Windows 11 26H2 Is Getting Closer as Microsoft Releases Evaluation ISOs

Microsoft has started publishing Windows 11 26H2 evaluation ISOs, giving businesses and IT professionals another way to test the upcoming feature update before wider availability.

The evaluation release offers a free 90-day trial without activation and targets organizations that want to check application compatibility, deployment processes, and hardware readiness.

Windows 11 26H2 evaluation ISOs use build 26300.9457

The new evaluation ISO uses Windows 11 26H2 build 26300.9457, which Microsoft delivered through the KB5129195 out-of-band update.

IT professionals can download the trial from Microsoft’s Windows 11 Enterprise Evaluation Center, although Microsoft requires registration before providing access to the 90-day evaluation.

The release gives administrators a ready-made environment for testing Windows 11 26H2 without deploying it across production systems.

Home users can use the Media Creation Tool instead

Microsoft has also updated the Media Creation Tool with the same build.

For regular home users, the Media Creation Tool remains the more suitable option because Microsoft primarily intends the evaluation ISOs for enterprise compatibility and deployment testing.

The evaluation edition also expires after 90 days, making it less practical for users who simply want to install Windows 11 26H2 on a personal PC.

Windows 11 26H2 arrives through an enablement package

Like Windows 11 25H2, Microsoft delivers Windows 11 26H2 through an enablement package instead of a full platform upgrade.

The eKB5121794 enablement package acts as a switch that activates Windows 11 26H2 features already present in existing Windows installations.

This approach can make the upgrade process smaller and faster because Microsoft does not need to replace the entire operating system platform.

The appearance of Windows 11 26H2 evaluation media marks another step toward broader availability, although Microsoft has not announced a general availability date in the supplied information.

In other news, Microsoft fixes a Windows bug that falsely warned Defender was disabled, and Microsoft is keeping IE mode alive inside Edge until at least 2029.

Via Neowin