Microsoft admits Windows 11 recommended upgrade for ineligible devices

If your Windows 10 PC is suddenly being offered a Windows 11 upgrade when it's not eligible, Microsoft is to blame. The company has admitted that its systems bypass Intune update policies and offer Windows 11 to ineligible devices (including PCs that IT admins have blocked from getting the update), causing unnecessary confusion for both users and system administrators.

According to Microsoft, a “latent code issue” is causing the issue, and the issue has been known since April 12, 2025. The company is currently rolling out a fix that will prevent Windows 10 PCs from upgrading to Windows 11. Meanwhile, devices that have already upgraded will be forced to manually rollback to Windows 10. Microsoft also recommends pausing Windows feature updates until the fix is ​​applied:

While we work to fix the issue, administrators in affected organizations can avoid impact by pausing Windows Feature Updates until a fix is ​​developed, tested, and deployed. Note that devices that were mistakenly upgraded to Windows 11 will need to be manually restored to the correct version of Windows.

IT admins can check the code IT10561350 in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center for more information about the issue.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has had to deal with an issue with recommending upgrades for incompatible devices. Last year, the company accidentally upgraded Windows Server environments to Windows Server 2025 on unlicensed systems. While these incidents were unintentional, Microsoft typically takes steps to prevent unauthorized upgrades.

On the personal user side, the conversion rate to Windows 11 is expected to increase sharply when Windows 10 support ends in October 2025. Currently, Windows 11 has approached the same level of popularity as Windows 10 and has become the most popular operating system on PCs in some countries.