[tiwil]

Microsoft did an amazing job with their OSes (XP, Vista........, 7, 8..., 8.1 and 10), which support A LOT OF HARDWARE. Now, for the first time, Microsoft tries to put new minimal requirements and all the web is crying.

I'm pretty sure Microsoft will lower their minimal requirement. Currently it requires TPM version 2 which usually only available in newer devices (mine have one). It will be lowered when Windows 11 is really stable and ready to be released.

Well, if it's not, there is no big different between Windows 10 and 11 actually. I don't think I'm going to opt-in for insider build ... I'm going to wait to see if it's really worth it to upgrade. I feel like it's just the UI that changed, any else is pretty similar.

[Mashiro]

What is this big fuzz and outcry all about?

TPM 2.0 & Secure Boot requirement can be easily bypassed using several different methodes (considerably easy as they require one or another simple modification of files or a few registry entries). The so called hardware requirement IS NOT a hard limit! Microsoft did the very same with previous OSs. Going from Windows XP to Vista was a big thing as even officially supported hardware struggled with Vista and perfectly fine Hardware for Windows XP was absolutely out of breath for Windows Vista. Windows 7 was not much of a issue if you had hardware were Vista was running really good. With Windows 8/8.1 they also said that you need this and that. Well, Windows 8/8.1 was still working well with older hardware (infact sometimes even better than with Windows 7 due to the great performance improvements that were introduced with Windows 8 and forwards). The very same applied for Windows 10. However, even Windows 10 worked alright on that older hardware that was running Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1.

I installed Windows 7 on unsupported hardware that would just work with Windows XP. Even 8.1 worked on such hardware. I'm talking about the infamous Eee PCs by Asus and other companies. I installed Windows 10 absolutely fine on the first generation of AMD Dual Core CPUs and it was working although not that great as we're talking about hardware from the era of 2005 - 2006 - 2007 with an Windows (10) OS from 2016-08! All of this installations were on long very out of dated hardware with barely any power compared to todays hardware.

The very same will be possible with Windows 11. Its core is literally still Windows 10. The official support for hardware means simply the following: OEM companies such as HP, Asus, Dell and etc. and Microsoft themselves will only sell products with Windows 11 certification and preinstallation that have the officially supported hardware or better. And they will only actively provide support for Windows 11 when it is installed on supported hardware. That doesn't mean that you cannot install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. It also doesn't mean that you won't be able to receive updates on Windows 11 on officially unsupported hardware. You will still be able to get updates on your Windows 11 installation.

If Windows 11 runs well on unsupported hardware should be out of question. If you don't have a literally called potato PC your computer will run Windows 11 about as good as it did with Windows 10 or maybe a little less good depending on what kind of unnecessary stuff Microsoft decides to throw into Windows 11 that might increase RAM usage and CPU load unnecessarily. So called crapware, bloatware and functions that are nothing but fancy.

Back to the features that Windows 11 requires that can be bypassed:
- TPM 2.0 is in deployment with all hardware and software since about 2014 (implementation in Windows 8 and Linux 4.0). I think overall great hardware deployment started around 2016. Pretty much any computer you buy today has a TPM module with hat version. It can be disabled/made invisible in the EFI/UEFI or enabled and actively visible for the OS. I use TPM for Bitlocker drive encryption.
- Secure Boot is a feature that has also been introduced long ago when the change from classic BIOS to EFI/UEFI happened. This was about 2012 with the introduction of Windows 8 (being one of the first signed OSs to supported secure boot). If you use it or not is your thing. Many seem to have a total misconception of what secure boot is and what it does. If your OS doesn't support secure boot you simply disable secure boot. If your OS, like Windows 8 and forwards, supports secure boot you can either use it or simply not use it. If you use it... you won't have a a real disadvantage compared to not using it. Secure boot as it says aims to make the boot process more secure by supported specially signed OSs. Nowadays many OSs are signed for secure boot.

The very same things happen that happen with almost all new "major" Windows version. Just because Microsoft goes a bit radical with "this hardware although is not so old is not officially supported" doesn't mean it's a huge tragedy.


