Windows 2004 - worth the trouble? Force install?

[Trice]

This laptop will be 5 years old in December. I always keep it updated, but Windows 2004 was not made available to me until late July. I updated immediately and ran into problems the next day. They were minor, but I decided to roll back to 1909 and wait until the kinks were ironed out before attempting to upgrade again.

Since that time, I have not been offered version 2004 again. I’m aware of a number of issues but as best I can tell, my laptop isn’t affected by them. My laptop is not on the list of HP-tested products for 2004. I am not aware that I'm affected by anything documented on the Windows 2004 issues page. (One open issue seems to be Conexant audio drivers...which I have, but not these versions.) My Intel graphics driver is v27.20.100.8783 with a date of 09/27/20.

This page suggests I can force install it via the Windows 10 Update Assistant. Naturally, I'm hesitant to break anything. Is it worth the trouble? I don’t want to fall too far behind with 20H2 right around the corner.

Thanks.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@Trice 

Excellent question -- as way too many folks charge right into this update without any concern for the risks involved.

First thing I would suggest is reading this to see if you even NEED the update:  

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2020/05/27/whats-new-in-the-windows-10-may-2020-update/

Second, you are right that 20H2 is just around the corner -- but understand it will be, like 19.09, only a minor feature update that will be installed with an enablement patch, so you will still be doing 20;04, like it or not.

Third, I would strongly suggest you read the info below about doing an image backup using MR prior to doing the next update -- as that will then give you something to restore FROM if you run into problems: 

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I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry. This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

[Trice]

I thought I'd follow up...I decided to go ahead with Windows 2004, but as I was about to do so, 20H2 came out. I stopped to do some reading and just decided to move forward with the latest. So far it's running smoothly.

[WAWood]

@Trice 

I'm glad that worked for you -- as 20H2 is really only a bunch of minor feature updates to 20.04.