Manage Windows 11 Readiness dashboard using SCCM

In this tutorial, I will show you how to manage the Windows 11 readiness dashboard using SCCM. I will explain all the features that the readiness dashboard offers and how organizations can utilize this feature to find devices eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade.

Simply put, the Windows 11 upgrade readiness dashboard was designed to alert administrators or management to devices that are ready for an upgrade.

Once the eligible devices are identified for the upgrade, the SCCM administrators can create collections for Windows 11 ready devices and deploy the upgrade. There are other details also displayed on the dashboard, which will be covered in detail.

Scenario

An organization contacted me last week about their plans to use SCCM to upgrade all of their Windows 10 devices to Windows 11. Thankfully, it was possible because they were running the latest current branch version of Configuration Manager in their setup.

We know that Windows 11 comes with a new set of requirements for installation or upgrade. If your device does not meet these requirements, you may not be able to install Windows 11 on your device and might want to consider purchasing a new PC.

This organization wanted to find out how many of their Windows 10 devices were eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade. With the Windows 11 readiness dashboard, this task becomes much easier. The dashboard identified 1260 devices that were ready for the Windows 11 upgrade. That’s interesting!!

Features of Windows 11 Readiness Dashboard

The readiness dashboard in SCCM displays the following charts for the selected collection:

• Windows Device Information: Shows the count of Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11 devices in your organization.
• Feature Update Version: Shows the count of each feature update version in your organization.
• Upgrade experience indicators: displays information for each device, which can be in any of these states:
  • Can’t Upgrade: displays information about the devices that cannot be upgraded to Windows 11. The color red serves as an indicator for this.
  • App Upgrade/Uninstall Required: displays the information about the devices that need an application update or uninstall before upgrading to Windows 11. Yellow serves as an indicator for this.
  • App/Driver upgrade required: shows the devices that need an application upgrade to Windows 11. Orange serves as a visual cue to identify this indicator.
  • Ready for Upgrade: This indicator displays the devices that are capable of a Windows 11 upgrade. The color green serves as an indicator for this.
• Windows 11 Minimum Hardware Requirement : Showcases the minimum hardware and software requirements needed to support Windows 11.

Prerequisites

To use the Windows 11 readiness dashboard in Configuration Manager, the following prerequisites are required:

• You will need at least SCCM version 2309 or later to use the readiness dashboard.
• The WebView2 console extension must be installed for the Configuration Manager console. To install the extension, select the notification bell in the console’s top-right corner.
• Windows 10/11 telemetry services should be enabled at the basic level.
• Hardware inventory should be enabled on all client devices.

Where is the Windows 11 readiness dashboard in SCCM?

Open the Configuration Manager console and navigate to Software Library > Overview. Click on the Windows 11 upgrade readiness to access the dashboard.

Manage Windows 11 Readiness Dashboard using SCCM

In this section, we will go in-depth into each feature that the readiness dashboard for SCCM administrators has to offer. Each feature provides useful information about the operating system and its configuration in your setup.

1. Windows Device Information

The Windows device information section in the dashboard shows the count of Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11 devices in your organization. This chart data displayed here is collected from the hardware inventory details sent by computers to the management point.

The color yellow represents Windows 10 devices, while green represents Windows 11 devices. Hovering your mouse over the chart color shows the count of devices.

By default, the Windows device information is shown as a chart. You can view this data in table format as well. Click on the Show Table option to view the data in table format. To view the data as a chart, click Show Chart.

2. Feature Update Version

In the Windows 11 readiness dashboard, the feature update version section shows the count of each feature update version in your organization.

• Examples of feature update versions for Windows 11 include Windows 11 (23H2, 22H2, and 21H1).
• Examples of feature update versions for Windows 10 include Windows 10 (21H1, 21H2, and 22H2).

3. Upgrade Experience Indicators

The Upgrade Experience indicators in the Windows 11 readiness dashboard are represented by four colors: red, orange, yellow, and green. Each color gives a concise overview of the known compatibility problems that a device might experience during an upgrade.

Red Indicator

The red indicator means the device can’t be upgraded to the latest version of Windows. The following conditions will cause a device to be marked red in the Windows 11 readiness dashboard:

• A device fails any CPU requirement checks (SSE2, NX, CompareExchange128, LahfSahf, or PrefetchW).
• When a device has a BIOS block, it usually prevents OS upgrades.
• If the system doesn’t have enough RAM, the device shows up as red.
• If there’s a wireless device that uses an XP-era emulated wireless driver,.
• If a network device has an active connection but loses its driver during an upgrade.
• If the system has a block for which the enumerator is ComputerHardwareId, meaning we’ve dictated in the SDB that this specific model can’t upgrade.
• If there’s any other PNP device on the system that blocks upgrade not previously called out.
• If there’s a display-class device with a driver block that isn’t overridden AND no driver up level AND not already on BDD (customer would upgrade and have basic display).
• A red indicator for the device is activated if the system reserve partition is less than 15 MB.

For example, the red color appears on some devices, citing the reasons as CpuFms and Tpm, as shown in the screenshot below. These are the devices that cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 using SCCM.

Orange Indicator

The orange marker in the Windows 11 readiness dashboard means the device encounters regressions in functionality post-upgrade, including either an app that no longer runs or a device with no driver.

• If a non-system-class PNP device loses its driver during an upgrade, the device may be marked as orange.
• If any app or file is blocked from running up level, it isn’t blocked down level, and doesn’t get automatically removed.

Yellow Indicator

A yellow marker indicates that a device needs to have an app uninstalled to upgrade to Windows 11. If any app has a soft block-up level, consider UX_OVERRIDE (which will not appear in setup but is not severe enough to be orange).

Green Indicator

The green indicator in the Windows 11 readiness dashboard appears for any device that doesn’t meet the criteria for the other colors. This includes devices that receive media center or WMDRM warnings, as well as devices that have a problematic app silently removed during an upgrade.

4. Windows 11 Minimum Hardware Requirements

This section in the Windows 11 readiness dashboard showcases the minimum hardware and software requirements needed to support Windows 11. Microsoft also lists the same information on the Windows 11 information page.