Microsoft has just played its joker card twice in a week, forcing upgrades on millions of Windows PC owners. This will raise serious alarm bells for hundreds of million of users who may now need to upgrade their PCs with no alternative options.

"Today, searching for files on your Copilot+ PC with improved Windows Search will only work for files saved locally in indexed locations on your PC, " Microsoft states. "You can go to Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows to adjust which locations are indexed on your PC or turn on “Enhanced” to index your entire PC."

Microsoft keeps adding upgrade roadblocks, but there are workarounds for many models. Here's how you can find out whether your Windows 10 PC can bypass the latest restrictions and safely upgrade to Windows 11 - for free.