Unable to upgrade to Windows 10 21H2

[fmartel]

I have a laptop that was in the dev channel. I requested to not receive future builds because my device does not support Windows 11. My laptop is running on Windows 10 insider Dev build 21390.2025. Funny enough I figured out today that this build is higher than Win 10 21h2. It means I must format this device anyway even if Microsoft warned us to not upgrade to Windows 11 if we were not supported.

These devs builds were already running Windows 11 builds numbers!?

This build expires in 1 week. What are my options now? were is my supposed upgrade path to Windows 10 21h2? Weren't we supposed to have an easy way to stay in Windows 10? This whole Windows 11 upgrade thing is such a mess in my opinion.

[#2]

Hello
Of course - I agree with you!
However, the Dev version. The system does not have a complete environment , so moving to a lower channel needs a clean installation of Windows.
For sure, Windows11 has currently divided people in the Insider program - this is an unpleasant surprise due to the system requirements .
Thank you for the topic!

[#3 · Accepted solution]

@fmartel 

I suggest you perform a clean installation of Windows10 - stable latest version, or download ISO from the RP Channel of the Insider program
Good luck

Using ISOs - Windows Insider Program | Microsoft Docs

[#4]

Just to let you know. The best answer and supported way is to do a clean install.

I instead used a Windows 11 ISO to upgrade my dev channel to Windows 11 Stable to keep my data because i didn't wanted to do a clean install now.
This is not supported but it worked flawlessly. There was no errors, no warnings regarding compatibility.

Don't do what I did I am a professional. :)

[#5]

Your answers are correct, but I beg to differ on your comment that the system does not have a complete environment. It does, it is simply not and was never planned to be certified for release. But a complete system, it absolutely is. And a much better system than 21H2 IMHO.

[#6]

@Andrés S Hi

For me, the Dev version. Insider program will never have a full environment and can always be unstable and is certainly not a productive version - this is obvious!

And this is the latest entry on the Blog:

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22504 | Windows Insider Blog

[#7]

I am in the same boat. I find it ridiculous that the 21H2 build isn't above 21390 so we can update rather than doing a clean install. If this was Microsoft's plan to use these builds as windows 11 preview builds and there would be minimum requirements then they should have inhibited us from installing them much earlier.