WSUS displays all Windows 11 clients as Windows 10

Question

Dear All,

We have a Windows Server 2016 configured with the WSUS role. The server is up to date with all the patches. However, we see that the Windows 11 devices appear as Windows 10. We appreciate your assistance in resolving this issue, as we have searched online for a solution and found nothing.

Answer 1

Hello

It appears to be a design issue related to how Windows 11 reports its version to WSUS.

WSUS is simply relaying the “ProductName” value under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion in the registry. This value is currently “Windows 10 [edition]” on Windows 11, even on the latest Insider builds.

This issue is mostly aesthetic and does not impact the updates proposed for the computer. The updates proposed for the Windows 11 machines (reported as Windows 10 Pro) are linked to the Windows 11 product.

It’s not recommended to modify the registry as we don’t know the side effects of it.

As a workaround, you can identify Windows 11 machines by their build number (22000) in the WSUS console. However, please note that the build number is tied to the Windows Update agent, and this could potentially cause confusion in the future.

Unfortunately, as of now, there doesn’t seem to be an official fix for this issue from Microsoft.

Answer 2

As mentioned - This is Microsoft "BY DESIGN". The "Version" column is also not the operating system version - it's the Windows Update Agent version on the client machine. This can be different across Windows 11, Windows 10, and EACH month's CUs as you can tell from an older screenshot of mine below. The WUA does not have an 'update cadence' that follows each CU - meaning they are independent as you can see from the switch of versions of 10.x to 922.x in the screenshots below and from 922.x to 923.x in the newer screenshot at the bottom.

WAM renames the OSes properly. Full Disclosure, WAM is our product.

This being said, Windows 11 knows what it needs and internally distinguishes what updates it requires from WSUS. If your upgrade isn't working, you likely are missing an SSU, Prerequisite, haven't selected the correct products/classifications (https://www.ajtek.ca/wsus/how-to-setup-manage-and-maintain-wsus-part-3-windows-as-a-service-waas-and-group-policy-administrative-templates/), or you have not completed the required updates for UUP (https://www.ajtek.ca/guides/how-to-prepare-for-on-prem-wsus-uup-updates/). It is also possible (but unlikely) that your client machines are simply not reporting properly - https://www.ajtek.ca/wsus/client-machines-not-reporting-to-wsus-properly/