Windows 11 will not update with some apps installed

If your Windows 11 PC failed to update Windows in the past week, there may be a very specific reason for it. According to a German tech site, the Windows 11 24H2 build, which is currently being tested in the Windows Insiders beta program, has a surprisingly extensive list of apps that block updates. Among these are favorites for us more advanced users, such as StartAllBack.

DeskModder.de reports (via machine translation) that Microsoft includes a database file with the major 24H2 build of Windows 11 that will block installation if it detects any of eleven very specific applications on the computer. Some notable additions to the list are popular tools like EaseUS Disk Copy, UI tweaks like StartAllBack, ExplorerPatcher, and Multi-Mon, and even some fairly simple tools like a Realtek USB adapter, AMD's Radeon GPU driver, or Apple's iCloud services.

For some tools, all versions of the software are blocked, such as EaseUS, but in some cases it is very specific. For example, Multi-Mon is only blocked if you also have Copilot installed, perhaps due to modifications made by the previous program to the Windows taskbar. Here's the full list and specific terms, according to DeskModder:

• ConisioAdmin.exe (Solidworks PDM)
• EaseUS Disk Copy.exe
• ep_dwm.exe (ExplorerPatcher) is included since 22H2
• iCloudServices.exe (iCloud Files Shared in Explorer via WhatsApp) Ab 23H2
• RadeonSoftware.exe (AMD GPU Performance Settings) Ab 23H2
• StartAllBackCfg.exe (StartAllBack) is included since 22H2
• Multi Moon + Copilot (Microsoft)
• Merge SDB (Microsoft)
• Intel IntcOED.sys (Intel)
• Intel IntcAudioBus.sys (Intel) (%WinDir%\System32\drivers\IntcAudioBus.sys)
• Realtek 8192su Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter (Realtek) (%WinDir%\System32\drivers\RTL8192su.sys)

It's possible to make at least some of these apps work with the newer version of Windows 11. XDA-Developers has seen examples of users uninstalling StartAllBack, updating the operating system, and then reinstalling the software using a renamed executable file. This is not the first time that some UI-heavy apps have caused issues with new Windows updates.

The Windows 11 24H2 release won't be released until the latter half of the year — a time when Microsoft has been rolling out the big annual feature update for a number of years now. But Microsoft appears to be taking the opportunity to clean up the operating system and prevent it from being installed on older computers. So the list of banned apps could get shorter as Microsoft irons out bugs while 24H2 is still in preview — or it could get longer. Or it may suddenly include Baldur's Gate III For no reason, who knows?

The article was translated by Christian Kask. Originally published on PC World.