Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

So if you do the group policy edit to set a feature update on Windows 11 - say for 23H2 - does that mean it won't upgrade to 24H2? Even after 23H2 stops being supported?

Hazel123 said:

So if you do the group policy edit to set a feature update on Windows 11 - say for 23H2 - does that mean it won't upgrade to 24H2? Even after 23H2 stops being supported?

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Correct. If your Windows is already the same as the Target Version, no Feature Updates (upgrades) will happen. More importantly, it will nag you less often to upgrade.

You will continue to receive Monthly Updates until no more are offered. Defender platform and definitions will be downloaded for the indefinite future.

Hazel123 said:

Thank you. I had just found it on 10 And remembered I had an unused pro licence in my microsoft account. So upgraded to pro and did the group policy edit.

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And that was a nightmare! I gave up trying to install Windows 10 on a machine that was capable of running windows 11. So many gremlins, but particularly every time I upgraded to the pro licence and set the group policy thing. My wifi connection would disappear (and on some occasions kept asking me to re-enter the key before it disappeared) - spent a lot of time messing about with it. Reset it once (during the reset it was trying to persuade me to upgrade to Windows 11 and I declined), reinstalled three times, wiped the drive and reinstalled, and the same thing kept happening. And updates were SO SLOW. So I have a theory that Microsoft doesn't want me to install Windows 10 on a machine that can run Windows 11. Even though it used to run Windows 10! I gave up and installed Windows 11 23H2 on it, upgraded the pro licence and group policy without any issues. The downside is, that will now only last until October, whereas Windows 10 would have lasted another year with ESU. I can still get ESU on another machine that is just about usable and has Windows 10 on because that isn't eligible to upgrade to Windows 11 (even though I had 11 on it previously via Rufus). But I just wanted one usable machine that wasn't on 24H2 for a particular program to work..... Oh well.

I had no problems installing Windows 10 on another machine recently and then upgrading to Windows 11 - that was on home and no attempt to set a group policy editor. But, unless I'm being paranoid, I think Microsoft are using tactics to make it difficult to install Windows 10! (especially if you try and set a group policy editor). I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had similar issues.

Sorry this isn't about unsupported hardware! Went off topic.

To add insult to the injury, I have heard rumours about common Windows 10/11 AMD graphics drivers misbehaving on Windows 10 with a lot of issues and bugs. In Windows 11 they work fine on the SAME hardware! I don't have AMD, so I cannot confirm it. "Coincidence? I don't think so", as an old advertisement said. They cooperate to convince us Windows 10 is crap and we should upgrade to Windows 11 ASAP. As you may know Windows 11 IS Windows 10 with a new skin a some more features. Like comparing Windows 95 with Windows 98 for us older folks.

I think so too. Maybe some buggy annoying updates to come until people get fed up and want to stop using it.

I established the cause of the wifi issues. It was signing in with a Microsoft Account. All was fully updated and fine. But I wanted to install my digital pro licence. Which meant I needed to sign in with my microsoft account. As soon as I did, my wifi came up with an error and wanted me to reinput the wifi code. And I must have done that about 10 times now. With long waits in between as the network actually disappears for a while.

So it was nothing to do with actually upgrading to pro or setting the group policy editor. It was signing in with a microsoft account.

I did exactly the same set up, login and upgrade on Windows 11 23H2 and no wifi issues whatsoever (same machine).

So what is going on there? The message on my wifi network (as well as a X) was

"Some information changed since the last time you connected. We need additional information to complete the connection". Over and over! With network cutting out in between. It was unusable.

So who is that message from? My network? Microsoft? Well the only thing that changed was I signed in with my Microsoft Account. At which point it was known I had Windows 10 installed presumably? On a computer capable of running Windows 11. Now if I had stayed on the local account, all was perfectly fine - but then it would have upgraded to Windows 11 24H2. Without the group policy editor and Pro installed.

I've given up on the idea of installing Windows 10 on it!

Install Windows 10, sign in with your Microsoft Account to activate. Then create a new local account, use this and delete the Microsoft account. This might work. Or just buy a Wi-Fi USB dongle and use that to connect instead of the onboard Wi-Fi card.

I wonder if your MS Account is trying to sync a Wi-Fi profile (across multiple PC's).

Settings / Your account / Sync your settings

Doesn't your computer have a digital license? If it does, it should activate anyway without having to use your Microsoft Account. You could also change the key to an old Windows 7 or 8 key. This won't activate automatically anymore, but you can call Microsoft, explain that your old computer died and you transferred the disk to the new one, and if there is a kind enough representative could help you activate it.

spapakons said:

Install Windows 10, sign in with your Microsoft Account to activate. Then create a new local account, use this and delete the Microsoft account. This might work. Or just buy a Wi-Fi USB dongle and use that to connect instead of the onboard Wi-Fi card.

Click to expand...

garlin said:

I wonder if your MS Account is trying to sync a Wi-Fi profile (across multiple PC's).

Settings / Your account / Sync your settings

Click to expand...

Thanks. Great tips there - I'll check them out. @spapakons yes it does have a digital licence - for "Home". My Pro licence is in my microsoft account and needs adding later.

garlin said:

I wonder if your MS Account is trying to sync a Wi-Fi profile (across multiple PC's).

