Microsoft Is Changing the Windows 11 Minimum Requirements (theverge.com) 174
The specs required to run Microsoft's new Windows 11 OS are only slightly higher than Windows 10's current requirements. All you'll need is a 64-bit CPU (or SoC), 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. The Verge reports: This marks the end of Windows support for older 32-bit hardware platforms, even though it will continue to run 32-bit software. The fastest way to find out if your system can handle Windows 11 is to download Microsoft's PC Health App, which will automatically tell you if your specs and settings are ready for the new OS. The system requirements listed by Microsoft are [available here].
About time... (Score:2)
Standalone mode is now legacy stuff (Score:3)
"Windows 11 Home edition requires internet connectivity and a Microsoft account to complete device setup on first use."
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64 (Score:4, Funny)
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goes with the lie of "Windows 10 will be the last version"
and look at them trying to rope people into Microsoft account, very difficult for ordinary non-tech to avoid, disgusting
Re: 64 (Score:3)
Why not force Home users to tie everything to a Microsoft account?
You know full well that the Home version will basically or actually explicitly be free. It is well understood that normal users will trade all of their privacy (obviously excepting security cases, like bank account numbers) for basically ANY motivation or compensation; they value their browsing history and application use log at less than a dime. Mayhaps a few will put up a fight so that their searches for MILF HANDJOB go unrecorded offical
Re: 64 (Score:2)
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Microsoft said it many times.
Do you have a source, or does it just "feel true" that Microsoft made this statement officially?
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Do you have a source, or does it just "feel true" that Microsoft made this statement officially?
They said it.
"Right now we're releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we're all still working on Windows 10." That was the message from Microsoft employee Jerry Nixon, a developer evangelist speaking at the company's Ignite conference this week.
https://www.theverge.com/2015/... [theverge.com]
Must have TPM? And must be on? (Score:4, Informative)
Must have TPM? And must be on?
Re:Must have TPM? And must be on? (Score:5, Informative)
It's in the requirements. Secure Boot capable UEFI and TPM 2.0
Re:Must have TPM? And must be on? (Score:4, Informative)
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Most people would just buy a new PC than fiddle around with the BIOS.
You are on Slashdot, what's your point?
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Are you sure it's only 1.2? The topic is "Microsoft is changing the requirements" and 2.0 is required according to the official page:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-u... [microsoft.com]
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CPU: Core >= 2 and Speed >= 1 GHz
System Memory: TotalPhysicalRam >= 4 GB
Storage: 64 GB
Security: TPM Version >= 1.2 and SecureBootCapable = True
Smode: Smode is false, or Smode is true and C_ossku in (0x65, 0x64, 0x63, 0x6D, 0x6F, 0x73, 0x74, 0x71)
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Your link is dated 06/24/2021 so it's probably up to date.
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No clarification from MS which is correct though.
The tool blacklists my laptop because it's only TPM 1.2; I only enabled that gunk in UEFI to test whether it was compliant.
Make it an optional 'full' experience, since there are those of us that couldn't really give a damn about trusted boot, encrypted volumes, 4K DRM or paid apps.
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Two reasons to use Windows 11:
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But...but...but...Rounded Corners!
And whatever version of TPM I have on my not-so-old motherboard is not good enough, according to Microsoft's "health" tester.
Can I live without rounded corners?
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> Then why downgrade to Win 11?
FTFY.
This version of Windows will fix all the bugs of the previous Windows, right! /s
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I think the android layer on the whole is a win. I just don't need the exclusive DRM that I assume TPM 2.0 would enable.
e.g. I don't even have a credit card registered on Google Play for Android and the content I stream seems to work fine as-is in Windows 10 with TPM off or at a low enough resolution on Android to play fine with widevine level 3.
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No clarification from MS which is correct though.
Actually, if you followed the link you would have seen that TPM 1.2 is a hard requirement and TPM 2.0 a soft requirement.
So TPM 1.2 is enough to install WIndows 11, but TPM 2.0 is necessary for the "Windows PC Health Check" tool to tell you that you are ready to install Windows 11.
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Even if they hard floor to TPM 1.2, it's still going to take a lot of consumer PC's older than 2017 out, since many low end PC's didn't have a TPM at all until Microsoft required it to maintain windows 10 certification in 2017.
