News

Windows 11 Upgrade Prompts Coming in April

• By Kurt Mackie
• February 28, 2024

Microsoft plans to issue messages to Windows users in April, prodding them to upgrade to Windows 11 version 23H2, per a Wednesday announcement.

The messsaging will commence with the April 2024 security update release, likely meaning Microsoft's "update Tuesday" patch release date, which is expected to fall on April 9. The Windows 11 version 23H2 upgrade message will include an option to stay on Windows 10, Microsoft promised.

Users will see this upgrade invitation message "after signing in and usually after a reboot," the announcement indicated. The message will just appear to "Windows users working on cloud-domain joined and domain joined non-managed business devices." Organizations using tools such as "Microsoft Intune, Configuration Manager, Windows Autopatch, or other third-party management tools" are deemed to have managed Windows devices, and presumably these devices won't get Microsoft's upgrade message.

The announcement showed a mock-up of the expected messaging that users may see. A "Keep Windows 10" option was present in Microsoft's mock-up, but it's a less prominent link at the bottom.

Home edition users of Windows 10 are considered "guinea pig" users by Microsoft and typically get bombarded with free Windows 11 upgrade messages, although there's no guarantee that an upgrade will be successful. These Windows 10 Home user messages offer the false option of either upgrading to Windows 11 or getting reprompted in three days (which doesn't seem to occur).

Organizations are more likely to be using Windows 10 Pro, and the announcement suggested that only unmanaged Windows 10 Pro devices would get the upgrade messaging.

"It [the Windows 11 version 23H2 upgrade notice] will only show on Windows 10 Pro and Pro Workstation devices that are eligible for Windows 11 and are not managed by IT departments."

Microsoft indicated almost two years ago that it would require the use of a Microsoft account, during the initial out-of-the-box setup period, if Windows 10 Pro users were using the device for personal activities. That sort of change might be an expected requirement for unmanaged Windows 10 Pro devices accepting the coming upgrade invitation. However, Microsoft did indicate back then that it exempted the Microsoft account requirement for Windows 10 Pro devices if they were used for work or school purposes.

Users of Microsoft accounts must agree with Microsoft's "Privacy Statement" document to permit Microsoft to view information such as "credentials, name and contact data, payment data, device and usage data, your contacts, information about your activities, and your interests and favorites."