And yesterday, just for amusement I put a spare disk in and installed Windows 11 Pro, it even auto-activated!

I had to bypass the installation check on TPM and Secure Boot (quick registry hack from command prompt during install) as it's only TPM1.2 and has no secure boot, but W11 doesn't seem to care once it's installed.
Windows update works fine and once I'd found the relevant (W7 x64) drivers from Dell it's 100% functional. Windows Update did find most of them in the "Optional Updates" section but didn't install any.

It runs fine, at least as well as W10, but I'll keep it on W10 for it's main job.

The Latitude has been reverted to W10 Pro but I now have something newer and potentially better. But can it run Hyper-V?I just discovered (here: https://www.itechtics.com/enable-hyp...ndows-10-home/ ) that it's possible to install Hyper-V on Windows 10 Home. :cool:

So just for amusement I thought I'd try it on Windows 11 as the newer system is a Dell XPS13 compact laptop that I've upgraded to Windows 11 Home. Seems to have worked though no VMs are installed yet.

As it's small but reasonably good and only 5 years old it's potentially a handy unit for VCDS. If I can put Bentley and Elsawin on it too using Hyper-V that's a big bonus. +++
It will be much better than the 10yo Dell that this thread is about. :cool:

Of course I don't need Hyper-V for Elsawin, it runs natively on W11 just as W10. DOH! :o

I copied over the Elsawin VM I already have and tested it before I remembered that! Then I installed it properly. :rolleyes:

I don't know why I never knew this before, but I just found out that Bentley have an online version for registered (paid) users (like me) here: http://ebahn.bentleypublishers.com/?ticket=null
Though it sadly appears that the Audi (and VW) data is only in a Beta (restricted access apart from DTCs) release, so I've asked if I can be given access.

I've just had a response from Bentley and I now have, as a courtesy, online access to their web version. It says "temporary" but there's no indication of an imminent end.
(Edit: found an end date 3 years ahead, fair enough for a "courtesy" :D )

I don't know if anyone else here uses their manuals that were supplied on CD, but if you do it's worth asking if there's an online version you can access.

But is now back on Windows 11 Pro AND with all my programs running fine. +++
For the record I've unearthed a way to upgrade in situ from Windows 10 keeping installed programs and data but bypassing the checks on TPM, Secure Boot and CPU generations.
The Latitude does actually have TPM (shipped with 1.2 but updated to TPM2.0 by me) but oddly no secure boot and the CPU is too old as well.

Details are outlined here: https://allthings.how/how-to-install...ot-or-tpm-2-0/
I used a modified version of "Method 2", copying the file install.esd from a Windows 11 ISO image into a Windows 10 installation on USB. Both downloaded from Microsoft this week.
On the Latitude, within Windows 10 Pro I just ran setup from the USB taking the option to NOT download updates during the process.
It looked like a Windows 10 update (as expected) but after a reboot Windows 11 Pro appeared and all seemed to work OK. It activated automatically and started downloading and installing updates. :cool:

Holy thread resurrection time!
I've finally decided to get rid of the Dell latitude, moving it on to a friend/neighbour who needs a laptop to run some old accounting software, so I think he could be using Hyper-V for that.

The little Dell XPS13 notebook that supplants it is only licensed for "Home" versions of Windows, but I've upgraded it to W11 and added Hyper-V as noted earlier in the thread, a quick and easy process that seems to "stick" as new major updates are installed.
I did have a go at installing a "Native" Elsawin, but the Hyper-V version I already have works perfectly well on this unit so I have abandoned that as it was a bit slow and tedious to set up. The Bentley online version of their D2 manual seems to have disappeared as well, even though it shows in my account on their web site.

So I'm back to a basic "D2 support kit" of a Dell XPS13 with VCDS and Hyper-V running Bentley and Elsawin-4 on XP (separate VMs). The advantage of the VM approach is that they are totally portable to any other Hyper-V system without any authentication etc. issues.

So, the upshot of this is, if any of you are running laptops for VCDS with Windows 10 or 11 Home it's perfectly possible to easily add a Bentley D2 manual and/or Elsawin 4 using Hyper-V. Happy to help anyone who needs assistance with that. :cool:
(Note that the Bentley VM is just over 3GB but Elsawin is almost 25GB, together they will fit on a 32GB SD card)

I've often seen references to this 'Bentley manual' for the A8/S8 both here and a couple of other Audi forums, but out of curiosity, how does it compare to Elsawin? - It's yet another miserable wet day here (not a single dry day in about six weeks), and I'm bored stiff. :(

Not sure how they compare Sean, Bentley is quite specifically US-only D2s so you have to use your imagination at times. D3 is also available, or was!
I haven't really tried to use Elsawin "in anger" but what I have looked at seems to be exactly the same!

Elsawin covers everything VW & Audi, not just the D2. Seat and Skoda too if you add the data files.