preview build 26120.3360 update succeeded.