When Microsoft originally announced Windows 11, it had been quickly discovered that Microsoft had made some drastic changes to the system requirements. most significantly , there are some strict requirements on which CPUs are supported by the new OS. When it decreased to testing within the Windows Insider Program, however, the Redmond firm wasn’t quite as strict.
Here’s how it worked. If you were within the Dev channel before the announcement, you’d be allowed to remain up until Windows 11 comes out. Once it’s out, you’ve got to roll back to Windows 10 or you’ll be in an unsupported state, assuming your PC is ineligible (obviously, if your PC is eligible, you’re good to go). For Beta channel Insiders, they were began of the Beta channel and placed into Release Preview for Windows 10 21H2 testing.
Now, Microsoft has started kicking unsupported PCs out of the Dev channel of the Windows Insider Program. If you’re within the Dev channel and your CPU isn’t on the supported list, you’ll likely find that you simply need to return to Windows 10 so as to stay receiving updates.
The transition to the new system requirements hasn’t been a completely smooth one, but there’s an honest reason that things are the way they’re . Windows 10 versions 20H2, 21H1, and 21H2 are all enablement packages that repose on top of version 2004. But since the spring of 2020, Microsoft has still been releasing prerelease builds within the Dev channel, with none of these features actually shipping in Windows 10. Those prerelease builds eventually became Windows 11.
That means that when Microsoft selected the new system requirements, it had to consider an answer for all of the Windows Insiders that wouldn’t qualify for Windows 11, but were already running prerelease builds. After all, you can’t deliver an OTA update from build 20xxx to create 19xxx. the overall rule is that if the build number goes down, you’ve got to try to to a factory reset.
Because of this, the Redmond company decided to let Insiders on the Dev channel accompany for Windows 11 testing. Obviously, those users were used for telemetry. When Microsoft said it might consider Intel seventh-gen and AMD Zen processors for Windows 11 support, it need to check out data from all of the Insiders that were still ready to run Windows 11. That’s how the firm came up with stats saying that supported PCs had a 99.8% crash-free experience, while unsupported PCs has 52% more crashes (which really only means it’s a 99.7% crash-free experience).
But now, that run of testing has come to an end. It’s never fun once you need to reset your PC, but that’s the danger of the Insider Program.