Many users with StartAllBack – a favorite app among power users – recently found out that they could not update their PC to the latest Windows 11 update with the app still installed. Windows is blocking updates on machines with StartAllBack installed, citing security and performance issues.

How to Install Windows 11 with StartAllBack Installed
Windows is blocking updates on PCs with the StartAllBack app installed, but it’s not too difficult to get the updates as well as the custom Start menu from the app.
All Things HowSakshi Garg

Turns out, it's just the beginning. As reported by DeskModder, Microsoft is now keeping a list of apps in the appraiser.sdb file in the Windows 24H2 version (currently available only to Windows Insiders), which Windows 11 will check before updating the PC. The list includes 11 applications at the moment.

If any app on your PC matches one on that list, the update for Windows 11 will be blocked until you uninstall that app.

But it isn't a simple matter of blocking the update if an app's name on your PC matches that on the list. For example, while VLC is listed on the list of apps that Windows 11 will check, the list includes a specific version of VLC, the Windows 7 version of VLC in particular.

The full list of apps include:

  • ConisioAdmin.exe (Solidworks PDM)
  • EaseUS Disk Copy.exe (EaseUS Disk Copy Application)
  • ep_dwm.exe (ExplorerPatcher) included since 22H2
  • iCloudServices.exe (iCloud files shared in Explorer via WhatsApp) from 23H2
  • RadeonSoftware.exe (AMD GPU perf settings) from23H2
  • StartAllBackCfg.exe (StartAllBack) Included since 22H2
  • Multi-mon + Copilot (Microsoft)
  • MergeSdb (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)

If you do have these apps installed on your system, updating your Windows 11 PC is going to become considerably difficult for you after version 24H2 is released generally later in the year.

But there's no need to lose all hope. There might be workarounds discovered down the line, like the StartAllBack users discovered that they could still have the app on their PC, if they uninstalled it, updated their PC, and reinstalled the app after renaming the exe file.