Microsoft being Microsoft... since a marketing geek took over the management is all for more fancy than anything else. Hence why it is so full of security issues that get fixed every month with every cumulative update package. It is the same reason why it is so resource hungry and clunky. I have a Surface Pro 6 that came with Windows 10 Pro, 8 GB RAM, a i5 CPU and a 256 GB SSD and guess what. With Windows 10 and all the surface firmware there is not really much I can do. I run the new Edge browser, Microsoft teams and a few other things like RDP and such and I can barely do anything else because it ran out of its 8 GB of RAM... but hey, it's an expensive and fancy looking device with very expensive accessories advertising total productivity. However, being really used productive you realize that the device for more than 1000 USD is not really made for being productive. I really mean it. I cannot even launch and run everything I need on the surface that I use on my desktop office computer due to it running out of RAM instantly. That would be so easy to solve but RAM upgrades and such inside a surface aren't possible and a 16 GB version comes with a different CPU and SSD for even much more money. The very same with a Surface Pro 7 that I used (8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, and 10th Gen i5 - even more expensive than my Pro 6 with all the needed accessories).

So don't expect anything else. Windows will never be anything for the small mans pocket. It is purposefully inflated to generate huge income to Microsoft with massive hardware sales and etc. The leader of M$ is a marketing guru whos trained to press the money ot of you as fast and as much as possible in many different ways. Windows 10 / 11 isn't free. You and you data are the payment for the "free" Windows OS.

For the future: don't expect too much and don't go in with a high feeling just to get destroyed and be down.

[xdude]

I talked about Windows 11 last year or so when I was going to install Windows tell but many said there won't be a such and Microsoft gonna be just keep updating the Windows 10. So here it is! I guess This won't give maximum performance in older hardware rather than not working on those. Right now I'm on a 5th Gen Intel i5 processor and HDD storage and I feel like I'm not getting all. Speed and feel is the same as Windows 7. So I guess if We want these new systems we do need newer hardware too. I don't think I will be doing that anytime soon.

[LightDestory]

I'm pretty sure Microsoft will lower their minimal requirement. Currently it requires TPM version 2 which usually only available in newer devices (mine have one). It will be lowered when Windows 11 is really stable and ready to be released.

Well, if it's not, there is no big different between Windows 10 and 11 actually. I don't think I'm going to opt-in for insider build ... I'm going to wait to see if it's really worth it to upgrade. I feel like it's just the UI that changed, any else is pretty similar.

I don't think Microsoft will lower the minimal requirements about Secure Boot and TPM 2.0.

There requirements are also on the Insider Program, where I am currently, and it is just no sense to setup them during one of the most important part of development: testing. Why should they reduce the number of possibile testers with these requirements? I mean, more testers more feedback received.

But as said by @Mashiro, there requirements are not hard blocking.

I am currently writing from Windows 11 Insider Preview installed on a "unsupported" hardware: everything is fine and working, just some bugs that are to be excepted on a insider build.

To be specific, there is a issue with Windows Defender that I am trying to figure out and understand if it is related to the missing TPM.

[tiwil]

I don't think Microsoft will lower the minimal requirements about Secure Boot and TPM 2.0.

There requirements are also on the Insider Program, where I am currently, and it is just no sense to setup them during one of the most important part of development: testing. Why should they reduce the number of possibile testers with these requirements? I mean, more testers more feedback received.

But as said by @Mashiro, there requirements are not hard blocking.

I am currently writing from Windows 11 Insider Preview installed on a "unsupported" hardware: everything is fine and working, just some bugs that are to be excepted on a insider build.

To be specific, there is a issue with Windows Defender that I am trying to figure out and understand if it is related to the missing TPM.

Or this can be a strategy from Microsoft to force old hardware user to change to new hardware. More new hardware sells = more license sold by Microsoft, especially for laptop where some brand give Windows for free. That could be it.

Talking about Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, are you doing some bypass method or it just works? My friend laptop unable to get the update (judged by Windows Health Check app) and he would like to learn more how to get Windows 11 with his old machine.

[fChk]

I talked about Windows 11 last year or so when I was going to install Windows tell but many said there won't be a such and Microsoft gonna be just keep updating the Windows 10. So here it is!

I'm among those who did get this news by surprise.. Totally unexpected!.. and yes!.. Here it is announced!!..

Back in 2015, we were told that Win10 was the last versioned M$ windows and the rest will be shiped as upgrades.. Yet!.. 6 years later, M$ did it again!

Windows 10 was supposed to be the last version of the operating system — here's why Microsoft might have changed its mind

So don't expect anything else. Windows will never be anything for the small mans pocket. It is purposefully inflated to generate huge income to Microsoft with massive hardware sales and etc. The leader of M$ is a marketing guru whos trained to press the money ot of you as fast and as much as possible in many different ways. Windows 10 / 11 isn't free. You and you data are the payment for the "free" Windows OS.

