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Windows Intel Microsoft Hardware

Windows Users Surprised by Windows 11's Short List of Supported CPUs (theverge.com) 236

Posted by EditorDavid from the closing-Windows dept.
Slashdot reader thegarbz writes: While a lot of focus has been on the TPM requirements for Windows 11, Microsoft has since updated its documentation to provide a complete list of supported processors. At present the list includes only Intel 8th Generation Core processors or newer, and AMD Ryzen Zen+ processors or newer, effectively limiting Windows 11 to PC less than 4-5 years old.

Notably absent from the list is the Intel Core i7-7820HQ, the processor used in Microsoft's current flagship $3500+ Surface Studio 2. This has prompted many threads on Reddit from users angry that their (in some cases very new) Surface PC is failing the Windows 11 upgrade check.
The Verge confirms: Windows 11 will only support 8th Gen and newer Intel Core processors, alongside [Intel's 2016-era] Apollo Lake and newer Pentium and Celeron processors. That immediately rules out millions of existing Windows 10 devices from upgrading to Windows 11... Windows 11 will also only support AMD Ryzen 2000 and newer processors, and 2nd Gen or newer [AMD] EPYC chips. You can find the full list of supported processors on Microsoft's site...

Originally, Microsoft noted that CPU generation requirements are a "soft floor" limit for the Windows 11 installer, which should have allowed some older CPUs to be able to install Windows 11 with a warning, but hours after we published this story, the company updated that page to explicitly require the list of chips above.

Many Windows 10 users have been downloading Microsoft's PC Health App (available here) to see whether Windows 11 works on their systems, only to find it fails the check... This is the first significant shift in Windows hardware requirements since the release of Windows 8 back in 2012, and the CPU changes are understandably catching people by surprise.

Microsoft is also requiring a front-facing camera for all Windows 11 devices except desktop PCs from January 2023 onwards.
"In order to run Windows 11, devices must meet the hardware specifications," explains Microsoft's official compatibility page for Windows 11.

"Devices that do not meet the hardware requirements cannot be upgraded to Windows 11."
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Windows Users Surprised by Windows 11's Short List of Supported CPUs More

Windows Users Surprised by Windows 11's Short List of Supported CPUs

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  • OEM Kiss and Make Up. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Deathlizard ( 115856 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @02:39PM (#61523966) Homepage Journal

    Windows 11 is Microsoft's kiss and make up gift basket to manufacturers for Windows 10. They want the Google Chromebook "5 years and dead" Model and were pissed that MS gave Windows 10 away for free to anyone on 7 or 8 and kept the Minimum requirements so low. Everybody upgraded, no one bought new computers and cue the PC recession.

    Now that MS basically killed any PC over 4 years old, Either PC sales will skyrocket now or once 2025 hits.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @02:44PM (#61523992)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Considering fTPM has been around for a long time I doubt that's going to be a roadblock.

      • I'm a gamer, I build my own PCs, and I easily got into the BIOS and turned on PTT, Intel version of TPM.

      • Re:OEM Kiss and Make Up. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Deathlizard ( 115856 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @03:32PM (#61524174) Homepage Journal

        I'm not sure if the CPU requirements are going to be hard or not.

        If you look at that chart for even older OS'es it says that windows 7 doesn't support older processors than the Core 1st gen or Athlon A or FX series processors. I've run windows 7 on first get Athlon 64's and Core 2 duo's Same goes with windows 10 and those older processors but to be fair windows 10 runs extremely slow on them.

        The TPM Requirement is definitely hard. And I wouldn't have too much of a problem with it if it did anything useful, especially when it comes to Home users. The only thing TPM does of any value is Bitlocker, and only Pro systems can use it and frankly you're better off with a password protected hardware encrypting hard drive than Bitlocker since the hard drive password blocks booting and most likely the criminal will steal your laptop (or trick you into running something malicious) and take the TPM key with it. Then it's just a matter of time to boot the OS (which you can't do with a encrypting hard drive due to the bios password) and figure out a remote exploit or physical motherboard exploit injection to get in the booted PC. Since 99.999% of data theft is virtual rather than physical, It's literally no better at protecting your data than the Encrypting File System that Windows 2000 had.

        As for the other things TPM does, It has a random number generator that's better, but not significantly better than what the CPU could generate. It has encryption acceleration, but you have so many cores available on modern CPU's that it's redundant other than saving a few minutes of battery life. The cryptographic storage is useless if it's accessible by the user without physical account verification (IE a Master password that you have to put in outside of the OS or a fingerprint reader) every time its accessed (since a Virus can easily use your user authority in the background to tell the TPM to dump the decrypted hashes and send to a malicious entity). It can also act as a Virtual Smart card, but again it's dumpable as long as its accessible by your user authority without physical verification and Air gapped solutions (Real Smart Cards, Yubikeys, ETC) are much better since they are only accessible by software when they are plugged in.

        There are some other things TPM's do, but again its not necessarily more secure than other options out there and is all but virtually useless for home users.

        • The TPM allows for hardware-locked licensing. Haven't paid your yearly Windows365 subscription, friend citizen? Report to your nearest termination centre immediately.

      • I don't know about gamers, but quite a few small companies will keep using Windows 10 or earlier because they will not buy new PCs just to use a newer Windows version.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        So basically they offer a big turd and then when everyone complains they offer a slightly smaller turd and a guarantee that you're going to get the bigger turd just a bit later.

