Windows 11 Hardware Requirements and Recommendations

Windows 11 has stricter hardware compatibility requirements than its predecessor, the first time that's been true since Windows Vista, which was released way back in 2006. These requirements artificially limit which PCs can be upgraded from Windows 10.

Additionally, certain Windows 11 features require additional hardware capabilities.
Understand the Windows 11 hardware requirements
To upgrade to Windows 11, your PC must include:

A compatible microprocessor. Windows 11 requires a 64-bit 1 GHz or faster microprocessor or a System on a Chip (SOC) with two processor cores or more. But not any processor will do: Instead, Windows 11 only supports very specific, newer microprocessors. Generally speaking, this means an 8th-Gen Intel Core processor (or its AMD equivalent) or newer. We recommend the newest and fastest microprocessor you can afford.

RAM. 4 GB or more. We recommend 16 GB of RAM.

Storage. 64 GB or more. We recommend 256 GB or more of SSD (solid-state drive) storage.

Firmware. UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) with Secure Boot enabled.

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0. This is a hardware-based security solution.

Graphics. DirectX 12 or newer compatibility with a WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) 2.0 driver.

Display. HD (720p) or higher with a physical size of at least 9-inches (diagonally), with 8-bits per color channel. We recommend a Full HD (1920 x 1080) or higher resolution display based on your needs.
Find out if your Windows 10 PC can upgrade to Windows 11
If some are all of the information in the previous section is confusing, no worries: Microsoft offers an app called PC Health Check that will examine your PC and tell you whether it's compatible with Windows 11. If it isn't, it will explain why.
If your Windows 10-based PC is up-to-date, Microsoft will have installed PC Health Check on it already, so you can use Start Search to find and run the app.

The app is straightforward: simply select the "Check now" button to see whether your PC meets Windows 11's hardware requirements. If it does, you will be told so.

What if your PC is not compatible?
Depending on what the PC Health Check app reports, you will have some choices to make. Some requirements, like Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 may in fact be present in your PC but not enabled, so it may be worth visiting the system firmware to see whether you can enable them

In other cases, you may have to buy a new PC. Or, if you are technical enough, you can follow the instructions in Install Windows 11 on Unsupported Hardware to work around Microsoft's blockers.
Features in Windows 11 that require additional hardware support
Some Windows 11 features require additional hardware requirements. You can find the full list on the Microsoft website, but here are some that are new in Windows 11:

Auto HDR. Requires an HDR-capable monitor.

DirectStorage. This gaming technology requires an NVMe SSD, support for the Standard NVM Expres...

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