For the future: don't expect too much and don't go in with a high feeling just to get destroyed and be down.

Agreed!.. The simple fact that people are starting to talk about Win-11 announcement event is pure gold for that company's marketing strategy...

Of course, I'll be installing it somewhere when it's released but only to satisfy my Technical curiosity about the Windows ecosystem ongoing evolution (but I should call it devolution to be precise...)

[tiwil]

I'm writing on Windows 11 now. It's in the insider build that's available from Windows settings. My machine is supported officially by Microsoft but since this is not stable release I still see some bugs here and there. Overall it's a very great experience to start working with Windows 11.

FYI, I installed it in 30 minutes installation time after it asked me to restart the machine. It works very well and no settings needed. App for my exam tomorrow is still working (which I'm afraid it will not), nice!

Ps. I missed my refresh button. I should right click > more options > then refresh. Duh!

[Kururin]

What is this big fuzz and outcry all about?

TPM 2.0 & Secure Boot requirement can be easily bypassed using several different methodes (considerably easy as they require one or another simple modification of files or a few registry entries). The so called hardware requirement IS NOT a hard limit! Microsoft did the very same with previous OSs. Going from Windows XP to Vista was a big thing as even officially supported hardware struggled with Vista and perfectly fine Hardware for Windows XP was absolutely out of breath for Windows Vista. Windows 7 was not much of a issue if you had hardware were Vista was running really good. With Windows 8/8.1 they also said that you need this and that. Well, Windows 8/8.1 was still working well with older hardware (infact sometimes even better than with Windows 7 due to the great performance improvements that were introduced with Windows 8 and forwards). The very same applied for Windows 10. However, even Windows 10 worked alright on that older hardware that was running Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1.

I installed Windows 7 on unsupported hardware that would just work with Windows XP. Even 8.1 worked on such hardware. I'm talking about the infamous Eee PCs by Asus and other companies. I installed Windows 10 absolutely fine on the first generation of AMD Dual Core CPUs and it was working although not that great as we're talking about hardware from the era of 2005 - 2006 - 2007 with an Windows (10) OS from 2016-08! All of this installations were on long very out of dated hardware with barely any power compared to todays hardware.

The very same will be possible with Windows 11. Its core is literally still Windows 10. The official support for hardware means simply the following: OEM companies such as HP, Asus, Dell and etc. and Microsoft themselves will only sell products with Windows 11 certification and preinstallation that have the officially supported hardware or better. And they will only actively provide support for Windows 11 when it is installed on supported hardware. That doesn't mean that you cannot install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. It also doesn't mean that you won't be able to receive updates on Windows 11 on officially unsupported hardware. You will still be able to get updates on your Windows 11 installation.

If Windows 11 runs well on unsupported hardware should be out of question. If you don't have a literally called potato PC your computer will run Windows 11 about as good as it did with Windows 10 or maybe a little less good depending on what kind of unnecessary stuff Microsoft decides to throw into Windows 11 that might increase RAM usage and CPU load unnecessarily. So called crapware, bloatware and functions that are nothing but fancy.

Back to the features that Windows 11 requires that can be bypassed:
- TPM 2.0 is in deployment with all hardware and software since about 2014 (implementation in Windows 8 and Linux 4.0). I think overall great hardware deployment started around 2016. Pretty much any computer you buy today has a TPM module with hat version. It can be disabled/made invisible in the EFI/UEFI or enabled and actively visible for the OS. I use TPM for Bitlocker drive encryption.
- Secure Boot is a feature that has also been introduced long ago when the change from classic BIOS to EFI/UEFI happened. This was about 2012 with the introduction of Windows 8 (being one of the first signed OSs to supported secure boot). If you use it or not is your thing. Many seem to have a total misconception of what secure boot is and what it does. If your OS doesn't support secure boot you simply disable secure boot. If your OS, like Windows 8 and forwards, supports secure boot you can either use it or simply not use it. If you use it... you won't have a a real disadvantage compared to not using it. Secure boot as it says aims to make the boot process more secure by supported specially signed OSs. Nowadays many OSs are signed for secure boot.

The very same things happen that happen with almost all new "major" Windows version. Just because Microsoft goes a bit radical with "this hardware although is not so old is not officially supported" doesn't mean it's a huge tragedy.


