Windows 11 requirements

[XxWhistlerxx]

So apparently windows 11 requires an 8th gen cpu..... according to Windows health check my hp elite book 6th gen i7, 16gb ram and 256 m.2 can't run Windows 11 but I have installed it on a old dell e5530 3rd gen i3, 16gb ram 128 ssd and it runs perfectly. 

[Senzelian]

Click on "Learn more" and the page that opens will tell you why you're failing the test.

Most likely it is because of TPM 2.0, which needs to be enabled in the BIOS. You can check the current TPM version, by running "tpm.msc"

[Helpful Tech Witch]

4 minutes ago, XxWhistlerxx said:

So apparently windows 11 requires an 8th gen cpu..... according to Windows health check my hp elite book 6th gen i7, 16gb ram and 256 m.2 can't run Windows 11 but I have installed it on a old dell e5530 3rd gen i3, 16gb ram 128 ssd and it runs perfectly. 

thats the leaked dev b uild that doesnt have the minium cpu requirements

[XxWhistlerxx]

[XxWhistlerxx]

3 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

thats the leaked dev b uild that doesnt have the minium cpu requirements

It's bs though that I would have to upgrade my whole system when it runs fine on a 3rd gen. OK I am currently upgrading it but that's not the point

[Senzelian]

8 minutes ago, XxWhistlerxx said:

 

At the bottom right corner it says "Specification Version 1.2"
Your version needs to be 2.0 for it to work. There should be a setting to change the TPM version to 2.0, but I have no idea how it is called for your board and CPU.

With AMD Ryzen CPUs for example its usually called "fTPM"

[AudacityTheEditor]

6 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

 

At the bottom right corner it says "Specification Version 1.2"
Your version needs to be 2.0 for it to work. There should be a setting to change the TPM version to 2.0, but I have no idea how it is called for your board and CPU.

With AMD Ryzen CPUs for example its usually called "fTPM"

I believe it's PTT on Intel CPUs

[XxWhistlerxx]

Thank you all i will have a look to see if I can get the health check to say it will work i mean it's only a re-skinned windows 10

[Chris Pratt]

Sorry, but I don't get the anger here, not just by you, but shared by many. A 7th gen Intel is 5-6 years old right now. Windows 10 isn't even EOL until 2025, which would make it 8-9 years old. Requiring that you have a CPU made in the last decade to upgrade to a new OS isn't exactly a stringent requirement.

[XxWhistlerxx]

58 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Sorry, but I don't get the anger here, not just by you, but shared by many. A 7th gen Intel is 5-6 years old right now. Windows 10 isn't even EOL until 2025, which would make it 8-9 years old. Requiring that you have a CPU made in the last decade to upgrade to a new OS isn't exactly a stringent requirement.

I'm not angry, I would say more annoyed. What you are saying is correct yes but when it runs perfectly on a 3rd gen i3 why would it be made so it can't be installed on an older computer even though it works perfectly. I've had my computer sins 2015 asus g20cb i7 6700, 32gb ram and a gtx 970 at the time it cost a lot of money and right now I'm only just at a position that I can buy a few things each month to build a new one at the end of the year when the new cpu's come out. Not everyone has the available funds to drop on a new computer. I myself have a family and 2 kids that cost a fortune. And about end of life yes I get that but I work in the it industry so using new software at home is beneficial for work and understanding it hence why I have installed it on a old laptop so I can play with it ready for release when I will have to deal with win11 pc's.

[Chris Pratt]

48 minutes ago, XxWhistlerxx said:

I'm not angry, I would say more annoyed. What you are saying is correct yes but when it runs perfectly on a 3rd gen i3 why would it be made so it can't be installed on an older computer even though it works perfectly. I've had my computer sins 2015 asus g20cb i7 6700, 32gb ram and a gtx 970 at the time it cost a lot of money and right now I'm only just at a position that I can buy a few things each month to build a new one at the end of the year when the new cpu's come out. Not everyone has the available funds to drop on a new computer. I myself have a family and 2 kids that cost a fortune. And about end of life yes I get that but I work in the it industry so using new software at home is beneficial for work and understanding it hence why I have installed it on a old laptop so I can play with it ready for release when I will have to deal with win11 pc's.

