The Verge: Microsoft accidentally offers Windows 11 upgrades to unsupported PCs again

 

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Microsoft accidentally offers Windows 11 upgrades to unsupported PCs again

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Affected PCs weren’t able to upgrade this time, but it’s the second in less than a year that Microsoft has made this mistake.

By TOM WARREN / @tomwarren

Feb 25, 2023, 9:41 AM MST|

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Image: Microsoft

Microsoft has once again accidentally offered the Windows 11 upgrade to PCs with unsupported hardware. Twitter user PhantomOcean3 spotted the mistake earlier this week, where Microsoft was showing fullscreen prompts on unsupported hardware. Microsoft has now explained the mistake, noting that PCs that didn’t meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11 weren’t able to complete the upgrade.

“Some hardware ineligible Windows 10 and Windows 11, version 21H2 devices were offered an inaccurate upgrade to Windows 11,” explains Microsoft in a support note. “These ineligible devices did not meet the minimum requirements to run Windows 11. Devices that experienced this issue were not able to complete the upgrade installation process.”

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The fullscreen accidental prompt that Windows 10 users saw earlier this week.

 Image: Microsoft

Microsoft had a similar issue last year when it offered the Windows 11 upgrade to PCs that weren’t officially supported. That accident actually allowed those unsupported PCs to upgrade, but it did once again highlight the controversial strict minimum hardware requirements for Microsoft’s latest operating system.

Windows 11 officially requires Intel 8th Gen Coffee Lake or Zen 2 CPUs and up, with very few exceptions. While there are easy ways to install Windows 11 on unsupported CPUs, Microsoft has been testing a new desktop watermark on unsupported hardware.

This latest mistake comes just weeks before Microsoft is expected to deliver some additional improvements to Windows 11. In an update referred to internally at Microsoft as “Moment 2,” Microsoft is preparing to add a full search box to the taskbar, improve search in the Start menu, add a tablet-optimized taskbar, and roll out a redesigned system tray.

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