Settings / Your account / Sync your settings

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Under sync your settings (had to search for it in Windows 10) "Remember my apps" and "Remember my preferences" under "Windows Backup" were turned on, so I've turned them off. However I'm not connected to the internet as my network disappears. If I sit and wait for 5 mins or so it reappears with a cross next to it and requires me to input my wifi code again. Just reconnected so I'll see if it stays on now I've turned off those other settings. "Remember my apps turned itself back on again so turned it off again. Then wifi disappeared again.

spapakons said:

Install Windows 10, sign in with your Microsoft Account to activate. Then create a new local account, use this and delete the Microsoft account. This might work. Or just buy a Wi-Fi USB dongle and use that to connect instead of the onboard Wi-Fi card.

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Using a wifi dongle (I have one) does seem to work. But why? It's connected to the same network from my router. What is the connection between a Microsoft account and my router?

Edit - no that didn't work either. It went off again and wanted my wifi code again - so same behaviour.

Also - could I now just make a local account and sign out of my microsoft account? Or would that stop the pro digital licence working, seeing as it's attached to my microsoft account?

I guess your Microsoft account is needed only to upgrade from Home to Pro, not activate, it should have a digital license for both versions. When you are at Home version, go to Settings, System, Activation, click "Change Product Key" and type the generic Pro key to upgrade to Pro:

VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

Since it has a digital license for Pro, it should activate without having to use your Microsoft Account. When using the Microsoft Account to login to Windows it probably sync some settings which affect your Wi-Fi.

Thank you, yes that is what I did and pro was activated. The solution has been to sign in with a local account instead. And not stay signed in with MS account and I'm assuming that's ok now pro is activated. My guess is that the MS account was throwing a hissy fit because it couldn't try and sync because one drive was completely removed. But what do I know? Either way I find it really sinister that signing in with a MS account can actually do this and cause something to just not be usable.

There's nothing really sinister, it's just you have too many different PC's.

As a convenience, MS Account (via the cloud) tries to sync selected desktop or system settings on any PC you're logged on. This helps users that roam from several PC's like a home-based or work/laptop computer.

Enabled features may include:

• Shared Hello PIN's to unlock your PC
• Previously known Phone Link smartphones
• Shared Wi-Fi profiles
• Shared OneDrive settings
• (new) Windows Backup to the cloud

I agree it's kinda annoying when the syncing conflicts, it's not obvious how to disable all those features.

Go old school and use a local account to login to Windows. Use the Microsoft Account to login only to specific tasks. Once it synced my favorites in Edge and I lost several of them I had manually set on my laptop. Sync is not always desirable.

garlin said:

There's nothing really sinister, it's just you have too many different PC's.

As a convenience, MS Account (via the cloud) tries to sync selected desktop or system settings on any PC you're logged on. This helps users that roam from several PC's like a home-based or work/laptop computer.

Enabled features may include:

• Shared Hello PIN's to unlock your PC
• Previously known Phone Link smartphones
• Shared Wi-Fi profiles
• Shared OneDrive settings
• (new) Windows Backup to the cloud

I agree it's kinda annoying when the syncing conflicts, it's not obvious how to disable all those features.

Click to expand...

I had syncing off though! Right from the start. Opted not to let the network share. And I never use Windows Backup. And it still happened even when other computers were turned off. I'm still wondering if it's something to do with one drive. I uninstalled it before connecting to the internet or going any further - but on another thread - maybe I should have disconnected the computer from one drive before uninstalling it ............. I might try that now - ie reinstalling and checking that - now I've got a final image done anyway. In Windows 10 I have only ever just uninstalled it before but - things change.

If it was syncing etc - why doesn't the same thing happen if I install Windows 11 23H2 on the same laptop? It only happens on Windows 10. And have ruled out the possibility of not having unlinked one drive first, because I just tested that out by reinstalling, signing into ms account, unlinking one drive. And the internet got cut off immediately I signed in with the MS account again - regardless of whether one drive was unlinked or not.

So - it's not the router (or it would do the same thing on Windows 11), it's not the laptop or other laptops on the network (or it would do the same thing on Windows 11). I am happy enough to stay on a local account, but it would be good to know what it was.

Who can I blame? AI?

I asked Chat GPT if it could work it out and it came up with this. What do you think?

"

Why You’ve Never Seen This Before​

• This only affects Microsoft-linked digital licenses plus
• Devices that have previously pulled cloud Wi-Fi settings that don’t fully match
• In your case: same model laptop, but different drivers/firmware + different OS version

You're essentially triggering a rare identity mismatch loop, and Windows 10 is more prone to it than Windows 11 due to less intelligent conflict handling in its network stack."

Doesn't pass the @garlin smell test. I doubt it's based solely on digital licenses.

When your Wi-Fi gets dropped, did you see any networks that shouldn't be there (based on where you are)? If it's a clean install, then Windows can only detect networks which are physically present, and not ones it "remembered".

garlin said:

Doesn't pass the @garlin smell test. I doubt it's based solely on digital licenses.

When your Wi-Fi gets dropped, did you see any networks that shouldn't be there (based on where you are)? If it's a clean install, then Windows can only detect networks which are physically present, and not ones it "remembered".

Click to expand...

Nope just all the usual networks. Although actually yes - there was a hidden network at the bottom as well.