It's about maintaining a manageable level of support. It might "work" on older hardware, but if Microsoft allowed that, then they'd have to support it. You're running an earlier build right now, notably where TPM wasn't yet required. It's entirely possible that the actual release will no longer work on 6th gen. Even if it does, that becomes a limiting factor. If Microsoft wanted to update something that did require at least 8th gen, they couldn't or they'd break existing installs. In other words, they're setting a bar, so they're not locked in to supporting anything older, even if it might still work. This is normal, and doesn't even deserve being annoyed over. 

[MadmanRB]

4 hours ago, Chris Pratt said:

Sorry, but I don't get the anger here, not just by you, but shared by many. A 7th gen Intel is 5-6 years old right now. Windows 10 isn't even EOL until 2025, which would make it 8-9 years old. Requiring that you have a CPU made in the last decade to upgrade to a new OS isn't exactly a stringent requirement.

Thats not the point, as Windows 10 was able to run on hardware older than 10 years old and 11 is just a glorified reskin.

[Chris Pratt]

8 minutes ago, MadmanRB said:

Thats not the point, as Windows 10 was able to run on hardware older than 10 years old and 11 is just a glorified reskin.

It's actually not just a "glorified reskin". There's already been a few tests that show the changes are much deeper than they seem on the surface.

 

It also doesn't matter what Windows 10 could run on. 10 years of support is more than enough.

[KallaMejNicke]

Hey i thought i'd reply to this thread.

 

I am not new to computers however i am very unsure about changing settings in the BIOS because i don't know what all of it means and don't want to destroy my newly bought pc and i read online that i need to enable PTT in the BIOS to be able to update and run Windows 11.

 

I have found the PTT setting in the BIOS. Is there anything i should be worried about if i enable that option?

 

It says something about a recovery key which i have not seen yet and that the system might not boot, i am part of Windows insider and just want to try it out.

[Wackelpudding]

11 hours ago, Chris Pratt said:

Sorry, but I don't get the anger here, not just by you, but shared by many. A 7th gen Intel is 5-6 years old right now. Windows 10 isn't even EOL until 2025, which would make it 8-9 years old. Requiring that you have a CPU made in the last decade to upgrade to a new OS isn't exactly a stringent requirement.

Intel's 7th is less than 5 years old. My 3.5 years old Surface Laptop is not supported because of the CPU gen requirement although it has TPM 2.0. And when it comes to MS's own Surface lineup, this is not an exception: the 13inch Surface Book 2 and the still listed for 3499$ Surface Studio 2 do not support Windows 11. Windows 10 receiving necessary patches for the next 5 years is not an excuse for leaving out modern CPUs. The changes implemented in Windows 11 have been promised since Build 2018. Users have just been patients that over several features updates things will get fixed. Instead all we got is more bloat right before Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 10.

 

Now, in the midst of the pandemic and a global chip shortage that opened a market for refurbished business laptops, Microsoft is asking PC users to go out and buy the newest hardware for no good reason. Not to mention how much e-waste that will cause. 8-9 years are not that long when you consider the scarcity of the materials and how performant 6th gen and 7th gen Intel CPUs are. Now they are all trash, especially on Surface devices which don't work well on Linux.

[dave4shmups]

On 6/28/2021 at 3:31 AM, Wackelpudding said:

Intel's 7th is less than 5 years old. My 3.5 years old Surface Laptop is not supported because of the CPU gen requirement although it has TPM 2.0. And when it comes to MS's own Surface lineup, this is not an exception: the 13inch Surface Book 2 and the still listed for 3499$ Surface Studio 2 do not support Windows 11. Windows 10 receiving necessary patches for the next 5 years is not an excuse for leaving out modern CPUs. The changes implemented in Windows 11 have been promised since Build 2018. Users have just been patients that over several features updates things will get fixed. Instead all we got is more bloat right before Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 10.

