It’s the controversy of the year. But a new third-party tool does a much better job than Microsoft at explaining why you can’t upgrade to Windows 11.
I assume everyone is on board with the notion that Microsoft’s hardware requirements for Windows 11, especially its TPM 2.0 requirement, have landed poorly within the community. I still feel that this won’t be a problem for most so-called “normal” people, either because they purchased PCs from big-name companies and don’t need to worry about it or because they simply will never care about any Windows upgrade. But whatever. It’s a problem.
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Microsoft doesn’t have a real solution to the hardware compatibility issues beyond “just buy a new PC.” But it does offer a PC Health Check app that will give you a one-line answer if your PC is deemed incompatible with the Windows 11 upgrade. And that’s kind of the problem: In many cases, you may need to make more than one change to your PC to make it compatible; say, by enabling TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. And the Microsoft tool, despite a few quick upgrades, is still borderline useless.
Enter WhyNotWin11. This very useful tool will list out all of Windows 11’s hardware requirements and then show you whether your PC passes muster in each case. So if you have multiple issues, you can find out what they are all at once and then, hopefully, address them.
Enjoy.
dftf
<p><em>"I’ll watch the requirements hopefully evolve with great interest"</em></p><p><br></p><p>While I think it would be sensible to only be so-strict when it comes to <em>new </em>devices, they have so-far been quoted by other tech news-sites as remaining committed to them for <em>existing </em>ones also</p>
dftf
<p><em>"Or…they feel it’s justified to pull people kicking and screaming into more secure computing."</em></p><p><br></p><p>Will a 2.0 TPM and Secure Boot achieve that though?</p><p><br></p><p>Literally <em>every day </em>at the moment sites like <em>Ars Technica</em>, <em>Bleeping Computer</em> or <em>The Register</em> have yet another story about some massive ransomware attack. I don’t see how such measures protect at-all against a user opening an e-mail and then running a malware attachment, or a software coding vulnerability, or even a hardware-level issue (such as Spectre and Meltdown — can either of those be offset in some-way via a TPM and Secure Boot?)</p>
dftf
<p>You’ll only get a mandatory <em>Microsoft Account </em>on the <em>Home </em>edition… upgrade to <em>Pro </em>if you don’t want that</p>
dftf
<p>You won’t need it until after October 2025, though — Windows 10 will continue to get security-updates until then. It’s not dead yet (despite people on here suddenly acting like it is!)</p>
dftf
<p><em>"Microsoft employees saying on Twitter and other places that you only really need TPM 1.2 for it to work but it will warn you … what is it then?"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Officially, TPM 2.0 is the lowest. They published a document where it said TPM 1.2 was the "hard floor" and TPM 2.0 the "soft floor", but have since revised it and removed all-references to TPM 1.2.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"All that said I think this is getting way too much drama"</em></p><p><br></p><p>I agree there! Most commentators on here seem obsessed now with Windows 11, and act like Windows 10 is now immediately dead and they cannot cope between now and when they get W11 installed. Others say they are "so excited", others "it’s a monumental Windows release".</p><p><br></p><p>And I cannot understand why. To me, it just seems like "Windows 10.1", overall. I mean the only massive new-features are running <em>Android </em>apps, the <em>DirectStorage </em>addition (which will only really affect AAA-title gamers, and possibly CAD users), and the revamped <em>Microsoft Store</em> (which they’ve already said will come to <em>Windows 10 </em>also).</p><p><br></p><p>So… what else has everyone losing-their-minds over it and needing to upgrade ASAP? The <em>Snap </em>improvements? A <em>unique wallpaper </em>on each virtual-desktop? The <em>start-up sound </em>being brought-back? The <em>Widgets </em>pane? The new <em>Start Menu </em>panel and centred <em>Taskbar</em>?</p><p><br></p><p>Is all of that really worth (in some cases) buying a new device for… really?</p>
dftf
