- There are scattered reports that Windows 10 PCs are offered a Windows 11 upgrade
- It is in spite of the fact that these devices do not meet the Windows 11 hardwares
- This has also happened in the past and it seems that it is a recurring error – and not an offer you will take up
There are scattered reports that Windows 10 PCs are offered an upgrade to Windows 11, even if they do not meet the requirements of the newer operating system.
German Tech -Blog Born City brings us this news (via Neowin), with the author of The Post describing an incident with their dell latitude 7490.
This laptop runs Windows 10 22H2 and continues to be offered an upgrade to Windows 11 every few months, even if it is not compatible with the latter us, and the author says they must repeatedly reject upgrade prompt.
At the top of this contacted a reader Born City, explaining that their Lenovo IdeaPad, also using version 22H2 in Windows 10, was offered a Windows 11 upgrade despite TPM 2.0 being turned off in BIOS (this is a hard and quick requirement for running Windows 11).
This annoyed the reader as they had specifically turned off this TPM functionality to avoid being asked for an upgrade.
The report also points out previous events earlier this year when an IT administrator in a company contacted Born City, who complained that several PCs had automatically been upgraded to Windows 11 24h2 (from Windows 10 22H2) without their knowledge and bypass all the usual update procedures in place for these business machines.
What’s going on here?
The author of the article asks if other readers have come across these offers on Windows 11 upgrades that have been brought through to PCs that should not get them. In particular, there are no answers that say that other people have and to shed the usual online forums, I cannot find other recent reports of this kind of behavior (for example, as Reddit).
So my conclusion at this point is that this is very scattered events, but what is interesting is that they do not happen for the first time.
In my digging around Reddit, I found reports from the beginning of 2023 and reminded me of a very similar incident in which Windows 10 devices were offered an upgrade to Windows 11.
Back at the time, Microsoft told us: “These unwarranted units did not meet the minimum requirements to run window 11. Devices experienced this problem were unable to carry out the upgrade installation process.” This was actually a mistake that was corrected the same day.
There are also historical reports on Windows 10 users receiving Windows 11 upgrade despite turning off TPM 2.0 (to avoid the newer OS as was the case with the born city towns mentioned above).
What does all this mean? In my book – and this is just my opinion – it seems to be a recurring mistake with Windows 10 (as was the case before, and apparently one with a very limited influence this time).
And it’s not like there’s a lack of error that continues to make a comeback with Microsoft’s desktop us – just look at the sustained installation errors with Windows updates over the years.
There are theories that this may somehow be Microsoft, forcing Windows 11 upgrades to help with adoption numbers in the newer operating system that has recently joined, which can only be expected with the Windows 10 end of life that is now getting closer.
Granted that these theorists could have a point in terms of updates that are forced with PCs that have actively tried to avoid them – which by deliberately turning off TPM 2.0 when supported on the device – but I remain skeptical already then.
Neowin points out that a recent stealth update for both Windows 10 and 11, which can force-upgraded PCs for a newer version, may have something to do with all this and that it is an option again.
Still, I feel this is buggy behavior, though it is true – Microsoft would certainly never intentionally push an upgrade to non -supported hardware. And if the rules have changed with regard to Windows 11 compatibility in some way, it would be very abandoned by Microsoft not to point this out.
What should you do if you encounter an upgrade prompt on a non -supported PC?
So the question you may have is that this point is: What should you do if you have by chance you have offered a Windows 11 upgrade when your Windows 10 PPC does not meet the system requirements on the newer platform?
The simple answer here is: Don’t take that upgrade. For starters, the update may fail (especially considering that it may be offered errors), as was the case with earlier cases of this happening. And while it should succeed, there is nothing to tell if things might go wrong with your Windows 11 installation in the future.
Like a fucking upgrade to avoid the requirement of having TPM 2.0 – which can be done – the recommendation is not to take this route.
If you are concerned about the impending death of Windows 10, remember that even if the support officially ends in October 2025, you can now sign up for free updates for another year (all you have to do is sync PC settings to OneDrive, which is not a big deal I don’t think – even if your opinion may vary).
It gives you plenty of breathing space – until October 2026 – to find out what you want to do, but I really don’t think it’s a good idea to try to run Windows 11 on an officially non -supported PC. Not at least until Microsoft clarifies that Windows 11’s system requirements have somehow been changed if it is really true (and as mentioned, I doubt it much), or it happens in the future – and I don’t see that in my crystal ball either.