 

Now, in the midst of the pandemic and a global chip shortage that opened a market for refurbished business laptops, Microsoft is asking PC users to go out and buy the newest hardware for no good reason. Not to mention how much e-waste that will cause. 8-9 years are not that long when you consider the scarcity of the materials and how performant 6th gen and 7th gen Intel CPUs are. Now they are all trash, especially on Surface devices which don't work well on Linux.

Thank you!  This post proves that people have a right to be upset about this.  For crying out loud, you can walk into a Micro Center and get a perfectly good refurbished PC or laptop that has, for example, a 6th gen Intel Core I5 that can run Windows 10 just fine and should be able to run Windows 11 just fine as well.  Four years, especially with the chip shortage, is not that long.  I think Microsoft should double that to 8 years.  I don't hate Microsoft or Windows 11, but this is so anti-consumer it's nuts.

[linkboy]

People need to understand what Microsoft is doing. 

 

With this OS, they're putting a massive focus on security, not just performance. They've got the performance nailed, as even in in early state, the OS runs great. 

 

They're enabling things like VBS and HVCI. 

 

These are features that have been enabled on the server side, but weren't on the home/personal side. 

 

In order for these features to work properly, there's a few things that are required at the hardware level. 

 

One is TPM support, either a chip or firmware. This is where the TPM 2.0 requirement comes into play. 

 

The other is MBEC (Mode-Based Execution Control). MBEC lets the CPU handle HVCI natively.  Without MBEC, a CPU has to emulate HVCI, and that's a massive strain on CPU's resources.

 

Intel didn't add MBEC to their CPUs until Kaby Lake, and 1st Gen Ryzen didn't have it. 

 

That's why they have the CPU requirements they do. They are taking advantage of the Insider Previews to see how the OS runs of different CPU combinations. 

 

Believe me, I'm not happy about it as my ThinkPad P50 has an i7 6700HQ 6th gen Intel cpu, so I'll be looking into replacing it within the year (looking at a t15g), but I get the technical reasons behind the decisions.

[linkboy]

People need to understand what Microsoft is doing. 

 

With this OS, they're putting a massive focus on security, not just performance. They've got the performance nailed, as even in in early state, the OS runs great. 

 

They're enabling things like VBS and HVCI. 

 

These are features that have been enabled on the server side, but weren't on the home/personal side. 

 

In order for these features to work properly, there's a few things that are required at the hardware level. 

 

One is TPM support, either a chip or firmware. This is where the TPM 2.0 requirement comes into play. 

 

The other is MBEC (Mode-Based Execution Control). MBEC lets the CPU handle HVCI natively.  Without MBEC, a CPU has to emulate HVCI, and that's a massive strain on CPU's resources.

 

Intel didn't add MBEC to their CPUs until Kaby Lake (and I don't think every 7th gen CPU support it, hence Microsoft's reluctance to fully enable 7th gen CPUs, and 1st Gen Ryzen didn't have it. 

 

That's why they have the CPU requirements they do. Those CPUs, and newer are the only ones that Microsoft can definitely support all of the security features they're adding.

 

They are taking advantage of the Insider Previews to see how the OS runs of different CPU combinations, and based on the data they receive, they may or may not adjust the CPU requirements. 

 

Believe me, I'm not happy about it as my ThinkPad P50 has an i7 6700HQ 6th gen Intel cpu, so I'll be looking into replacing it within the year (looking at a t15g), but I get the technical reasons behind the decisions.

[Jason G]

Regarding the Ryzen 1st, ultimately they have TPM 2.0, UEFI, Secure Boot and SVM Model. Confirmed also by Microsoft. If then the CPU needs to emulate HVCI and this could give a more or less relevant performance drop, who cares. They decided absolutely need these functions on the new OS, well, they have them on these CPUs, so Ryzen 1st (Ryzen,Ryzen APU and Threadripper) must be included! everything else is just words to justify an arbitrary decision. Of course if they were not helped every day to spread all this nonsense on all sides.

