The Great Windows 11 Dipsy-Doo (Premium)

When it comes to enthusiasts looking to upgrade unsupported PCs to Windows 11, Microsoft is playing games with our hearts. And that’s too bad: this should have been a slam-dunk for Microsoft, what we sometimes call a “dipsy-doo” in basketball.

I assume most of you are familiar with what’s happened to date, but here’s a quick recap. After a series of leaks, Microsoft announced Windows 11 in late June, surprising us all. But the Windows 11 reveal was tarnished in part by stricter than expected hardware requirements and, even worse, poor communications, a Microsoft hallmark. The communication issues were particularly confounding because the software giant actually prebriefed the press and some bloggers and never fully explained just how strict those requirements were, let alone why. And so we started this little episode with bad information. Thanks, Microsoft.

Since then, Microsoft has done a better job of explaining itself. But it also threw out an olive leaf to enthusiasts who were upset about the Windows 11 hardware requirements, which stipulated an 8th-generation or newer Intel Core chipset (or the AMD equivalent) and TPM 2.0, among other things: It would let Windows Insiders test Windows 11 on older hardware and see what happened. If it worked out, maybe it would loosen the requirements.

I was positive that Microsoft would do so and that the idiocy in which it had engaged to date was mostly a PR stunt aimed at getting the community to accept the hardware requirements it really wanted: 7th-generation Intel Core or newer and TPM 1.2. This past Friday, however, Microsoft dashed by overly positive expectations and announced that it was sticking with its original requirements.

But Microsoft did make two concessions. It is allowing in a tiny subset of 7th-generation Intel Core-based hardware, including the weird chipset at the heart of its own Surface Studio 2. And it would allow enthusiasts to upgrade unsupported PCs to Windows 11 via install media they created on their own using Microsoft’s download site instead of using the normal Windows Update method. These PCs would be unsupported, we were told---meaning that users were “on their own” if something went wrong---but would continue getting cumulative/security updates via Windows Update going forward, along with the rest of the user base.

I thought this sounded fantastic and that this plan represented that rare instance in which Microsoft was able to please all parties involved. Customers on newer hardware will get Windows 11 for free, businesses that want to stick with Windows 10 can do so for five more years and not need to buy new hardware, and that tiny percentage of the enthusiast part of the community that has unsupported hardware but still wants to upgrade to Windows 11 would be able to do so. They are, after all, technical enough to handle doing this. I was prepared to write an editorial today praising Microsoft for doing the right thing.

Today, howe...