Windows 11 on incompatible systems: Windows Update is working fine

Martin Brinkmann
Oct 13, 2021
Windows 11 News
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18

Yesterday was the first Patch Tuesday after the release of the Windows 11 operating system a week earlier. It was clear that Microsoft would release the first cumulative update for Windows 11 on the day.

One question that users from all over the world had before the first update was, whether updates would be delivered to systems that don't meet the minimum system requirements of Windows 11.

Especially one sentence by Microsoft stuck out: If you proceed with installing Windows 11, your PC will no longer be supported and won't be entitled to receive updates. The company did its best at being as ambiguous as possible, and users were worried that their devices would not even receive security updates if they did not meet the minimum system requirements. Ultimately, this would result in users having to go back to Windows 10 or install a different operating system altogether on the device.

Yesterday's release of KB5006674 for Windows 11 provided a definitive answer, one that Microsoft did not provide. A quick test on several devices running Windows 11, all but one not meeting Microsoft's system requirements for Windows 11, resulted in a successful update delivery.

windows security updates october 2021

The cumulative update, updates for Microsoft Defender Antivirus, the .NET Framework, and the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool were all delivered via Windows Update.

A successful delivery does not necessarily mean that future updates will also be provided, but it is clear that customers, who run Windows 11 on devices that are not compatible officially, will receive updates.

Microsoft could have meant feature updates all along when it mentioned that there was no guarantee that incompatible devices would get updates. Devices may run into the same compatibility issues when feature updates are released: Windows Update may not work and other means of updating need to to be used, e.g. through programs such as Rufus and downloading Windows 11 manually.

The first feature update for Windows 11 will be released at the end of 2022, likely around October 2022. Windows Update should work fine until then, and even afterwards, as all home versions of Windows 11 are supported for 24 months after release. Enterprise customers get even 36 months of support.

Summary
Windows 11 on incompatible systems: Windows Update is working fine
Article Name
Windows 11 on incompatible systems: Windows Update is working fine
Description
Devices that are not compatible with Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system do still get updates delivered via Windows Update.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. JohnIL said on October 16, 2021 at 1:14 am
    Reply

    Runs fine on my old HP Folio with 3rd gen. i5 8Gb RAM and SSD. Found all the hardware except for the Centrino Bluetooth on the WiFi card. Then again neither did Windows 10. Old notebook runs fine much like Windows 10 although a bit warmer I think with Windows 11. Drivers are mostly hit or miss like audio seems new but Intel graphic driver for HD4000 from 2015. Not sure I will keep running it, might get security updates but it doesn’t appear drivers will get any attention.

  2. frank said on October 14, 2021 at 10:40 pm
    Reply

    Yes, you can update just fine…for today. Headline implies forever, which in my opinion is misleading.

  3. Kreela said on October 14, 2021 at 5:22 pm
    Reply

    The optimal phrase is “won’t be entitled to receive”. You will receive updates, but Microsoft won’t authorize them nor check old devices to make sure they update successfully…

  4. Nevi said on October 14, 2021 at 12:12 pm
    Reply

    Micro$oft can skrot the Windows for all I care. Buy a new computer just to get Windows 11? Forget it. Luckily I have a Macbook if they go totally bananas. F*** Microsoft.

  5. Anonymous said on October 13, 2021 at 11:20 pm
    Reply

    It will eventually start to fail as they add more to Windows 11. Not worth it.

  6. Nailgunner said on October 13, 2021 at 10:40 pm
    Reply

    I installed W11 on all my 6 incompatible computers. Why? Because it could be done. With very little effort. W10 was never ever great on them, to this day every patch tuesday brought with it fear, terror and horror. Let’s face it, W10 is now abandonware. Suuuure it gets security patches but that’s it. Nothing gets corrected or better or more logical or nicer or prettier or more usable. It’s all hands on deck for W11 at Redmond and that’s the rocky road I’m taking. Bring it on! You can’t POSSIBLY do worse than you have so far these last 15 years. I’m not scared of you.

  7. VioletMoon said on October 13, 2021 at 8:20 pm
    Reply

    The comment makes no sense:

    “A successful delivery does not necessarily mean that future updates will also be provided, but it is clear that customers, who run Windows 11 on devices that are not compatible officially, will receive updates.”

    A “lucky” first time update does not necessarily mean successfully updating non-compatible machines in the future will continue.

    The only thing that is clear is MS’s continued, purposeful and deliberate ambiguity on what Windows 11 will do and not do.