Microsoft being Microsoft... since a marketing geek took over the management is all for more fancy than anything else. Hence why it is so full of security issues that get fixed every month with every cumulative update package. It is the same reason why it is so resource hungry and clunky. I have a Surface Pro 6 that came with Windows 10 Pro, 8 GB RAM, a i5 CPU and a 256 GB SSD and guess what. With Windows 10 and all the surface firmware there is not really much I can do. I run the new Edge browser, Microsoft teams and a few other things like RDP and such and I can barely do anything else because it ran out of its 8 GB of RAM... but hey, it's an expensive and fancy looking device with very expensive accessories advertising total productivity. However, being really used productive you realize that the device for more than 1000 USD is not really made for being productive. I really mean it. I cannot even launch and run everything I need on the surface that I use on my desktop office computer due to it running out of RAM instantly. That would be so easy to solve but RAM upgrades and such inside a surface aren't possible and a 16 GB version comes with a different CPU and SSD for even much more money. The very same with a Surface Pro 7 that I used (8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, and 10th Gen i5 - even more expensive than my Pro 6 with all the needed accessories).

So don't expect anything else. Windows will never be anything for the small mans pocket. It is purposefully inflated to generate huge income to Microsoft with massive hardware sales and etc. The leader of M$ is a marketing guru whos trained to press the money ot of you as fast and as much as possible in many different ways. Windows 10 / 11 isn't free. You and you data are the payment for the "free" Windows OS.

For the future: don't expect too much and don't go in with a high feeling just to get destroyed and be down.

Unless you modify the ISO specially it cannot be bypassed. There is registry hack but It is finicky and unsupported frankly. If you mess up something during the install it is on you and you can be left with a installation that is seriously broken. Microsoft can anytime turn off these "hacks". The OS it self is still in Dev build. So its in Microsoft's best interest to make these harder requirements and make you buy a new laptop or PC with it. Where they can make money back from those sale as they will be coming with Windows 11. Microsoft was never in your best interest, they sell your data as anything that is not truly free does. I would say stay away from Windows 11 unless they officially walk back on those requirements. It takes a de-bloater to even make Windows 10 bearable. I bet Windows 11 is going to be worse privacy wise. I already heard how in the Home version of Windows 11 they make you sign in to a Microsoft account and save all your data to it. You cannot use regular local account at all. These are ways Microsoft trying to tie you data into an account and then sell it the advertising company. So heed advice and stay far away until there is official way to bypass these nightmares and I am sure there will be more fool-proof method to do so in future when it releases officially.

[tbelldesignco]

It looks like I will be able to test out the Preview on Parallels for Mac. Parallels released a statement that they would be able to virtualize the software and emulate the Secure Enclave required for secure boot, it looks like a solid release, so I am interested to see what some of my Window's developments will preform like on this new version.

[mzltest]

Unless you modify the ISO specially it cannot be bypassed. There is registry hack but It is finicky and unsupported frankly. If you mess up something during the install it is on you and you can be left with a installation that is seriously broken. Microsoft can anytime turn off these "hacks". The OS it self is still in Dev build. So its in Microsoft's best interest to make these harder requirements and make you buy a new laptop or PC with it. Where they can make money back from those sale as they will be coming with Windows 11. Microsoft was never in your best interest, they sell your data as anything that is not truly free does. I would say stay away from Windows 11 unless they officially walk back on those requirements. It takes a de-bloater to even make Windows 10 bearable. I bet Windows 11 is going to be worse privacy wise. I already heard how in the Home version of Windows 11 they make you sign in to a Microsoft account and save all your data to it. You cannot use regular local account at all. These are ways Microsoft trying to tie you data into an account and then sell it the advertising company. So heed advice and stay far away until there is official way to bypass these nightmares and I am sure there will be more fool-proof method to do so in future when it releases officially.

Yeah.Still in some government offices we are using Windows 7 or XP just concerning the online data transmission from Win10 or so.(eg.You can not turn off crash reports.You can only choose the type of the report to send to Microsoft).And for me Windows 11 is NOT very appealing.I dislike the middle-aligned "dock bar",so as its frosted glass design concept.

They say some specific like government version may remove the requirement of TPM but for consumers they may still require that module.They can make it a hardware compatibility likr the current win10 but they make it a requirement which is very unacceptable.And I have heard the Microsoft account as system account.Till now I was still shown welcome screens that ask you to sign in with Microsoft account occasionally after updates or long time from last use.