Why did my computer update to Windows 11 on its own?

Question

Why did my computer update to Windows 11 on its own?

Riley Jun 30

So I turned on my computer today, and it updated itself to Windows 11. I had declined any offers to update, and I left it at that. But, as previously stated, it had updated itself overnight. I think it might've been because I clicked "update and shut down" last night, but I don't see how that could force a Windows 11 update, considering that it needed my permission to update.

former_windows_enjoyer 45 Reputation points

2023-07-25T11:34:43.5966667+00:00

It should've said "Upgrade and shut down" but Microsoft really wants you to upgrade to Windows 11. In my computer when "UPDATES" where ready to install, it always said "Update and shut down". Why use the same freaking thing when we're talking about a whole "UPGRADE". There's a difference between the two. In other words it did upgrade to Windows 11 on its own. It started downloading Windows 11 on its own, it used the same prompt for just updating your system in the menu and then "poof", there you go Windows 11.
former_windows_enjoyer 45 Reputation points

2023-07-25T11:35:05.8333333+00:00

Same happened to me.
jack 5 Reputation points

2023-11-02T01:58:09.9533333+00:00

Exactly .What the hell , i keep my windows 10 upadted nothing was said about windows 11 and im sure i checked it ,it was necessary update in color of orangish mark not the blue one for windows update.
Eric Helm 0 Reputation points

2023-12-29T04:25:21.1866667+00:00

Personally I don't really think I mind being on Windows 11, but yes I was also tricked into it, and no it's not really ok for MS to be doing that.

I think some people at Microsoft are thinking that Windows 11 is Windows 10. They're thinking that Windows 11 is only called that to delineate the updates that aren't supported on old hardware from the ones that are. Here's what I think happened:

Update Deployment Team: "We don't normally warn users that the update is a feature update, we don't even have a prompt for that. I don't get what the issue is?"

Customer Relations: "You idiots, we named that update 'Windows 11' and told everyone it's a free upgrade to a whole new Windows! So you just auto-updated people to a whole new Windows without asking!"

Update Deployment Team: "Oh come on, nobody actually thinks it's a new version of Windows, that's ridiculous!"

Management: "But that's what we named it publicly! That's why there's so many new features and UI changes in the same update, it's almost kinda like a whole new Windows. Publicly we're sort-of pretending it actually is a whole new Windows!"

Update Deployment Team: "But you can't even buy it! It's just ... wait, the last ten feature updates were all for Windows 11 too and we didn't need to warn anyone about those, how is this our teams fault?"
User Not Found 15 Reputation points

2024-02-04T04:35:08.0966667+00:00

my pc decided to update on its own, and now my CPU fan keeps failing, im getting crashes, and my C Drive failed. with zero prior issues, directly after the update i cant even use this computer anymore. probably gonna scrap it and buy a Mac.
User Not Found 15 Reputation points

2024-02-04T04:55:27.1833333+00:00

also just found out for some reason one of my usb ports built into my motherboard stopped working too. this is crazy how much microsoft butchered my pc.
Alice Stevens 5 Reputation points

2024-02-08T02:14:27.2766667+00:00

Same happening to me. It just gave me the prompt and this morning was trying to install. I'll probably go ahead and do it manually now, didn't want to while I am in the middle of making art though. But yeah, shouldn't be happening.
Matt Fisher 25 Reputation points

2024-03-03T14:19:01.29+00:00

This is absolutely now happening WITHOUT user interaction. Sometime between wednesday night and Saturday morning my system auto restarted. When I came back to my shop to use my machine on Saturday morning, windows 11 was installed. There was no prompt, no user interaction, nothing. The system downloaded the UPGRADE as a feature UPDATE and ran it during forced restart.

I rolled it back, and this morning, again, came down to find the SAME windows 11 "update" propped to install and prompting for a restart.

How can Microsoft claim they are not forcing people to UPGRADE and then do this? Trust me, I'm not your average schmoe with a laptop. I've been doing this a LONG time and there have been ZERO interactions that would have caused me to authorize this update. Especially considering I intentionally rolled it back yesterday and come in to find it propped to install AGAIN.