Also I still haven't seen a post on the net about how much you eventually really lose with a Ryzen 1st. By the way every news or post on the net cites the same old post from 3 years ago regarding an Intel CPU but where are data?

Anyway I don't need to know that much. Even assuming it's identical (virtually impossible since Intel needed also Meltdown mitigations, AMD not) to what was reported for Intel in the past, for sure a Ryzen 1800X(8-core 16-thread) a Ryzen 2400G(4-core 8-thread) or a Threadripper 1950x(16-core 32-thread), will definitely be faster on Win11 (HVCI emulated or MBEC does not matter) than a Atom x6200FE 2-core 2-thread from 4W Watts and 1.0 Ghz, beyond what they will manage to invent in the coming weeks to prove the opposite and more important convince someone that this is true and so they are excluding your Ryzens to do you a favor. So to "improve your experience", you need to change your Ryzens 1st with that Atom?

Wake up! They keep repeating that they are evaluating with the Preview what to do depending on the data. But if they have disabled these functions just to allow everyone to install the preview, stating that the final version will be different. No one can really test anything at the moment!!

Anyway since surely someone reading everything in these weeks will be wondering, but what are they writing? I wanted to let you know, you're not the only ones!

[MobileGeek]

Will Microsoft really enforce the CPU to 8th gen? It seems the only difference between 7th and 8th gen is the die process and not an issue of performance or CPU instruction sets. I have a 3 year old Alienware laptop that was expensive and would be even more expensive (especially in this market) to replace just to run Windows 11. Microsoft has confused the issue with its "minimum requirements" saying one thing, then another list saying what CPUs are supported, excluding many CPUs (including 3rd and 4th gen) that would meet the "minimum performance requirements" published for Windows 11. I mean, I have some 4th gen i7 machines running strong with RTX cards in them, playing modern games and running video and audio processing software with no trouble.

I am sure ultimately there will probably be hacks around the issue, but it shouldn't have to come to that.

 

[GoodBytes]

10 hours ago, MobileGeek said:

Will Microsoft really enforce the CPU to 8th gen? It seems the only difference between 7th and 8th gen is the die process and not an issue of performance or CPU instruction sets. I have a 3 year old Alienware laptop that was expensive and would be even more expensive (especially in this market) to replace just to run Windows 11.

Windows 10 will be supported until 2025.

 

10 hours ago, MobileGeek said:

Microsoft has confused the issue with its "minimum requirements" saying one thing, then another list saying what CPUs are supported, excluding many CPUs (including 3rd and 4th gen) that would meet the "minimum performance requirements" published for Windows 11.

So here is the thing. Yes, it sucks big time, yes it may promote ewaste (we have enough of it with smartphones). On the other side, Microsoft wants to boost its security of its OS, and avoid a Vista, where the OS had high requirements, but people installed it on weak/old hardware, OEMs where selling weak systems, and so the user has a poor experience with Vista. And instead of blaming their system, they were blaming Vista. So Microsoft put its foot down, and making a stand.

 

Now, as for actually what will happen once the OS is released.... we will see.

 

10 hours ago, MobileGeek said:

 

I mean, I have some 4th gen i7 machines running strong with RTX cards in them, playing modern games and running video and audio processing software with no trouble.

Yes, but your CPU has a many vulnerabilities, and lack internal hardware to accelerate security features (beside TPM), so you'll complain about the reduced performance and reduced battery life.

 

10 hours ago, MobileGeek said:

I am sure ultimately there will probably be hacks around the issue, but it shouldn't have to come to that.

Microsoft tend to always go with minimal effort approach when they block things. So, expect an easy or easy-ish solution to exist. Enough to block the most users, but would allow power users, who, hopefully, understand the expected experience.

 

10 hours ago, MobileGeek said: