Windows 11 on unintended hardware

[gjsman]

Hello,

 

Considering the recent incredible system requirements for Windows 11, I thought maybe there'd be room for a thread about installing Windows 11 on hardware that Microsoft wouldn't have expected and theoretically should not be compatible. A little bit of playful "screw your requirements." I submit my first entry, a MacBook Pro 2017 which has no TPM, no Secure Boot, and a 7th Gen Intel Processor. This one also was patched and ran the leaked build of Windows 11 the first day that got out of the lab, which definitely wasn't intended.

 

[gjsman]

Also, for any Microsoft employees reading this, your talk about how you are requiring specs way above this for an optimal experience is... not true in a million ways. This thing performs beautifully, UI animations don't have any dropped frames, the fan doesn't want to ramp up easily, the experience is just fine thank you very much.

 

And if it's just fantastic on my dual-core 7th gen Core i5 with integrated graphics, it will be just fine on a 7700K with an RTX 3080, and you know it.

[Guest]

How did you install it? I tried everything but it doesn't work.

[SlashedM]

This isn't new really, the "requirements" isnt really "requirements" its just recommended specs. 

 

5 minutes ago, gjsman said:

your talk about how you are requiring specs way above this for an optimal experience

The talk from them is just what they have tested IIRC, not from what Windows 11 really needs. Remember that this is not a official stable release still anyways, lots can change from when it releases from now. Wouldn't be surprised if Win 11 works on 4th gen processors as well. 

[gjsman]

2 minutes ago, SlashedM said:

This isn't new really, the "requirements" isnt really "requirements" its just recommended specs. 

 

They literally posted on Windows Blog, today, that the TPM requirement and Secure Boot requirements are non-negotiable and they are sticking with the 8th gen requirement, and possibly considering adding some 7th gen SKUs maybe. They aren't recommendations, they are what Microsoft considers requirements. Of course, you can patch your way around them if you know what you are doing, but they are still hard requirements for 99.9% of people.

 

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2021/06/28/update-on-windows-11-minimum-system-requirements/

 

2 minutes ago, WickedThunder86 said:

How did you install it? I tried everything but it doesn't work.

I'll have to make like a video, because the installer was very angry I didn't have TPM 2.0 or Secure Boot, and refused to let me pass. In a nutshell, I replaced the installer. 

[svmlegacy]

 

[gjsman]

Strangely, even though I have the latest build (22000.51), I don't have the new Windows Store, only the old one. Still figuring out what's up with that. Maybe the Education edition I'm using doesn't have the new Store in it's build?

[SlashedM]

1 minute ago, gjsman said:

They literally posted on Windows Blog, today, that the TPM requirement and Secure Boot requirements are non-negotiable and they are sticking with the 8th gen requirement, and possibly considering adding some 7th gen SKUs maybe. They aren't recommendations, they are what Microsoft considers requirements.

 

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2021/06/28/update-on-windows-11-minimum-system-requirements/

Mainly talking about the 7th gen processor, not the TPM and Secure Boot requirements. Because I know the TPM and Sec Boot isnt changing until theres a crap ton of controversy from more consumers (aka after the general public gets its public release)

 

"we are confident that devices running on Intel 8th generation processors and AMD Zen 2 as well as Qualcomm 7 and 8 Series will meet our principles ... we will test to identify devices running on Intel 7th generation ... we will learn how Windows 11 performs across CPU models more comprehensively, informing any adjustments we should make to our minimum system requirements in the future."

[SlashedM]

2 minutes ago, gjsman said:

Strangely, even though I have the latest build (22000.51), I don't have the new Windows Store, only the old one. Still figuring out what's up with that. Maybe the Education edition I'm using doesn't have the new Store in it's build?

Wouldn't be surprised if the Edu edition doesnt have the new store, wasn't the Education edition of 10 missing the Store completely originally? Probably kept it out for now until they make more "education focus" changes or whatever they want to call it. 