If Microsoft is claiming they are not forcing users to upgrade, they are bold face lying.
MrsCranky 5 Reputation points

2024-04-22T06:51:40.07+00:00

This just happened WHILE I WAS USING my laptop. I NEVER choose update and shutdown, I only ever update from the settings/windows update screen and always look at the update first and have been choosing to stay on Win 10 for ages. I was working, had a pop up saying 'you're about to be logged out so win11 install can continue'. I clicked "close" (the only option). Went into settings, saw the 'stay on win 10' button but before I had a chance to click on it, the laptop restarted. Default app preferences have been reset. No recovery files were saved for the microsoft files I had open and unsaved. All unsaved changes have been lost on multiple spreadsheets I was working on. A very old version of a draft email was saved. Laptop has been on since about 9.15am, and this happened at about 4.30pm with no warning. I absolutely did not click on any update message other than the one that popped up saying I would be logged out. There was no cancel or no thanks option, just the close button, and it had greyed out all the other windows and programs I had open.
L M 1 Reputation point

2024-05-18T01:03:41.14+00:00

I had no option to stop the upgrade, there were two options: it was either update/upgrade now or in 1 hour (don't recall if it said 'update' or 'upgrade' since I was in a meeting and kept on selecting 'in 1 hour'. After selecting 'in 1 hour' twice, POOF THE LAPTOP UPGRADED by itself. There was NO option to cancel the update. Updates on my laptop are set to OFF.
öcs 25 Reputation points

2024-05-24T05:47:51.93+00:00

Class-Action people! This is the kind of behaviour we agreed to erase from digital culture years ago. Still, we're forced to install/beta test stuff. Don't let it happen. Sue!
David L 5 Reputation points

2024-07-03T21:37:54.2966667+00:00

Count me in. I did not want windows 11 with its trash adds everywhere
Gilchrist Dean 0 Reputation points

2024-08-23T01:10:32.1+00:00

The same thing just happened to me! I just got on my computer, and it was windows 11! I never installed it! This morning it was Windows 10!
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Steve 0 Reputation points

2024-10-13T20:53:56.1366667+00:00

This happened to me on two different Windows 10 PCs within 48 hours. I suspect it might be related to the fact that Microsoft stated Windows 10 support will end on October 15th, so upgrades are being forced.

On the first PC (an older gaming computer), I’d previously tried 11, discovered that NVIDIA had no intention of providing a compatible driver for my 1070 graphics card, and that the generic Microsoft driver it installed wouldn’t work with most of my games; they all shut down at their startup screens. So I rolled back to 10 and always refused the gazillion offers to install 11. The good news is that there’s now an appropriate graphics driver for me. But—as is usual with unnecessary upgrades—launching apps (so far, anyway) is now painfully slow.

On the second machine (high-end MSI laptop), it automatically installed when I simply turned the PC on. It seems to work, but again I did not authorize it nor was there an option to abort the install.

Windows (and Mac) system software upgrades seldom offer new features I find useful, invariably slow the machines down, require learning a changed interface and command set (for no apparent reason), and introduce software incompatibilities that may require expensive upgrades or render programs unusable. Rather than enhancing virtually anything that’s valuable to me, they lessen productivity and—in the worst case—require expensive upgrades or abandoning a previously functional PC. I’ll keep 11 for now, but I’m not happy with major system software updates occurring without my express permission.
Daina Tinney 0 Reputation points

2024-12-17T22:45:58.88+00:00

MY PC is forcing me to upgrade to Windows 11. Well i guess just like the media, Microsoft has lowered its standards so now THEY dont want us to have freedom of choice. Welcome to "New America" where freedom of choice is a pipe dream.
Blob _SA 0 Reputation points

2024-12-21T09:01:44.48+00:00

like for real I hate windows 11 and i dont know how to use it windows 10 is the goat
Edward Spadafora 5 Reputation points

2024-12-29T00:05:30.0533333+00:00

iMcrosoft screwed up my machine with their unwanted Windows 11 update, and I want my machine returned to Windows 10!! Pronto!
Mark Matlock 0 Reputation points

2025-01-16T14:42:35.28+00:00

Windows 11 is not even close to Windows 10. Why Make Windows 11 so ridiculously complicated. Change every aspect of the icons and made is so cumbersome to find or enter anything. Your opinions do not matter Microsoft it is your customers stop being idiots and making stupid decisions for basic app icons that do not need to change. Update all you want but stop shoving appearance changes that we do not want.
Teresa Oden 0 Reputation points

2025-01-18T02:09:21.21+00:00

I am with you all. Microsoft has grown to be too big for its own britches and needs to be taken down several notches. let's hit them at the pocketbook and see how they like being messed with.
Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

4 answers

Your answer

former_windows_enjoyer 45 Reputation points

2023-07-25T11:34:43.5966667+00:00

It should've said "Upgrade and shut down" but Microsoft really wants you to upgrade to Windows 11. In my computer when "UPDATES" where ready to install, it always said "Update and shut down". Why use the same freaking thing when we're talking about a whole "UPGRADE". There's a difference between the two. In other words it did upgrade to Windows 11 on its own. It started downloading Windows 11 on its own, it used the same prompt for just updating your system in the menu and then "poof", there you go Windows 11.
former_windows_enjoyer 45 Reputation points

