Microsoft Reaches Out to Insiders No Longer Allowed to Test Windows 11

Microsoft has decided to remove users running Windows 11 preview builds on unsupported hardware from the Windows Insider program, and now the company has started to reach out to them to explain the decision and detail the next steps.

More specifically, users who installed Windows 11 preview builds on computers that no longer meet the system requirements wouldn’t be provided with any new builds, and Microsoft explains that the only option is to go back to Windows 10.

The company details the whole thing in an email shipped to insiders who are required to downgrade, explaining that getting updates as part of the Dev channel is no longer possible. Switching to a different channel is no longer allowed either.

Downgrading to Windows 10, the only option going forward

“These PCs do not meet the minimum hardware requirements for previewing Windows 11 builds and will not receive new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel going forward,” the Redmond-based software giant explained in its email.

“Based on our data, you have a PC that was given that exception. This PC must clean install back to Windows 10 with the media (ISOs) that we provide and can then join the Release Preview Channel to preview Windows 10 updates.”

Windows 11 is projected to go live in early October, and Microsoft explains that the rollout would continue into 2022. All computers eligible for the free upgrade to Windows 11 should get the operating system by mid-2022.

In the meantime, however, unsupported computers should just stay with Windows 10, the current operating system that would continue to be supported until 2025. A new feature update for Windows 10, officially called version 21H2, is projected to go live in the coming months for PCs still running this operating system.