Repair install/in-place upgrade not proceeding normally

Repair install (Run setup from running windows) only work if you use same Win 10 build version or newer (that will be an Upgrade not a Repair)
Attached is an all version of MCT so you can choose the version to download.

Megahertz said:

Attached is an all version of MCT so you can choose the version to download.

Bree said:

[Details]

Thank you, that's a neat tool. :)
I did have no problem finding different versions, however.
While the MCT seems to tend to provide ESD images, and other sources seem to favor WIM, the behavior I observed was the same for both.

Now I have good news and bad news:
Good news: It's working now.
Bad news: I can't say exactly why 🤦
I ended up doing too many things at once, going on several tangents, none of which I thought would have much of a direct impact 🤦.

Here is what happened, to the best of my recollection:
After trying to update straight from the MCT again (because the ISOs continued to not work), I was confronted with this error (An unknown command-line option [/DynamicUpdate] was specified) again.
I had a look at C:\$WINDOWS.~BT and C:\ESD, but didn't really know what to look for. But because I suspected some outdated files might be in there making things weird, I looked at the creation dates. They seemed correct, but I deleted the folders anyway.
I think I tried running a repair install again at that point, but failed.

I was getting ready to try to install the [first] 2021-06 CU again. For this, I wanted to make a new system disk image backup. For this, I wanted to set up a new version of my multiboot thumb drive (Live boot, disk imaging, partition managers, rescue media, repair tools, Windows installs), switching from YUMI to Ventoy. Spent a long time getting into it, designing a neat theme and configuring everything, the works.
To test the boot behavior and viability, I first tried Novicorp Bootable USB Test, but that exposed not enough options for my taste and was a bit flaky, so I tried setting up a new version of QEmu and define a well performing script/settings, but the outcome was somehow slower than the old version the Novicorp app used (even with (almost) the same command line parameters). So I googled what might be the issue, but the only thing I found that would apply to me was "make sure virtualization acceleration is turned on".
Turns out, Hyper-V wasn't turned on under Windows Features.
So I turned on Hyper-V. Still slow. Went to test it with VirtualBox, that worked a bit better.

During all of this, I installed and uninstalled some things, but nothing I thought would impact the issue at hand.
So, after all that time, I finally rebooted into my multiboot stick and made an offline backup of my C: drive.

After rebooting, I thought I'd give it a try again. To my utter surprise, I was greeted with the small splash screen I had dreamed of for a week now, instead of the full-screen blue setup screen.
And indeed, I was able to proceed with an in-place upgrade!
SOMEHOW.
If only I knew why.
Between regular day-to-day use and tinkering with the issue, I'm sure I did a lot of things between the last unsuccessful try and the successful one, but I can't think of anything more that might have had an impact.

If I remember anything interesting, I'll be sure to mention it here.
Right now, I'm afraid I've failed everybody who is facing the same symptoms :/

Glad it's working.

Please mark this thread as solved

Megahertz said:

Glad it's working.

Please mark this thread as solved

(Sigh)... I guess.
It's like calling the case "solved" when the diamonds that were stolen out of a high security vault just turn up back on the doorsteps.
The "why" and "how" wasn't actually solved, really, but the problem was resolved.
How unsatisfying :/