2023-07-25T11:35:05.8333333+00:00

Same happened to me.
jack 5 Reputation points

2023-11-02T01:58:09.9533333+00:00

Exactly .What the hell , i keep my windows 10 upadted nothing was said about windows 11 and im sure i checked it ,it was necessary update in color of orangish mark not the blue one for windows update.
Eric Helm 0 Reputation points

2023-12-29T04:25:21.1866667+00:00

Personally I don't really think I mind being on Windows 11, but yes I was also tricked into it, and no it's not really ok for MS to be doing that.

I think some people at Microsoft are thinking that Windows 11 is Windows 10. They're thinking that Windows 11 is only called that to delineate the updates that aren't supported on old hardware from the ones that are. Here's what I think happened:

Update Deployment Team: "We don't normally warn users that the update is a feature update, we don't even have a prompt for that. I don't get what the issue is?"

Customer Relations: "You idiots, we named that update 'Windows 11' and told everyone it's a free upgrade to a whole new Windows! So you just auto-updated people to a whole new Windows without asking!"

Update Deployment Team: "Oh come on, nobody actually thinks it's a new version of Windows, that's ridiculous!"

Management: "But that's what we named it publicly! That's why there's so many new features and UI changes in the same update, it's almost kinda like a whole new Windows. Publicly we're sort-of pretending it actually is a whole new Windows!"

Update Deployment Team: "But you can't even buy it! It's just ... wait, the last ten feature updates were all for Windows 11 too and we didn't need to warn anyone about those, how is this our teams fault?"
User Not Found 15 Reputation points

2024-02-04T04:35:08.0966667+00:00

my pc decided to update on its own, and now my CPU fan keeps failing, im getting crashes, and my C Drive failed. with zero prior issues, directly after the update i cant even use this computer anymore. probably gonna scrap it and buy a Mac.
User Not Found 15 Reputation points

2024-02-04T04:55:27.1833333+00:00

also just found out for some reason one of my usb ports built into my motherboard stopped working too. this is crazy how much microsoft butchered my pc.
Alice Stevens 5 Reputation points

2024-02-08T02:14:27.2766667+00:00

Same happening to me. It just gave me the prompt and this morning was trying to install. I'll probably go ahead and do it manually now, didn't want to while I am in the middle of making art though. But yeah, shouldn't be happening.
Matt Fisher 25 Reputation points

2024-03-03T14:19:01.29+00:00

This is absolutely now happening WITHOUT user interaction. Sometime between wednesday night and Saturday morning my system auto restarted. When I came back to my shop to use my machine on Saturday morning, windows 11 was installed. There was no prompt, no user interaction, nothing. The system downloaded the UPGRADE as a feature UPDATE and ran it during forced restart.

I rolled it back, and this morning, again, came down to find the SAME windows 11 "update" propped to install and prompting for a restart.

How can Microsoft claim they are not forcing people to UPGRADE and then do this? Trust me, I'm not your average schmoe with a laptop. I've been doing this a LONG time and there have been ZERO interactions that would have caused me to authorize this update. Especially considering I intentionally rolled it back yesterday and come in to find it propped to install AGAIN.

If Microsoft is claiming they are not forcing users to upgrade, they are bold face lying.
MrsCranky 5 Reputation points

2024-04-22T06:51:40.07+00:00

This just happened WHILE I WAS USING my laptop. I NEVER choose update and shutdown, I only ever update from the settings/windows update screen and always look at the update first and have been choosing to stay on Win 10 for ages. I was working, had a pop up saying 'you're about to be logged out so win11 install can continue'. I clicked "close" (the only option). Went into settings, saw the 'stay on win 10' button but before I had a chance to click on it, the laptop restarted. Default app preferences have been reset. No recovery files were saved for the microsoft files I had open and unsaved. All unsaved changes have been lost on multiple spreadsheets I was working on. A very old version of a draft email was saved. Laptop has been on since about 9.15am, and this happened at about 4.30pm with no warning. I absolutely did not click on any update message other than the one that popped up saying I would be logged out. There was no cancel or no thanks option, just the close button, and it had greyed out all the other windows and programs I had open.
L M 1 Reputation point

2024-05-18T01:03:41.14+00:00

I had no option to stop the upgrade, there were two options: it was either update/upgrade now or in 1 hour (don't recall if it said 'update' or 'upgrade' since I was in a meeting and kept on selecting 'in 1 hour'. After selecting 'in 1 hour' twice, POOF THE LAPTOP UPGRADED by itself. There was NO option to cancel the update. Updates on my laptop are set to OFF.
öcs 25 Reputation points

