Microsoft stated final week that it’s going to quickly start pushing its controversial PC Well being Examine app to all PCs, partly to arrange them for the Home windows 11 transition, but in addition to offer customers with a dashboard to observe the continuing well being of their units.
The replace, formally generally known as KB5005463, will set up PC Well being Examine on all Home windows 10 units through Home windows Replace—however, apparently, not on units which have already upgraded to Home windows 11. (The replace’s existence was beforehand reported by ONMSFT.com.) Microsoft does say, nevertheless, that PC Well being Examine can be uninstalled after it downloads, through the Home windows 10 Settings menu (Apps > Apps & Options > App checklist (Home windows PC Well being Examine) > Uninstall).
It’s comprehensible in case your first intuition is to take away PC Well being Examine, since that was one of many focal factors of Microsoft’s heavily-scrutinized TPM requirement for Windows 11. PC Well being Examine was initially designed to offer a “cross/fail” suggestion in your PC, letting you already know if it might be upgradable to Home windows 11. Microsoft then went forwards and backwards on its hardware requirements for Windows 11, ultimately touchdown on a compromise that PCs without the “supported” hardware required by PC Well being Examine would be capable of improve to Home windows 11, however without updates. Properly, some updates—anecdotal stories say some unsupported PCs are receiving Home windows 11 updates, however they’re not assured.
All the confusion helped result in our conclusion that you simply shouldn’t upgrade to Windows 11 for now. However Microsoft hopes that the added worth supplied by the different options of PC Well being Examine will encourage you to depart it alone for now. The corporate has revealed a listing of options that PC Well being Examine will present:
Home windows 11 eligibility: Supplies a complete eligibility test based mostly on the minimal system necessities for Home windows 11.
Backup and sync: Check in or create a Microsoft account to sync machine preferences throughout units and arrange Microsoft OneDrive to guard your information.
Home windows Replace: Hold your machine safe by at all times working the most recent model of Home windows 10.
Battery capability: View the battery capability relative to the unique for units that use a single or a number of batteries.
Storage capability: View the storage utilization for the primary drive that accommodates information, apps, and Home windows.
Startup time: Handle startup applications to enhance startup time.
Tips about PC well being: Supplies further suggestions to enhance general PC well being and efficiency.
Most of those capabilities aren’t new; they’re merely discovered elsewhere within the working system, often throughout the Settings menu. All Microsoft is doing is pulling them out and organizing them into a particular dashboard. Will Microsoft push PC Well being Examine as a method to push folks to Home windows 11? It actually seems so. However for now, Microsoft is making an attempt to sweeten the take care of further options.
As PCWorld’s senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft information and chip know-how, amongst different beats. He has previously written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.