Upgrade Experience Indicators are not new to Windows 11; they exist for Windows 10, too. In this post, you will learn how to use them to determine Windows 11 Upgrade Readiness.
Background – Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser
Upgrade Experience Indicators are registry values created by the Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser task, a scheduled task found in the Microsoft / Windows / Application Experience folder in Task Scheduler. This task has multiple triggers, but the most important is the daily trigger. The inner workings of the Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser task are not well documented by Microsoft, but Adam Gross has a masterpiece on the topic: https://www.asquaredozen.com/2020/07/26/demystifying-windows-10-feature-update-blocks/
When the task is run, it will populate compatibility markers in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\CompatMarkers registry key, and then also write in the upgrade experience indicators in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\ TargetVersionUpgradeExperienceIndicators key.
Within each key you find a sub key indicating what Windows version that was checked, and the Windows 11 key names comes from the various code names used by Microsoft. Here are the current ones
- 21H2. Windows 10 21H2
- CO21H2. Windows 11 21H2 (Cobalt)
- GE24H2. Windows 11 24H2 (Germanium)
- NI22H2. Windows 11 22H2 (Nickel)
- NI23H2. Windows 11 23H2 (Nickel)
Below is an example where both the CPU and TPM chip was deemed not compatible for Windows 11 23H2:
Other data of interest – SafeGuard Holds
In the registry keys you also find the various Gated* values indicating if the device has been targeted with any SafeGuard Holds. The values are:
- GatedBlockId. This is the SafeGuard Hold Id.
- GatedBlockReason.
- GatedFeature.
SafeGuard Holds is Microsoft blocking devices they know have issues with a specific version of Windows 11. Gary Blok keeps a database of current SafeGuard Holds here: https://github.com/gwblok/garytown/tree/master/Feature-Updates/SafeGuardHolds
Tools – Diagnostics Data Viewer
If you want more information about what diagnostics data Windows collects without having to parse the appraiser-generated BIN files, you can use the Diagnostics Data Viewer app which is available in the Microsoft Store.
