Microsoft’s strict compatibility requirements for Windows 11 mean that a significant number of PC owners will soon be unable to upgrade to Windows 11, even on relatively new hardware. The Redmond company has in recent weeks made it clear: installing Windows 11 on an unsupported PC means that it will no longer be able to receive updates in the future. Which raises the following question: if you perform a clean install of Windows 11 on an incompatible PC, does your PC risk being deprived of monthly security updates in the future?
Discover all the new features and improvements in Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 11, unveiled on Thursday, June 24, 2021 and available since October 5, 2021.
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- Release date : 09/20/2022
- Author : Microsoft
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Windows 11 Professional is the version for businesses and schools of the brand new Windows 11 operating system. Discover its advanced features.
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- Release date : 09/20/2022
- Author : Microsoft
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Operating system - Operating system : Windows
To answer this, let’s take a detour through marketing theories. Have you ever heard of FUD? This acronym, which translates in the language of Molière as “fear, uncertainty and doubt”, has been around for a long time, but it was popularized in the 1970s to describe how the giant IBM discouraged its customers from considering competing products. .
FUD has now become a classic marketing technique used when there is no valid technical argument to oppose the choice the customer is considering. However, it is strange to see Microsoft using it, and thus creating confusion, to discourage customers from installing one of its own products. To use the terms used by the American giant: installing Windows 11 on an unsupported PC is not recommended and may cause compatibility issues. “If you proceed with the installation of Windows 11, your PC will no longer be supported and will no longer be able to receive updates. Damage caused to your PC due to a lack of compatibility is not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty.
Translate: it doesn’t really say that Microsoft is going to cut off your access to updates, but simply that you no longer have the “right” to these updates. This word is revealing from Microsoft, which declines all legal responsibility without actually saying what it is going to do.
More fear than harm
In reality, it would be difficult for Microsoft to configure its update servers to reject requests from PCs based on such detailed configuration information. This would risk trapping customers with valid installs, and it would unnecessarily anger customers who otherwise have a perfectly satisfying experience with Windows 11. Instead, this language is a way to convince customers to swap their old PCs for new ones, choosing the option that puts new revenue into the pockets of Microsoft and its third-party manufacturing partners.
This kind of confusion is not without precedent. In the days leading up to the launch of Windows 10, Windows skeptics were convinced that Microsoft was going to pull the rug out of updates based on confusing language about “device supported lifetime” .
A Windows expert even claimed that Microsoft would start charging Windows 10 customers for updates within two years…which ultimately turned out to be a false alarm. It’s possible, of course, that a future Windows update could cause performance and reliability issues on older PCs, but the idea of Microsoft punishing its customers for following a documented procedure for deploying the update update seems highly unlikely.
Source: ZDNet.com