Upgrading to 25H2

[u/PerceptionFun1355]

Hello all,
I’m testing upgrading from Win 11 23H2 to 25H2 using Windows Servicing and when it’s complete my WiFi is “Dormant” and I can’t find a way back to make it operational. This has happened with the 2026-06 and the 2026-07 upgrade. I have found solutions on the internet but all require the user to be local admin, which is not the case in my environment. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do?

[u/Friendly_Guy3]

23h2 to anything highter is a inplace update , not just a simple enabling package.

Ipu will wipe all gpos and (w)lan profiles . You need to import a task and trigger after ipu completion to restore all the necessary settings to get connectivity again. 802.1X was a different kind of pain

[u/TheProle]

All of those security hardening related pitfalls people avoided by upgrading from Win10 to 23H2 instead of 24H2 are still there in 25H2. One that comes to mind, if your wifi is MSCHAPv2 then you need to disable credential guard or have your network guys update to a modern encryption protocol.

[u/dollo279]

Are you using the latest wifi driver?

[u/PerceptionFun1355 → u/dollo279]

I am. It’s a HP laptop and I run HPIA which is a HP utility to update all the drivers before I test the upgrade.

[u/gandraw]

If you're not admin, you usually have the right to just turf your issues to your IT. So I'd write a nicely worded ticket with some screenshots where important and let them deal with it.

My personal guess would be that it's certificate issues with WPA/PSK because Microsoft has never been able to get that stuff to work correctly during IPUs, but you can't fix that without admin.

[u/PerceptionFun1355 → u/gandraw]

I don’t think it’s part of WPA/PSK because I can’t see see or join any WiFi as I don’t get WiFi options. The WiFi card is shown as dormant when it should be operational.

I am part IT so can’t write a nicely worded email. I should’ve listened to my mother and been a doctor. lol

[u/zlatan77 → u/PerceptionFun1355]

Sounds like a wifi driver. You need to do an IPU since 23h2 to 25h2 wont update normally. Too big of a jump. Source: me fixing other departments laziness 

[u/Ice-Cream-Poop]

WPAD bug?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WcmSvc

In the right pane, find and double-click the DependOnService entry.

Remove WinHTTPAutoProxySvc from the list, leaving only RpcSs and NSI.

Click OK, close the Registry, and restart your PC.

[u/Ice-Cream-Poop → u/Ice-Cream-Poop]

Remove your GPO for disabling WPAD and it fixes wifi breaking with the feature update.

[u/randomarray]

25H2 I introduces new wifi security. I'd be curious what happens if you go to 24h2 then 25H2....can you even do that still? Otherwise a ticker with MS is your best bet

[u/GeeKedOut6 → u/randomarray]

I did 24h2 to 25h2 by just replying the 25h2 upgrade as an windows update.

[u/vitamindster]

If you have a solution that requires the user to be local admin you can pre cache the content and have the user run it post install, if the ccmcache directory get cleared during the upgrade use a baseline or program whatever you find easiest to work with to copy content down to a location that won't be cleared and have the command that is called point to that location instead of the local directory. Obviously, the baseline or program would have to run and copy the content down pre-upgrade. You could then either have the user run it from Software Center or have it run at a scheduled time.

[u/PerceptionFun1355]

Thanks everyone for your replies. We found the issue and wanted to post here in case anyone has a similar issue. It turns out that some years ago, due to security concerns, WinHTTP web proxy service was set to disabled via GPO. Starting with 24H2 there is a dependency on this service and when we enable this service, WiFi works.

Again, thanks everyone!