[linkboy]

I'm running the Insider Preview on a ThinkPad P50 with the following specs

• 2.6ghz i7 6700HQ
• 32GB DDR4 
• 1TB m.2 NVME SSD (WD Black SN750)
• Intel HD 530 Integrated GPU
• Nvidia Quadro m1000m GPU

I'm going to run the Insider Previews and give MS feedback on my the OS runs on my computer, and hope that enough people give them feedback that they see that the 6th gen CPUs run the OS perfectly fine.

 

If the 6th gen CPUs don't get supported, I'll just take my PC back to Windows 10 and look to upgrade next year when the P52 or P53 starts to enter the refurbished market.

 

As of right now, everything on my laptop is running great. I had a few instances where the taskbar crashed after the initial install, but it hasn't happened since I rebooted the computer.

 

[gjsman]

I have a 6th gen desktop with a Core i5-6500, would be pretty sweet if it got Windows 11. Testing on my MacBook Pro with 7th gen, I've only run into a few issues with this build:

 

- Once, the new Start Menu crashed on me, and clicking the Start button from there on out opened the old, Windows 10 Start Menu until I logged out and back in. So the old Start menu is still there, and possibly even loaded in the background?

 

- Also strange foreshadowing, I once had the taskbar glitch on me and had a second set of taskbar icons appear underneath the main taskbar. However this "under-taskbar" had only the Windows Defender security icon which I had pinned and then the up arrow for more icons. Suggesting that the old Windows 10 taskbar is also directly underneath the new one?

 

- The padding on right-click menus in File Explorer, for not having a touchscreen, is immense. 

 

- I only have the old Windows Store. Maybe it's a Windows 11 Education edition glitch. 

[gjsman]

The only other thing I would say at this point is the way that Microsoft got around huge File Explorer menus is, in my mind, the jankiest thing ever. You right-click and you get a new, modern-UI-style, huge padding menu with very few but most commonly used options. At the bottom of this right-click menu, you have a button called "Show more options." Clicking it closes the right-click menu and opens the old, massive right-click menu and all of the submenus with in it.

 

So that's just great. Want to create a shortcut on your Desktop? It's right-click > Show More Options > Send To > Desktop (create shortcut). I'm not sure how I feel about making the old primary menu a secondary menu embedded within the first, simpler menu, and making what were secondary menus tertiary menus. 

[Ash_Kechummm]

2 minutes ago, gjsman said:

The only other thing I would say at this point is the way that Microsoft got around huge File Explorer menus is, in my mind, the jankiest thing ever. You right-click and you get a new, modern-UI-style, huge padding menu with very few but most commonly used options. At the bottom of this right-click menu, you have a button called "Show more options." Clicking it closes the right-click menu and opens the old, massive right-click menu and all of the submenus with in it.

 

So that's just great. Want to create a shortcut on your Desktop? It's right-click > Show More Options > Send To > Desktop (create shortcut). I'm not sure how I feel about making the old primary menu a secondary menu embedded within the first, simpler menu, and making what were secondary menus tertiary menus. 

i really hope that this kinda stuff is fixed before release, but knowing microsoft, who knows if this'll be a "feature!" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[linkboy]

7 minutes ago, gjsman said:

The only other thing I would say at this point is the way that Microsoft got around huge File Explorer menus is, in my mind, the jankiest thing ever. You right-click and you get a new, modern-UI-style, huge padding menu with very few but most commonly used options. At the bottom of this right-click menu, you have a button called "Show more options." Clicking it closes the right-click menu and opens the old, massive right-click menu and all of the submenus with in it.

 

So that's just great. Want to create a shortcut on your Desktop? It's right-click > Show More Options > Send To > Desktop (create shortcut). I'm not sure how I feel about making the old primary menu a secondary menu embedded within the first, simpler menu, and making what were secondary menus tertiary menus. 

 

Right Click - New Item will allow you to create a desktop shortcut.

 

 

[gjsman]

4 minutes ago, linkboy said:

 

Right Click - New Option should allow you to create a desktop shortcut

 

 

You can tell how massive the early padding is whenever you right-click the Desktop or something in Finally Explorer. Hopefully this is only for touchscreens, because look at the padding differences compared to each other. 

 

Right-clicking the Documents folder, the classic menu fits 50% more items in 20% less space.