Microsoft to allow Win11 on unsupported PCs with caveat

JoeP
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Microsoft to allow Win11 on unsupported PCs with caveat

Post by JoeP »

Microsoft will allow Windows 11 to be installed on PCs that do not meet the hardware requirements but only if installed from an ISO. It appears there will be another caveat, the user will have to acknowledge that the device will be unsupported. No one knows if unsupported means no security updates too. See If you upgrade to Windows 11 on an unsupported PC, you will have to sign a waiver first.
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John Gray
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Re: Microsoft to allow Win11 on unsupported PCs with caveat

Post by John Gray »

Hmmm. Interesting. Does this apply to almost any Windows 10-running PC or laptop that you happen to have lying around? It doesn't seem clear from the artuicle...
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JoeP
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Re: Microsoft to allow Win11 on unsupported PCs with caveat

Post by JoeP »

This only applies to PCs that do not meet the hardware requirements for Windows 11. See Hans' first post in this forum for links to apps to check PC compatibility.
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John Gray
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Re: Microsoft to allow Win11 on unsupported PCs with caveat

Post by John Gray »

Almost all PCs/Laptops do not meet the hardware requirements for Windows 11, except the most recent!
I am happily running Windows 10 64-bit on an HP 8300 with an Intel Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz, but this is far too old for Windows 11!
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Jay Freedman
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Re: Microsoft to allow Win11 on unsupported PCs with caveat

Post by Jay Freedman »

John Gray wrote:
22 Sep 2021, 17:02
Almost all PCs/Laptops do not meet the hardware requirements for Windows 11, except the most recent!
I am happily running Windows 10 64-bit on an HP 8300 with an Intel Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz, but this is far too old for Windows 11!
Almost the same here, a system I built from parts nearly 7 years ago (that long??) with an Intel Core i7-4771 CPU @ 3.50 GHz and 16 GB of RAM. It runs Windows 10, multiple virtual machines in HyperV including one with Windows Insider builds, and a bunch of power-hungry software with no complaints. However, it has no TPM and only a 4th gen CPU, so its end time is getting close.

I priced out the parts that would be needed to update the box for Windows 11. New motherboard with LGA1200 socket to accommodate a 10th gen CPU (probably an i7-10700K), and faster DDR4-2933 RAM. I expect to keep the same case, PSU, four drives, fans, etc. That comes to about US$600 to update the system that originally cost a total of about US$1000.

I'll probably wait a year, maybe two, before upgrading. Besides, that should give MS some time to exterminate the worst of the bugs that Windows 11 will start with.

JoeP
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Re: Microsoft to allow Win11 on unsupported PCs with caveat

Post by JoeP »

Windows 11 requires an 8th gen Core CPU or later. There are a couple of 7th gen CPUs that are allowed but those are only in the Surface Studio. The 8th Gen Core CPUs were released in 2017 but probably did not go on sale until 2018. In 2018, 19, & 20 there were approximately 795 million PCs shipped. Q1 & Q2 2021 volume was approximately 160 million units. That puts the total PC shipments at about 950 million for the last 3.5 years and I would think that almost all of those CPUs are Windows 11 compatible. That is a substantial majority of Windows users worldwide.

Granted there are still many millions of systems in use that are not compatible with Windows 11 but are happily running Windows 7 or 10. Those who choose to, can run those as long as they wish.
Joe