2024-05-24T05:47:51.93+00:00

Class-Action people! This is the kind of behaviour we agreed to erase from digital culture years ago. Still, we're forced to install/beta test stuff. Don't let it happen. Sue!
David L 5 Reputation points

2024-07-03T21:37:54.2966667+00:00

Count me in. I did not want windows 11 with its trash adds everywhere
Gilchrist Dean 0 Reputation points

2024-08-23T01:10:32.1+00:00

The same thing just happened to me! I just got on my computer, and it was windows 11! I never installed it! This morning it was Windows 10!
Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.
Steve 0 Reputation points

2024-10-13T20:53:56.1366667+00:00

This happened to me on two different Windows 10 PCs within 48 hours. I suspect it might be related to the fact that Microsoft stated Windows 10 support will end on October 15th, so upgrades are being forced.

On the first PC (an older gaming computer), I’d previously tried 11, discovered that NVIDIA had no intention of providing a compatible driver for my 1070 graphics card, and that the generic Microsoft driver it installed wouldn’t work with most of my games; they all shut down at their startup screens. So I rolled back to 10 and always refused the gazillion offers to install 11. The good news is that there’s now an appropriate graphics driver for me. But—as is usual with unnecessary upgrades—launching apps (so far, anyway) is now painfully slow.

On the second machine (high-end MSI laptop), it automatically installed when I simply turned the PC on. It seems to work, but again I did not authorize it nor was there an option to abort the install.

Windows (and Mac) system software upgrades seldom offer new features I find useful, invariably slow the machines down, require learning a changed interface and command set (for no apparent reason), and introduce software incompatibilities that may require expensive upgrades or render programs unusable. Rather than enhancing virtually anything that’s valuable to me, they lessen productivity and—in the worst case—require expensive upgrades or abandoning a previously functional PC. I’ll keep 11 for now, but I’m not happy with major system software updates occurring without my express permission.
Daina Tinney 0 Reputation points

2024-12-17T22:45:58.88+00:00

MY PC is forcing me to upgrade to Windows 11. Well i guess just like the media, Microsoft has lowered its standards so now THEY dont want us to have freedom of choice. Welcome to "New America" where freedom of choice is a pipe dream.
Blob _SA 0 Reputation points

2024-12-21T09:01:44.48+00:00

like for real I hate windows 11 and i dont know how to use it windows 10 is the goat
Edward Spadafora 5 Reputation points

2024-12-29T00:05:30.0533333+00:00

iMcrosoft screwed up my machine with their unwanted Windows 11 update, and I want my machine returned to Windows 10!! Pronto!
Mark Matlock 0 Reputation points

2025-01-16T14:42:35.28+00:00

Windows 11 is not even close to Windows 10. Why Make Windows 11 so ridiculously complicated. Change every aspect of the icons and made is so cumbersome to find or enter anything. Your opinions do not matter Microsoft it is your customers stop being idiots and making stupid decisions for basic app icons that do not need to change. Update all you want but stop shoving appearance changes that we do not want.
Teresa Oden 0 Reputation points

2025-01-18T02:09:21.21+00:00

I am with you all. Microsoft has grown to be too big for its own britches and needs to be taken down several notches. let's hit them at the pocketbook and see how they like being messed with.
Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

Answer 1

S.Sengupta 22,556 MVP

Hope this article helps:

[How to Block the Windows 11 Update From Installing on Windows 10](https://www.howtogeek.com/765377/how-to-block-the-windows-11-update-from-installing-on-windows-10/"How to Block the Windows 11 Update From Installing on Windows 10")

debbie boswell 10 Reputation points

2023-10-14T08:56:31.1533333+00:00

The page is no longer there. why can' someone create a simple link with simple steps for us senior citizens to use so that we can go back to windows 10 block windows 11 so we have a simple way to get it done

Answer 2

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Answer 3

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Answer 4

CrazyKats 320

If this update just happened yesterday or today,

go to Settings, System, Recovery and if this option is not

greyed out, use Go Back.

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galdorf1 0 Reputation points

2024-09-16T03:02:32.3133333+00:00

i was upgraded to windows 11 and 5 minutes after i see there is no "go back" button under recovery so I uninstalled all updates, restored to a recovery point, etc, nothing worked, i was FORCED to accept windows 11 and now a lot of my games and apps are not functioning and I dont know what to do

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Why did my computer update to Windows 11 on its own?

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