Upgrading to Windows 11 after downgrading to Windows 10

Question

Hello

We are testing Windows 11 upgrades on physical computers. The upgrade works fine, but in our test plan we also have to document the rollback in case needed. Rolling back to Windows 10 also works fine, but we noticed an interesting behavior which is the following:

1. A device is marked as Windows 11 ready
2. The user (which is the operator in our case with admin rights) gets prompted while checking Windows Updates that Windows 11 is here
3. The user initiates the upgrade
4. The upgrade works fine
5. The device is tested for compatibility, performance, app installation, configuration, etc.
6. After 2 days, the user initiates the rollback to Windows 10
7. The operation succeeds and the machine is rolled back to Windows 10

While testing, we noticed that all rolled-back machines, different vendors and models, do NOT offer Windows 11 anymore. We do not want to use media to upgrade to Windows 11, we want the same behavior as step 1 and 2 above.

I recall, if my memory does not betray me, that the rollback process sets a block somewhere in the old OS after the rollback so that the device is not prompted again for the upgrade, but I cannot find this setting. How can this be overridden so that the device gets prompted again for the upgrade to Windows 11?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hello,

Generally, below group policy are used to manage receiving feature update, tyr check the settings in these locations:

1. Use Group Policy Management Console to go to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Windows Update for Business > Manage preview builds and set the policy to Enable preview builds for any of test devices you want to install pre-release builds.
2. Use Group Policy Management Console to go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Windows Update for Business > Select when Preview Builds and feature updates are received.

Best regards,

Wesley