<p><em>"… there are Mac systems dating back to 2015 that will be supported on macOS Monterey. And Apple supports computers with 2 OS versions … so those machines have a while left on overall support …"</em></p><p><br></p><p>As of now, any device running <em>Windows 10 </em>have around 4 years and 4 months left of updates: given how-quick Apple release macOS versions thesedays, I’m sure that period will be longer. Not-to-mention there will be PCs older-than 2015 on the Windows side still running Windows 10: most Windows 7-era devices should run W10, and I’m sure many Vista-era ones are capable, too…</p>
dftf
<p><em>"I would like to try Win 11 if I could, but I will not pay for the privilege"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Once it becomes available as an ISO image as part of the <em>Windows Insider Preview </em>program, download it, and use it to install <em>Windows 11 </em>inside of a virtual-machine (such as <em>Hyper-V, VirtualBox </em>or <em>VMWare Player</em>).</p><p><br></p><p>Then you can indeed test it for free, on you existing <em>Windows 10 </em>device (or even under Linux, or on macOS, providing they offer an ISO of the ARM64 version)</p>
dftf
<p>"… will not run on my work PC because "Updates are being managed by my IT department"."</p><p>"… I need to know: Can my Hardware handle Windows 11."</p><p><br></p><p>Ask your IT Department then… that’s their job!</p>
dftf
<p>They’re still selling the <em>Surface Pro 2 </em>right-now for £3,549 in the UK… despite the CPU not being supported by Windows 11. That’s a lot of money to spend on a device that will drop-support in October 2025…</p>
dftf
<p>When <em>Windows 11</em> detects it is running inside a VM, certain hardware-requirements are simply ignored and don’t have to be met</p><p><br></p><p>Source: download.microsoft.com/download/7/8/8/788bf5ab-0751-4928-a22c-dffdc23c27f2/Minimum%20Hardware%20Requirements%20for%20Windows%2011.pdf , page 16</p>
dftf
<p>Indeed, yes!</p><p><br></p><p>I think <em>Oracle VM VirtualBox </em>still supports <em>Windows 7 </em>(as the host OS), as of now. So install <em>Windows 11 </em>inside of it, and you can run it on not-only unsupported hardware, but inside of an unsupported OS as-well!</p>
dftf
<p><em>"Even the budget 8" Dell tablet I bought in 2014 was able to upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10."</em></p><p><br></p><p>If it was <em>Windows 8 RT </em>on that device, it definitely wouldn’t be supported now as most of those ran 32-bit ARMv7 CPUs, and 32-bit kernel support has been dropped. And even if not, it might have a 32-bit x86 CPU, as many tablets of that time were low-spec devices, shipping with only 1GB or 2GB or RAM.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"… I have a feeling that Microsoft will back off on these aggressive system requirements"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Time will tell, but so-far when questioned they’ve said they’ve no plans to. But if many choose not to buy new devices, and market-share for Windows 11 stagnates, it may mean having to extend support for Windows 10.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"… because Microsoft arbitrarily decided more PCs need to be sold"</em></p><p><br></p><p>I’m still a bit puzzled how many PCs are able to be sold. Assuming businesses suddenly all do decide "sure, let’s replace tens-of-thousands of our PCs" (which, as many have lost a lot of money during the pandemic seems unlikely) you still have the question of whether supply can meet demand. Until just recently we’re hearing Xbox Series and PS5 consoles will have stock-shortages until possibly late 2022, due to the worldwide silicon shortages — same reason why lots of new cars are sitting-around waiting for on-board chips to be fitted before they can be sold. So, when it comes to Windows laptops and desktops, why does the silicon-shortage not seem an issue there?</p>
dftf
<p>It does seem mad that at a time there are worldwide silicon shortages, Microsoft seem to think the industry will be able to fulfil millions of new laptops and desktops. New cars are sitting-around unsold as they’re awaiting chips; games-consoles are facing production issues… yet Windows PCs seem immune and can meet demand?</p><p><br></p><p>Not to mention the obvious environmental issues around rendering devices suddenly obsolete…</p>
dftf
<p>Maybe <em>Windows </em>itself? The last-time I looked at <em>ReactOS</em>, at-least, it still looked like Windows 2000 and was trying to add features from that era…</p>
dftf