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From what I'm hearing, this soft floor is only for the development test builds. Once Windows 11 Releases, the Soft Floor becomes Hard and the machines that are Soft will be reverted back to windows 10.
https://blogs.windows.com/wind... [windows.com]
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Hard requirement is 1.2, soft 2.0, but yes, TPM is not optional. Since AMD and Intel have been integrating this into their CPUs since what, 2016? Shouldn't be as big of a stumbling block as many expect. And no one is forcing anyone over on day 1. Win10 has another 4 years and change of support.
I don't own a single system that can run Windows 11.
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More taxing authorities require use of supported Windows than supported macOS.
Re:Must have TPM? And must be on? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hard requirement is 1.2, soft 2.0, but yes, TPM is not optional. Since AMD and Intel have been integrating this into their CPUs since what, 2016? Shouldn't be as big of a stumbling block as many expect. And no one is forcing anyone over on day 1. Win10 has another 4 years and change of support.
I don't think MS has ever invalidated 5-year-old hardware before. This is a sledgehammer to older systems.
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Firmware based TPM vs Hardware based TPM the former supposedly less secure.
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"still not less secure than no tpm": Are you saying some tpm is not necessarily more secure than no tpm?
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I think in this case "least secure TPM" is most desirable to the people who own the hardware. I won't turn the damn thing on if you paid me, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick one I personally could undermine.
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My laptop is a quad core i7, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, 17" screen, desktop replacement style laptop.
Grrr. Failed the test. Assuming it's because I turned off secure boot to allow booting from an ISO on a stick a while back. The real bummer is it's been so long since I've been in my BIOS I have no clue what the password is. Reset time. This type of thing is going to cause trouble for millions.
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You think millions of people went into their bios, turned secure boot off and then set a password for the bios? I suspect the vast majority of people got machines with secure boot turned on my default and have never been into the bios on their machine.
Re:Must have TPM? And must be on? (Score:4, Informative)
This is all over the news and is in the article, but is missing from the summary for some reason.
This might be the most important hurdle for some users wanting to upgrade.
Windows OEM desktop PCs have been required to include a TPM 2.0 module for a number of years now, but it has not always been included in loose motherboards for sale for people building their own PCs from parts.
Many motherboards without a TPM built-in has a socket for one, but there are a multiple incompatible sockets out there: I've found two 14-pin socket types (with a different pin blocked), and a 20-pin socket (one pin blocked).
Apparently, some newer motherboards have the option to run a TPM in firmware (on the hidden management processor or microcontroller on the chipset?), so on those it just has to be enabled in the UEFI.
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The motherboard I bought less than a year ago doesn't have a TPM. It has a socket, but nobody is selling the Gigabyte GC-TPM2.0_S that it takes. This motherboard is a Gigabyte Aorus Pro B550.
So I guess I'll be staying on 10 for now.
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If you buy in bulk. [ebay.com]
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The motherboard I bought less than a year ago doesn't have a TPM.
The CPU you bought in the past 5 years however does have TPM built into it.
but nobody is selling the Gigabyte GC-TPM2.0_S that it takes
It'll almost certainly take the GC-TPM2.0 which replaced the _S model and is backwards compatible, and in stock everywhere I've looked for under $20
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Actually, no. The 2.0_S is a 2x6 pinout, the 2.0 is a 2x10 pinout.
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Rigthio, score an own goal for Gigabyte's documentation listing motherboard chipsets for one part and socket types for the other :-/
Still fTPM works just fine, you'll almost certainly have a TPM in your computer already, Intel has included it in their ME since 2013, AMD since 2016.
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This motherboard is a Gigabyte Aorus Pro B550.
That motherboard supports fTPM natively.
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All Ryzen CPUs have TPM 2.0 built in so there should be an option in your BIOS to enable it. It might be called "fTPM" or "Firmware TPM".
I think the TPM socket was just there in case AMD released some low end parts that don't have the TPM built in, but as far as I'm aware every Ryzen does have it.
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Must have TPM? And must be on?
Another limitation that should help drive users to Linux.
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I'm sure Linux users are interested in security as well.
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TPM is not security, it is used for DRM. So no, I have no interest in it at all.
Re: Must have TPM? And must be on? (Score:2)
I don't know of any DRM that requires it, though it is useful for preventing somebody from tampering with the data on your SSD without your knowledge.
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TPM [wikipedia.org] is very versatile.