    Any administrator or user contemplating, or those who have taken the upgrade step on any machine, those computers that meet requirements and those that don’t, are truly risking everything for an OS that could easily erase any and all data at any time.

    MS doesn’t even know what the OS will do or not do.

    May want to read MS’s comment on returning to Windows 10 after an upgrade. No guarantees for data integrity.

    Where are some articles on how businesses are dealing with the upgrade? Any administrator in our area doesn’t even waste time discussing Windows 11 or debating an upgrade.

    . . . because five years is long time for technological evolution–hardware and programs.

    1. VioletMoon said on October 13, 2021 at 8:24 pm
      Reply

      “Warning: Microsoft’s first update for Windows 11 makes AMD system performance ‘much worse.'”

      https://betanews.com/2021/10/13/warning-microsofts-first-update-for-windows-11-makes-amd-system-performance-much-worse/

      A totally successful update experience?

  8. common sense computing said on October 13, 2021 at 6:17 pm
    Reply

    Win 7-8 = 0 critical vulnerabilities
    WIn 10 = 1 critical vulnerabilities
    Win 11 = 2 critical vulnerabilities

    Remind me again which one was the ‘secure’ version of Windows? (yes, none of them)

  9. Dumbledalf said on October 13, 2021 at 4:17 pm
    Reply

    I think that Microsoft is not obliged to release any updates on unsupported devices, which means users installed it knowing their devices were unsupported and they read that message from Microsoft saying that such devices will not be supported.

    That’s like buying a car that’s too high for your garage door so when you try to put it into the garage you damage the roof and then complaining about it and asking for the damage to be repaired when you were knowing the car would be too high for the garage door.

    1. ULBoom said on October 14, 2021 at 6:49 pm
      Reply

      Not sure it was even a scare tactic. None of these so called Tech companies have anything new to sell, ‘cuz there is nothing new to sell, so they make up stuff. For whatever reason, MS Marketing decided to sell security in Win 11, which the past has repeatedly shown MS themselves will compromise. The vast majority of users are oblivious to all of this, so there’s always a market for newly contrived BS.

      2021 is the year of security or some such crap? Who knows!

      2022: The year of stickers, yay!!!

    2. Vistalizator said on October 13, 2021 at 10:55 pm
      Reply

      There is not one person working at Microsoft who would even know how to exclude certain computers from getting updates, especially when there are hundreds of millions of them, all different but all containing legal copies of Windows 11. This is just a scaretactic that blew up in Microsofts face. They really really really wanted/needed everyone to get computers with remote-controllable chips in them AND that everyone would log in/lock that computer to a microsoft account so the person could be easily identified as well. But yeah, that didn’t really go as planned now did it..? And why? Because people have NO TRUST in Microsoft, people HATE Microsoft and everything they do.

      1. EP said on October 14, 2021 at 6:15 pm
        Reply

        “This is just a scaretactic that blew up in Microsofts face.”

        and that is called “FUD”

        so far, Microsoft was ALL BARK and NO BITE on that one

  10. Zorbuz said on October 13, 2021 at 1:55 pm
    Reply

    The only thing that could cause problems are those numerous microsoft bloatspyware apps that are not designed for old hardware. You know, the apps no one with a brain uses, and gets rid of the first thing after a new install. No redmond apps=no problems. No TPM so they can’t control your computer like they wanted to either. Bummer.

  11. Anonymous said on October 13, 2021 at 1:43 pm
    Reply

    QUOTE: One question that users from all over the world had before the first update was, whether updates would be delivered to systems that don’t meet the minimum system requirements of Windows 11.

    No, no, no, no, no! The salient point is whether Microsoft will maintain delivery of updates to systems that don’t meet minimum system requirements. They stopped delivering Windows 10 to some systems that didn’t meet Windows 10 specifications but updated. Why would they do something different with Windows 11?

    If you have an incompatible device DO NOT UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 11.

    1. ULBoom said on October 14, 2021 at 6:36 pm
      Reply

      The only part of that name_same comment I understand is drilled penny. It’s two words, though. Whatever.

    2. name_same said on October 13, 2021 at 3:21 pm
      Reply

      a comment Anonymous is worth a drilledpenny.
      we bypass many things, in case we will bypass the updates too or do them manually.
      but I think microsoft if it doesn’t want a popular uprising will not make such a thing mine.
      indeed I am convinced that she will be forced to retrace her steps on many things.

      1. John Wold said on October 14, 2021 at 12:52 pm
        Reply

        Well, if you are name_same, does that mean you are Anonymous too?

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