<p>I’m totally puzzled what is happening with the <em>Insider Preview </em>now. They’ve said anyone currently in it will be updated in the next few weeks to running <em>Windows 11</em>, even if the device doesn’t meet the specs, yet when the final <em>Windows 11</em> gets released, you have to clean-install and revert to <em>Windows 10</em>?</p><p><br></p><p>Seems real-dumb to me… surely only PCs which meet the requirements for the eventual final-version of W11 should run the previews of it? All other devices should remain on <em>Windows 10</em> preview-builds.</p>
dftf
<p>I wonder if <em>Microsoft </em>has also remembered there is a global silicon-shortage right now, too — can the industry suddenly fulfil orders on something like, what, 300 million new PCs?</p><p><br></p><p>As for booting live from a USB: you can already do this with many <em>Linux </em>distros. Google "Pen Drive Linux" and see which that tool supports.</p>
dftf
<p>Inside a VM, Windows 11 won’t require a TPM to be present, nor certain-other hardware checks (e.g. a DirectX 12 compliant GPU) as it simply ignores such requirements.</p><p><br></p><p>You can find this on page 16 of this PDF: download.microsoft.com/download/7/8/8/788bf5ab-0751-4928-a22c-dffdc23c27f2/Minimum%20Hardware%20Requirements%20for%20Windows%2011.pdf</p>
dftf
<p><em>"… but Windows 10 support only until Summer 2025 …"</em></p><p><br></p><p>In the tech news, they always say this applies only to <em>Home </em>and <em>Pro</em>. Yet if I look at this page (<strong>docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-enterprise-and-education</strong>) it says both <em>Education </em>and <em>Enterprise</em> also end-support in October 2025. I assume that is correct?</p><p><br></p><p><em>"At least at work it will keep me really busy replacing PCs"</em></p><p><br></p><p>We’re pulling audit-reports at the moment to see how-many we may need to replace and take a decision from there on what to do next. Aside from buying new <em>Windows 11</em> devices, there are two other options: (1) wait until <em>Windows 12</em>, and look at new devices then — given <em>Windows 10 </em>is no-longer "the last version", why would anyone expect <em>Windows 11</em> to also be? And (2) consider moving machines to the 2019 LTSC edition of <em>Windows 10</em>, which is supported until Jan 2029…</p>
dftf
<p><em>"</em><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sounds like a great revenue opportunity to me"</em></p><p><br></p><p>I can’t believe Microsoft has revealed itself to be a for-profit corporation, and dropped its charity facade… 😉 </p>
dftf
<p>While it’s true that, in my experience, <em>Windows Me </em>ran fine on pre-built machines, but blue-screened loads on existing ones, <em>Windows 11 </em>will be as-stable as <em>Windows 10.</em></p><p><br></p><p>I think a better-comparison would be <em>Windows 8</em>: it’ll introduce new UI elements, improve tablet users’ experiences, continue to evolve the "Modern UI" apps, revamp or remove old Windows apps and parts of the UI, etc… but in a few years, we’ll be seeing a similar market-share story of it being on something like 20% of all global PCs, while <em>Windows 10 </em>continues on the vast-majority</p>
dftf
<p>Yeah… around £3550 for the <em>Surface Studio 2</em>, which cannot be upgraded due to its CPU. And no warning or anything on the official sale-page for it. At the very-least they should add a disclaimer to the effect of: <strong>"This device cannot be upgraded to Windows 11, and will be supported only until October 2025 on Windows 10</strong>".</p><p><br></p><p>If they’re so comfortable with the new requirements for Windows 11, at-least be upfront on your own devices for sale right-now and let consumers know which won’t be supported!</p><p><br></p><p>(To Apple’s credit: at-least ahead of a new version of macOS, they do list what the earliest model in each product line-up / category that can run it will be…)</p>
dftf
<p>"… but win10 is installed on an MBR drive, not grt"</p><p>"csm is being used and not uefi and it is using legacy boot method"</p><p><br></p><p>I wasn’t sure what "CSM" was for a moment, as I always just call it "BIOS mode".</p><p><br></p><p>There is a Command Prompt tool called <strong>MBR2GPT </strong>you can use to convert a drive to GPT format, and it is (though awkward to do) change the motherboard mode from BIOS to UEFI without reinstalling Windows… but if you can just reinstall, it would certainly be the easier way to go, yes.</p><p><br></p><p>Only UEFI is supported by Windows 11, so if you’re using CSM for the "legacy boot" option (e.g. to use a SATA type SSD) then you’ll need to check that under UEFI it will boot off that device. If not, you’ll have to get an M.2 drive to install onto — my own laptop won’t boot from SATA in UEFI mode.</p>