Cool registry trick reveals if your PC is Windows 11 22H2 (Sun Valley 2) ready or not

Last month, Microsoft confirmed what was already suspected, that Windows 11 Build 22621 was indeed the RTM candidate for Windows 11 22H2 feature update, due to be released later in the year. According to Microsoft, the system requirements go unchanged for Windows 11 22H2 though there is a slight possibility of SSDs becoming mandatory in the future as the Redmond giant is pushing OEMs to adopt the faster storage option for Windows 11 systems.

Although Microsoft has not updated the official tool to check for Windows 11 compatibility, like the PC Health Check app, you can still use a trick that involves digging into the Windows registry to find out if your system is ready to take Windows 11 22H2 (Sun Valley 2) or not.

The information is available in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software hive where the "TargetVersionUpgradeExperienceIndicators" subtree reveals details on whether your PC is 22H2 ready or if something is blocking its compatibility and its ability to upgrade to Sun Valley 2 (SV2).

The full address for the subkey is:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\TargetVersionUpgradeExperienceIndicators\NI22H2

Inside this folder, the "UpEx" and the "UpExU" values should be set to "Green" in the case of a system that is ready for Windows 11 22H2. Alongside that, the "RedReason" value should be "None". On the opposite spectrum, for an incompatible system, those values should be "Red" instead of "Green", and the RedReason should list the reasons that make it incompatible, like missing TPM 2.0 or Secure Boot.

Here is an example of an incompatible system with an unsupported CPU and TPM posted by Twitter user Panu Saukko. The screenshot was taken on a Windows 10 version 20H2 system which is why the upgrade experience indicators of Windows versions 21H1, 21H2, CO21H2 and NI22H2 are present.

More details about compatible or incompatible specifications are available in the "CompatMarkers/NI22H2" folder just above this.

Source: SMSagent via Panu Saukko (Twitter)

Cool registry trick reveals if your PC is Windows 11 22H2 (Sun Valley 2) ready or not