Windows 10 x86 image unable to upgrade to 22H2 on Windows 11 22H2 host with VMWare 17

[TorvaFirmus]

Long story short. Windows 11 host was upgraded to 22H2. There is no option to roll back the host computer.

Couldn't upgrade Windows 10 x64 21H2 to 22H2 because of "Unsupported Processor" BSOD. Upgraded VMWare Workstation Pro from 15.5 to 17. Windows 10 x64 upgrades successfully to 22H2.

But I cannot get Windows 10 x86 image to upgrade. Keep getting "SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED" BSOD. I have also created a new guest image with Windows 10 x86. But when I try and upgrade that I get the same BSOD during reboot. Then the OS rolls back.

How do I get my Windows 10 x86 image upgraded to 22H2?

[TorvaFirmus]

Does anyone have a clue what is causing this?

What can I do about it?

[rkmr]

It's the same with my VMware Workstation 17 Pro installation:

Upgrade of Windows 10 x86 to 22H2 or fresh installation fails with the "SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED" BSOD.

[TorvaFirmus]

For me this problem started when I installed 22H2 update to the Windows 11 host. Which is where all my problems with VMWare started. I then upgraded VMWare Workstation from 15.5 to 17. This fixed the invalid processor BSOD on the 64bit image when upgrading to 22H2. I cannot upgrade the x86 image 22H2.

[TorvaFirmus]

Any ideas, I am sure there aren't only two of us with this issue. Anyone know what we can do to resolve this.

[rkmr · Accepted solution]

Apparently there seems to be a conflict between the vmware nvme driver for x86 windows 10 machines and the update KB5022282. If the bug is on the Microsoft or the Vmware side - I don't know. Perhaps the Vmware developers can have a closer look at it.

The following workaround did it for me:

System configuration
Host:
Windows 10 Pro x64
Hyper-V + Windows-Hypervisor-Platform enabled
VMware Workstation 17 Pro
Guest:
Windows 10 Pro x86
Option: Side channel mitigation disabled
Settings:
- One NVME VHD installed as nvme0:0
- One SATA CD/DVD-Drive installed as sata0:1
- sata0:0 not used

Troubleshooting steps:
1. Shut down VMware Workstation
2. Backup VM
3. Edit vmx file:
- Disable nvme adapter
- Replace nvme0:0 with sata0:0
---
Initial configuration snippet:
sata0.present = "TRUE"
nvme0.present = "TRUE"
nvme0:0.fileName = "xxx.vmdk"
nvme0:0.present = "TRUE"
nvme0:0.redo = ""
---
New configuration snippet:
sata0.present = "TRUE"
nvme0.present = "FALSE"
sata0:0.fileName = "xxx.vmdk"
sata0:0.present = "TRUE"
sata0:0.redo = ""
---
4. Save vmx file
5. Start VMware Workstation: Instead of "Hard Disk (NVME)" you should see "Hard Disk (SATA)" now
6. Give it another try ...

[PatrickSteranka]

I'm holding off on upgrading until I see this issue resolved.

[crajaniemi]

For anyone else coming into this issue the NVME to SATA conversion works from 2 posts above.

[TorvaFirmus]

Thank you, I will try this.

[GarryAdkins]

I can confirm this works in Workstation 17 player and Windows 10 Pro 22H2!  It kept failing to install, and even installing 32bit 22H2 failed after running windows update.  

I performed the above edit, started the VM and ran windows update.  All worked as normal!

Thank you so much for this solution.

[MatoHP]

Tonight was one of those nights where I just wanted to have the VM updated and be on my way. I hit the issue with this update, VM kept downloading, rebooting, failing updates.

I found nothing obvious at the first glance. Temporarily changing disk to sata from nvme solved it. Thanks.

[SeberMartinez]

Yeap! It worked for me.

[MatoHP]

I thought it helped me but I spoke too soon. After a short while I was back in the annoying, long update loop.

During my google journey I found this: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/installation-failure-for-2023-10-cumulative-up...

It seems something was wrong with the early Oct update coming from MS.

While suggestions there didn't help me (dism rollback failed) it gave me an idea. I uninstalled all KBs applied to that system from Oct 2023. And then let the system be updated again. This did solve my problem.

I'm back on nvme disks, no more update loop. I tested it for two days, few other updates were successfully installed too.