Yeah, but... (Score:5, Informative)
The specs required to run Microsoft's new Windows 11 OS are only slightly higher than Windows 10's current requirements. All you'll need is a 64-bit CPU (or SoC), 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.
That's not the really significant part. 11 requires TPM 2.0 and DirectX 12. That alone will kill off hardware that is in many cases just a few years old, with lots of life left.
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So yeah, it's all about the TPM for the most part.
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That alone will kill off hardware that is in many cases just a few years old, with lots of life left.
Every CPU manufactured in the past 5 years includes fTPM which is compatible with the TPM 2.0 spec. And if it doesn't, nearly every motherboard comes with a TPM header and you can add a TPM module for under $20.
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That's not the really significant part. 11 requires TPM 2.0 and DirectX 12. That alone will kill off hardware that is in many cases just a few years old, with lots of life left.
It won't kill off that hardware. Windows 10 is still supported for 4 more years and Windows isn't the only OS out there, you can always install Linux.
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Don't forget UEFI. That'll eliminate a lot of older hardware too.
Looks to me like roughly the cutoff is around the Windows 10 launch. Most computers newer than that will probably be okay, computers before that may still run it but you'll have check things like your GPU, motherboard, etc. carefully.
There are computers being sold right now (Score:2)
Also the Internet Requirement for Windows 11 won't work in countries like the United States where there are huge parts of the country without internet access due to abusive isps. Also if Microsoft severs go down or your government decides to censor
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TPM chip, yes it's an issue.
64GB storage? Where? Even the $200 special I bought from Worst Buy as a throwaway had a 120GB NVME drive.
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free (Score:2)
at least it is free.
What will the TPM do? (Score:3)
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Bitlocker is minor use case for desktop but more important for mobile data.
But beyond that TPM forms the security foundation for Windows Hello (can we agree that's a shitty name?), and the entire way you log into your PC with all local credentials stored in TPM chip for added security.
It is also used by Windows Defender to track run to run variation in boot parameters and detect malware attempting to insert itself in the boot process.
And also is used as the primary certificate store for any cryptographic sy
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So kind of like Apple's "secure enclave"?
Basically, yes. It's Secure Enclave for UEFI/Wintel systems.
There was a lot of hemming and hawing when it was first introduced, but all the major Linux distributions have since hopped on board for people trying to use it or Secure Boot. It's not a panacea (nothing is), but it's a nice way to add additional hardware (or firmware) security into your stack.
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Yes. Pretty much, Apple just doesn't like open standards so they invented their own 6 years after TPM was ratified as an ISO standard.
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DRM
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TPM is also used for Secure Boot. The TPM verifies the OS bootloader to prevent it being hijacked by malware.
Before Secure Boot one common technique favoured by malware was to replace parts of the OS early boot process. It made detecting and removing the malware very difficult, because e.g. the low level filesystem driver would simply hide the malware files and any scan of memory would not see it due to using VM-like techniques to live underneath the OS.
UEFI and TPM Required? (Score:3)
In the end it really doesn't matter since I run Linux as my daily OS (Manjaro) and only boot into Windows for specialty things that don't have a Linux version. So I suppose I don't need the newest and shiniest version of Windows, but it's still kind of annoying to be honest.
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so my system that I built in 2009 can't run it.
UEFI may be a problem but I'll wager your 2009 system has a TPM module header on it. You can add TPM for $20.
But let's just gloss over the elephant in the room of trying to run Windows anything on a 12 year old PC. Let's face it it runs like garbage on a new PC. Don't hate yourself by subjecting yourself to running a modern OS on a potato.
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Another great opportunity (Score:4, Informative)
Windows now contains more lines of code than all the software used to manage the first moon landing and continues to grow. They are bringing you al those valuable new features -- like surveillance that reports everything you look at to them and DRM that prevents you from seeing things that might harm you. Meanwhile. the reviewers and the product people talk only about all of the daring new colors on the screen and how the check boxes and window corners have a new shape(!!). This kind of a product cusp is a great opportunity to think about dumping the Windows dinosaur, rather than buying another new instance of Windows that will just continue to leak oil onto your driveway as it wheezes along. Choose wisely, grasshopper.
Re:Another great copying opportunity (Score:2)
So.... rounded corners? Welcome to 2012, Microsoft!
Not Supported, Staying on 10 (Score:2)
Well, my CPU (Intel 4 Core i7-6700K) isn't supported and my motherboard (Asus Maximus VIII Hero) doesn't support a CPU that is supported.
