Windows 11 upgrades were recently offered to some Windows 10 users whose PCs did not meet the requirements of the new operating system.
Compounding the major problem Microsoft has abandoned is the fact that this is the second time such an upgrade has been pushed to devices that don’t actually meet the system specs required for Windows 11.
PhantomOfEarth first pointed this out on Twitter when the Windows leaker was offered Windows 11 on a PC with just 2GB of RAM (when the OS needs a minimum of 4GB).
Free Windows 11 upgrade offered to unsupported Windows 10 devices/VMs? Screenshots of a Windows 10 22H2 virtual machine that does not meet Windows 11 system requirements, the most important being TPM (none) and RAM (2GB) pic.twitter.com/VNNswgMLiCFebruary 23, 2023
The installation failed, however, when PhantomOfEarth tried to upgrade to see what happened.
Microsoft clarified in a support document (opens in a new tab) (spotted by The Verge (opens in a new tab)) that a number of ineligible Windows 10 version 21H2 PCs had seen the Windows 11 upgrade offer, but that: “Devices that experienced this issue were unable to complete the Windows 11 installation process. the upgrade”.
Analysis: A quick fix – but how did it happen again?
So the good news, if you can call it that, is that at least if a user tried to go ahead with the upgrade, the installer wouldn’t allow it (leaving maybe the PC in some unfortunate creek-related situation if that was the case). The user can go so far as to download the installer, write it down, and launch it.
Additionally, only some users were affected, and Microsoft notes that the issue was fixed the same day it was discovered, which is an extremely quick fix.
The main issue here is that, as mentioned, this isn’t the first time this has happened, which certainly gives more than a little pause to think about why the upgrade system is hurting again. turned. Last time around, however, unsupported PCs were allowed to upgrade, arguably with unpredictable results in some cases.
Hopefully Microsoft will take a close look at anything that could cause these kinds of issues, and we won’t see a third episode of errant Windows 11 upgrades playing on monitors near us anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the relatively stringent upgrade requirements for Windows 11 remain a cause for controversy, as people with relatively modern processors are left behind (and PCs without TPM functionality, of course).
