- Microsoft is claiming Windows 11 24H2 is the most reliable version ever
- The company says it has 24% fewer crashes than version 22H2
- In a blog post about resiliency, Microsoft also clarifies the benefits of the latest Windows update for 24H2
Microsoft has put forward a case for Windows 11 24H2 being the “most reliable version” of its desktop operating system ever made.
The long and short of this is that the software giant claims there are a good deal fewer crashes with version 24H2 compared to version 22H2 of Windows 11.
XDA Developers spotted that Microsoft made this assertion in a post on the Windows IT Pro Blog, stating that: “We’re also proud to share that Windows 11 24H2 is our most reliable version of Windows yet. Compared to Windows 10 22H2, failure rates for unexpected restarts have dropped by 24%.”
This is based on telemetry data gathered this month (July 2025) by Microsoft, we’re told. Unexpected restarts refers to complete lock-ups of the system, and as noted earlier in the post, these Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) experiences have been changed to a more streamlined black screen. That happened in the latest update for Windows 11 24H2, which just arrived in preview (but will be a full release next month).
Microsoft underlines the benefits of the new BSoD (which handily enough uses the same acronym) and notes that: “In Windows 11 24H2, we made significant improvements to crash dump collection that reduced the time users spend on the [BSoD] screen from 40 seconds to just 2 seconds for most consumer devices.” (I should note that the bolding for emphasis is Microsoft’s).
Furthermore, Microsoft reminds us of recent progress in terms of recovery from nasty crashes, namely boot failures, observing that the most recent Windows 11 update also represents the rollout and general availability of quick machine recovery. QMR is a new spin on attempting to fix a PC that will no longer boot to the desktop.
Analysis: crash tests, dummy
There’s no doubting that Microsoft has made some useful strides forward here in terms of making Windows 11 devices more resilient, which is the theme of the blog post. But does the latest version of Windows 11, 24H2, really have a quarter fewer crashes than 22H2?
Well, we obviously need to be cautious about stats produced by internal testing – not that I’m accusing Microsoft of anything underhand, but we’re all aware that in these kind of scenarios, multiple tests can be carried out and results cherry-picked. (This practice is common across all marketing, of course).
There are doubtless those who would argue vehemently that 24H2 very much isn’t the most reliable take on Microsoft’s desktop OS that’s ever been seen – mainly based on all the bugs that came with this release. I won’t bang on about those glitches again, save to say that there were indeed a lot of them initially, and some were very odd affairs indeed.
I’ve always been of the opinion that the shift to a new underlying platform for Windows 11 (called Germanium) threw a number of unexpected spanners in the works for the OS.
Microsoft has made a lot of headway in fixing those bugs, mind – although not all of them – and I’ve got to accept the stats the company presents here at face value. (I can hardly disprove them with my own crash testing, after all).
However, what I can say is that this is all relative, anyway. By which I mean I’ve not seen a BSoD in ages, on my Windows 11 PCs, or indeed my Windows 10 machines.
So, fewer crashes means those BSoD instances are even closer to next-to-nothing – and how meaningful is the difference, then? I’m not sure. There’s no disputing that in contemporary times, full-on lock-ups are a lot rarer in Windows than they used to be. Rewind time by 15 years or so, and crashes like this were more of a problem (and go back further, to the turn of the millennium, and that was doubly true).
Whatever the case, Microsoft deserves some credit here, and I’m also hoping that the new quick machine recovery feature will be a useful string to the troubleshooting bow when a PC hits a boot failure (that most dreaded of problems).
I have my reservations about the redesigned BSoD, mind – as I’ve said before – and you can bet that Microsoft’s assertion that Windows 11 24H2 is the most reliable version ever is going to cause the grinding of some gears out there – particularly with those who adopted 24H2 early, and were unfortunate to run into some of the many bugs that plagued the release (gamers were especially in the firing line).
However, there are anecdotal reports on Reddit that Microsoft is finally getting it right with version 24H2, even if it was wonky to begin with – though note that in the same thread, others are still reporting negative experiences (again, particularly those who are keen PC gamers).