Windows 11 upgrade rollout is about to get more aggressive
Given the brouhaha over the Windows 10 launch more than half a decade ago, it's a bit of a relief that Microsoft opted to be more cautious with Windows 11, at least at the start. It added a smidge of everyone's favorite magic sauce known as machine learning to determine which Windows 10 PCs are eligible to receive the upgrade. Now, however, it seems that the company is announcing that it will be pushing Windows 11 out faster than they previously planned, all thanks to the positive feedback that Microsoft says it has received.
Admittedly, there have been fewer complaints of broken upgrades to Windows 11 compared to what happened five to six years prior. Upgrade notices also didn't pop up left and right like with Windows 10, mostly because there are fewer computers that meet the criteria for an official update in the first place. There were still some bugs, of course, like those affecting AMD Ryzen processors, despite Microsoft supporting only a small subset of CPUs for Windows 11.
Despite those, Microsoft now reveals that the feedback from users has been mostly positive, which suggests that Windows 10 users have been upgrading more quickly as they receive the notification. There aren't that many changes to Windows 11 as far as the UX is concerned anyway, with the most problematic being the Start Menu and Task Bar changes. Because of those factors, Microsoft is confident it can make Windows 11 available to even more eligible Windows 10 PCs at a faster rate.
Of course, those "eligible" PCs are still a small subset of computers that were launched in the last three to four years, particularly those that come with TPM 2.0 hardware installed. Those PCs also need to be running at least Windows 10 version 2004 from May 2020 as well. Coincidentally, Microsoft is also announcing that Windows 10 version 2004 will no longer be supported after December 14 this year.
Even as Windows 11 continues to roll out to PC owners, Microsoft continues to also develop and improve the latest version of Windows. Sometimes, that even requires stepping back from a change it introduced in previous builds. Amusingly, the latest Windows 11 Build 22000.346 for Insider testers is bringing back the Blue Screen of Death, better known as BSOD, after Microsoft turned into the Black Screen of Death. It isn't saying why, but one can only imagine the confusion both users and customer service representatives find themselves in when referring to something that has almost become a part of an authentic Windows experience.