Microsoft lists reasons why your PC is blocking Windows 10 upgrades to Windows 11

Earlier today Neowin noticed an interesting support article Microsoft published sometime this year. The company shared a useful guide about passing the Windows 11 system requirements eligibility check in case someone has upgraded from a system that was previously unsupported.

Aside from that, we also noticed that Microsoft also published another useful upgrade-related support article. This one, though, deals with issues a system may encounter while trying to run an upgrade from, say, Windows 10 to 11.

Microsoft says that in such cases typically a "What needs your attention" banner or pop-up message may be displayed. The company says there are several reasons why an upgrade may be blocked. This banner message is probably pushed as part of the KB5001716 update that Microsoft quietly installs on Windows PCs at regular intervals. The most recent one was released at the end of June and this time there is some change in the way it functions as it no longer tries to force-push a newer feature update.

Microsoft writes:

The notification: What needs your attention might appear when attempting a Windows upgrade. This notification message might be an indication that the Windows device has a compatibility issue with the newer version of Windows. The compatibility issue might be with one of the following components:

 

• Driver.
• Hardware.
• App.
• Windows feature.

 

These compatibility issues can lead to an unexpected experience. For this reason, the Windows upgrade isn't offered.

It is good to see Microsoft has published a support article regarding the safeguard holds that had been put in place, especially considering the huge list of issues that have led the company to refrain from offering Windows 11 24H2 on affected systems. For example, it has been nearly a year since 24H2 was announced to the general public, and still, there are certain compatibility blocks in place with the most recent one finally getting a resolution this July.

The company has also shared some ways in which users may be able to resolve the issue. You can find the guide in this article here on Microsoft's website.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Posted Monday 4 August 2025 at 12:19 pm AEST (my time).

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