Microsoft urges users to roll back to Windows 10 immediately after previously pushing for upgrades to Windows 11.
Last October, the tech giant confirmed that Windows 10 would be no more. Come 14 October 2025, Microsoft announced they would no longer provide free software updates, technical support or security fixes for Windows 10.
And users were being urged to upgrade their laptops and computers to Windows 11 as soon as possible to avoid issues.
If your PC isn't compatible, you have a few options: either buy a new device that supports Windows 11 or pay an extra $30 to buy yourself another year of support.
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But in a sudden shift, Microsoft quietly removed workarounds that allowed people with unsupported PCs to upgrade to Windows 11, messing around millions of its users.
According to Forbes, the software company edited its official support document to erase a previously available Registry tweak, which had let users bypass hardware restrictions.
This change effectively blocked hundreds of millions of Windows 10 users from upgrading.
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Additionally, another workaround called Flyby11 software also stopped working - which is supposed to remove restrictions preventing Windows 11 installation.
Now, Microsoft has cleared things up and just clarified the situation with another edit. And it's not great news for users who already took the plunge.
The statement reads: “Windows 11 minimum system requirements remain unchanged."
Basically, any users that used the workarounds should undo them.
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It continued: “If you installed Windows 11 on a device not meeting Windows 11 system requirements, Microsoft recommends you roll back to Windows 10 immediately.”
This means that if you followed Microsoft's prior instructions to bypass restrictions before they were removed, you might be out of luck. And you may no longer be able to keep using Windows 11 on that device.
“This support article was originally published on September 30, 2021,” Microsoft explained. "When Windows 11 was first released to the public. At the time of publication and still today, the intention behind this support page is to detail ways of installing Windows 11 on devices that meet system requirements for Windows 11.”
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So to clear things up, if your PC is compatible with Windows 11, you can still upgrade for free. For those who don't own compatible PCs, you still have the same options as beforehand. You can either stick with Windows 10, buy a new device or pay $30 for extended support until 2026.