HP does not support Win11 on Omen 15T laptop

[jrsva]

My Omen 15T laptop has been pestering me to upgrade to Win11.  I did not want to do it but could find no way to prevent it from doing it on its own.  Now I'm having problems with my display and HP cannot update the drivers to try to fix it.  HP warns not to download drivers from third-party sites.  Any suggestions?

I'm also using an external monitor.  I suspect I should update its drivers from its manufacturer's site (Dell).  Is that correct?

[yoshihisa-yokoi]

If HP does not support Windows 11 on your OMEN 15T laptop, it's best to revert back to the previous operating system that was supported. To revert back to the previous operating system, you may have to perform a clean install of the operating system.

Regarding the display issues, you may try updating the graphics card drivers from the manufacturer's website (such as Intel or Nvidia) instead of HP. Updating the drivers for the external monitor from Dell's website can also resolve any display issues.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @jrsva 

If you recently updated the PC to W11 (within the last 10 days), you can go back to W10 fairly easy.

How to Downgrade from Windows 11 to Windows 10 (howtogeek.com)

Then if you want to block the W11 upgrade from installing in the future, see this discussion at the link below for the solution for that.

(1) Solved: Re: How to avoid upgrade from win 10 Home 21h2 to win 11 - HP Support Community - 860193...

[jrsva]

Thanks Yoshi, I got the OS reverted to Win10, 21H2, and I think I have it blocked from trying to upgrade again.  This probably fixed the display issues as well but, if not, I will check on the drivers for the video card and monitor.  Thanks very much.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[jrsva]

Thanks Paul,  I followed your first link to revert to Win10 and that went very smoothly.  For the second link, preventing a recurrence, it got a bit more complicated.  I used the Local Group Policy Editor and the first part of that went fine, blocking updates to Win10 v. 21H2, but I'm not fully clear about checking for other updates while this block is on.  Back in Win7 days I used to check for updates manually and then select those that I wanted to install.  I allowed installation of all security updates but I looked more carefully at non-security updates and was careful not to install the "Upgrade to Win10" thing until I was ready for it.

So my question now is, if I look for updates manually will it present me with a list of updates to choose from or will it just install everything it finds?  I fear the latter.  Thanks, JRS

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I'm assuming that you will still be able to get all of the other W10 updates.

You will have to check and see.

For example:

Almost every day you get the Windows defender definition updates.

Check your update history and see if your notebook is continuing to receive them.

On February 14th in the afternoon, it will be the monthly Microsoft 'Patch Tuesday' where they release all of the security and other updates.

If they show up, then you should be fine.

[jrsva]

Thanks Paul, for telling me what to look for.  According to the article you posted,

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Operating-Systems-and-Recovery/How-to-avoid-upgrade-from-win-1...

all updates will be blocked.  My hope is to be able to look at the list of available updates every few days and select those that I want to install.  I did just this with Win7 when MS was first promoting Win10, but I fear things may have changed so that when I ask WinUpdate to look for updates, it will go ahead and install them instead of just offering a list to choose from.  If you can confirm how this works I would be very grateful.

I just now noticed in the above link, it refers to Win10-Home, whereas I have Win10-Pro.  I doubt this matters with regard to blocking updates but it did allow me to make the rollback using the Local Group Policy Editor rather than having to edit the registry.  Felt a little safer for an amateur.

Thanks very much for your help. JRS

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

It appears that if you look at the very last section of that article you can continue to get updates:

How to Continue Getting Windows 10 Updates

If you followed the above methods exactly, you have prevented your Windows 10 PC from getting any updates after the 21H1 update. This means it will block any Windows 10 updates, too, which you probably don’t want to do.

To get around that, keep an eye on the Microsoft Docs site to check for newer versions of Windows 10. Once you see a new update there, say 21H2, then in the steps above where you entered “21H1”, change that to “21H2” (without quotes).

That will allow you to continue to get Windows 10 updates while blocking the Windows 11 update.

And that’s how you continue to use your favorite version of Windows while blocking any unwanted updates.

My interpretation of the above is that you will continue to get updates for the version of W10 that you have installed as long as Microsoft continues to provide updates for that version and in order to continue getting updates you will have to check the Microsoft site to install the latest version of W10 to continue getting updates.

The current version is 22H2, and they are indicating you need to change your group policy editor to reflect that change each time you install a new version of W10 to continue to receive the other updates, but not get W11.

To me, this is the only site you would need to check for the latest update.  Probably will come out each October until Microsoft quits supporting W10 in October of 2025.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

[jrsva]

Thanks Paul.  I was putting a different spin on this, thinking that all updates are blocked and I needed to specifically authorize the security updates while rejecting the W11 update.  I hope you are right!!  At least now I am very familiar with the process so I can easily revert to Win10 if I get bumped up again.

Hopefully by the time we get to Oct 2025 and support for Win10 ends, either I will have retired my Omen 15T or perhaps HP will have provided an upgrade to allow it to run Win11.  I might not even be here by then since I'm already 84.  😉

Thanks again, JRS