Ah well, my system works just fine so I'll tough it out for a few years until it's time to upgrade again.
[John]
Where did I hear this before... (Score:2)
"We are altering the minimum requirements, pray we don’t alter them any further."
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"We are altering the minimum requirements, pray we don’t alter them any further."
Beat me to it! Bravo! =)))
"PC Health tool" health warning! (Score:2)
Worth noting that the PC Health tool is ... quite frankly ... terrible:
Re: Microsoft account needed? (Score:2)
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Just don't use Home versions. Pro version and higher can domain join instead.
In other words, yes, one will have to have a Microsoft account to use Windows 11. Got it.
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what domain?
can I set up a home samba server and join to that, or only corporate droids can run that?
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Or you could install the OS without an internet connection.
They are really pushing the accounts. Got to get the stupids to pay for Office.
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No, there is no mention of Windows 11 there, hence why I asked
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There's some complicated setup but you can use Google business account as your credential provider [google.com] on Windows. I'm not suggesting this is the best way to go, but it is possible to login to your Win10 (and presumably 11) computer without Microsoft account or a traditional domain controller.
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Microsoft account needed?
How else can the NSA be sure who the machine belongs to ?
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I'm abandoning the Windows ecosystem for good now. Running Ubuntu on a home computer, probably going to go with a Macbook (for the first time ever). LibreOffice is good enough for pretty much all my needs, and even handled some pretty damned awful Excel spreadsheets that the government agency we're contractors for threw at us. We moved away from Exchange/Outlook for scheduling last year because we needed a scheduler/calendaring system that could do a lot more out of the box as for as reporting without a bun
Re:Only slightly higher, my rosy red... (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows 10 calls out 32-bit processor, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB storage. Windows 11 calls out 64-bit processor, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage.
That's 2X across the board.
It'll probably take twice as long to boot, and twice as long to login, as well.
Windows 10 on a 32GB HD is a serious pain. Ditto 2GB RAM. Windows 11 might have approximately the same technical requirements but they're just being more realistic about the user experience.
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If Win10 runs like crap on the minimum requirements, why do you think Win11 will run good on the minimum requirements?
Because they've doubled the minimum requirements but haven't fundamentally changed what the OS actually requires which is why it performs almost identical to Windows 10 [techspot.com]. Hence why the OP said they are just being more realistic about the requirements to get a decent user experience.
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Hopefully it will encourage vendors to stop shipping 8GB RAM models too. 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD has been a baseline for a while and it's not really adequate, especially as many systems cannot be upgraded these days.
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Windows 10 calls out 32-bit processor, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB storage. Windows 11 calls out 64-bit processor, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage.
That's 2X across the board.
It'll probably take twice as long to boot, and twice as long to login, as well.
That's one way to look at it.
Another way to look at it is: it requires an extra 2G of RAM (roughly $5 worth), an extra 32G of storage (roughly $3 worth), and a processor that was invented after the wheel.
If you have a legitimate desire to run Windows 11 on hardware that can't accommodate the new specs, you can likely pick up a used machine that can run it for free. Lots of places donate hardware that's way, way above the minimum specs.
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*IF* the PC in question can take a memory expansion.
What I have is an old Celeron, that is convenient for travel. 64-bit CPU, a few hundred GB of disk, but only 2 GB of RAM, which is NOT expandable. It was fine on Windows 8.1, has "issues" on Windows 10 (Malwarebytes and Avast Antivirus insist on grabbing all the CPU and disk bandwidth for a LOOONG time at boot time).
Most likely, I am going to save the data files down to a big USB drive, install Linux, and reload the data.
I can live with it if Microsoft d
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In the cloud, that extra RAM/disk costs you more. Honestly, Windows was never usable with min-specs anyway, you always had to go "one notch" higher in the VM sizes to get a usable system. This change now puts Windows 2-3 notches away from the smallest system sizes - which will quite happily run Linux, and do something productive as well.
An extra few dollars here, a few there all adds up - Windows just always costs you more than Linux. Pushing up the min-specs might make it easier for Microsoft to fit all th
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windows 10 is unusable at the minimum spec.
hopefully win11 is not so bloated that its also unusable with double the minimum spec.
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My iphone has specs enough to support Windows 11 min requirements. If your PC doesnt, you sad.
What 64 bit x86 processor does your iPhone have?