Microsoft: Windows 11 rollout is going so well, we’re making it available on more PCs

Microsoft says it’s seeing a “high rate of positive update experience” for Windows 10 users upgrading to Windows 11, so it’s increasing availability again.

Microsoft is growing confident in the rollout of Windows 11, which began Oct. 5 and ramped up in late October after its machine learning models determined it was safe for more PCs running Windows 10.

The big problem with the adoption of Windows 11 is that Microsoft imposed strict minimum hardware requirements for the new operating system. By one estimate, only half of enterprise workstations meet these requirements today.

TO SEE: Windows 11 FAQ: Our upgrade guide and everything you need to know

Nevertheless, on hardware that actually meets Microsoft’s hardware requirements, the experience is good enough to expand Windows 11 deployment.

“In our early phases of Windows 11 rollout, we’re consistently seeing a high rate of positive update experiences and user feedback for eligible devices, identified using our next-generation machine learning model. “, Microsoft said on Windows 11 Health Dashboard.

“Based on this data, we are accelerating the pace of rollout faster than we originally announced, and are now making the Windows 11 upgrade more widely available to eligible Windows 10 devices.”

At best, eligible Windows PCs represent about 40% of the 1.3 billion PCs running Windows 10. However, Microsoft seems confident that most organizations will have moved to new hardware that supports Windows 11 by October 2025, when at which it will stop fixing Windows 10.

Microsoft released Windows 10 build 21H2 this week, a minor update it says will be the last semi-annual release of Windows 10; it will move to annual releases by October 2025. Although it will still support Windows 10 during this time, Microsoft wants users to update to Windows 11.

But Windows 11 has been plagued with a series of bugs affecting features like the taskbar, search, and Start menu.

Yesterday, Microsoft confirmed that Microsoft Installer may have problems updating apps, including Kaspersky antivirus.

“Affected apps may not open after an update or repair attempt,” Microsoft noted.

The workaround is to uninstall the affected app and then install the latest version of the app.

TO SEE: Windows 11 update: five questions to ask yourself first

And, as is often the case with new versions of Windows, Windows 11 encountered compatibility issues with Intel hardware drivers. This, affecting the drivers of some versions of the drivers for Intel Smart Sound Technology (Intel SST), causes a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error.

“Intel and Microsoft have found incompatibility issues with certain driver versions for Intel Smart Sound Technology (Intel SST) and Windows 11. Windows 11 devices with the affected Intel SST driver may receive an error with a blue screen,” said noted Microsoft.

The issue was widespread and severe enough that Microsoft stopped offering Windows 11 to Windows 10 devices with this Intel driver.

“To protect your upgrade experience, we’ve placed a compatibility hold on devices with the affected Intel SST drivers so they won’t be offered on Windows 11,” Microsoft said.