        Fuck TPM I don't trust it one inch, it's a really fucking bad idea. If you believe in free speech then you should be 100% against TPM.

    • More used business class machines for Linux users (Score:5, Insightful)

      by couchslug ( 175151 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @03:10PM (#61524102)

      If you don't want to be coerced into scrapping good hardware, don't run Windows.

      When you rent proprietary software you cannot contend you didn't get what you paid for and deserve. Lack of information is no excuse.

    • Re:OEM Kiss and Make Up. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @03:38PM (#61524192)

      I think Windows 11 is more of a kiss and make up to the users for forcing them to use that god awful metro ui interface introduced in windows 8.

      If you look at it, Windows 11 is basically Windows 7 revisited:

      - "frosted glass" appearance on windows, taskbar
      - rounded corners everywhere instead of the sharp corners that defined 8 and 10
      - no more stupid live tiles
      - reintroduction of widgets
      - cortana, aka "clippy 2.0, now with a voice" is finally gone
      - no more fisher-price colors
      - no more flat UI, as in return to depth (via shadows, overlapping objects, etc) and return to skeuomorph (albeit not rasterized skeuomorph that Apple is infamous for)

      You'll probably see windows 11 getting better user acceptance than windows 8 or 10 did, IMO.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by narcc ( 412956 )

        How disappointing. I was pretty happy with flat design.

        • a flat UI necessitates the fisher-price look, otherwise you can't really distinguish between objects. Microsoft had already begun moving away from flat UI in windows 10, just with windows 11 they've gone all the way. Google did the same with material design all the way back in Android 5. If you want flat, I think Apple still does that, I don't know for sure though as I haven't had an apple device in over two years.

      • That sounds great in terms of UI, but what about other factors? How much telemetry is there in Windows 11? Does your installation have to be tied to a Microsoft account? Is it fast or slow compared to previous versions? (As mentioned in this post) what is the hardware compatibility?

    • Just in time for the PLA to knock over Tiawan and lead to a chip crisis.

    • Holy cow, spot on. I ran the check and my CPU isn't Windows 11 compatible. I click on the "Learn more" button after my hardware check and I see prominent text/links for "SHOP NEW PCs" and "Shop for a Windows 11 compatible PC at these retailers" (for Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart, and Microsoft Store.)

      Even better, the the FAQ section has the following questions: "When can I buy a PC that comes with Windows 11 pre-installed?", "How much does a PC with Windows 11 cost?", "Where can I buy a PC with Windows 11?",

  • No shit; you can't have people operating computers that don't have modern spy^H^H^H management engines; what would the world come to??

    • An operating system first and foremost should not depend upon the speed of the CPU or the amount of RAM. If it does then it points to a major flaw in the OS. So it's good evidence that either they're sick of supporting old stuff (costs too much to pay devs) or they want new features like spyware enabling.

      • A mass market consumer OS very much needs to consider these things. They're selling to the average user who will be calling tech support when their system slows to a crawl due to unreasonable demands on terrible hardware. They need to guarantee a certain experience. Games have minimum and recommended specs. An mainstream operating system seems little different.

  • even Apple's Big Sur runs on 7 year old computers. Now you won't hvae to put up with those pesky middle and lower class losers, get on the first class bullet train or fuck off, amiright?

    • Apple's Big Sur runs on 7 year old computers But with each update things get slower and slower. More and more Apple time is spent watching the colored circle spin as Apple does something? At boot watch the spinning color wheel, logging in watch the spinning color wheel, start application watch the spinning color wheel. etc etc etc Are there any Apple updates that arn't a few GB and downloading is the fast part. It is the update prep and install that takes forever.

  • "also requiring a front-facing camera" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pierre Pants ( 6554598 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @02:43PM (#61523986)
    That's like... sigh.. I'm too depressed by the Orwellian present to keep writing.

    • If you put tape over it will you get a stern warning before they brick your system?

      • Put tape over it? I say open the display shell assembly and cut the camera wires from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

    • That's like... sigh.. I'm too depressed by the Orwellian present to keep writing.

      So no desktops? Unless sold with webcam + screen?

      • says "except for desktops", but I'm sure they'll come up with something against those pesky desktop users in a few years.
        • yeah if they can force them to create microsoft accounts to assist with the archival process of tracking you and your data, that'll do for now. they'll grab snaps of your face for that account some other time on some other device after you get used to using your new microsoft account. I for one just hope and wait for someone to hack around the ms account requirement, and the tpm requirement, though im sure that'll cause other problems sooner or later and probably by design.
    • What kind of asinine requirement is this? Older hardware not being supported for technical reasons may be understandable but a camera is not required for a computer to function. Also the fact that desktops do not need a camera underscores it is very arbitrary.

      • Re: "also requiring a front-facing camera" (Score:5, Insightful)

        by alexgieg ( 948359 ) <alexgieg@gmail.com> on Saturday June 26, 2021 @03:36PM (#61524186) Homepage

        My guess is it's for Windows Hello, Microsoft's secure passwordless biometric login. It exists as an option on Windows 10 for those with computers that fulfill all the security requirements, meaning mostly business machines with TPM connected to a secure video pathway, and is disabled otherwise. It seems with Windows 11 Microsoft wants it available, and probably enabled by default, on all portable devices, not only on business-class machines. Desktops, on the other hand, are less likely to be stolen and find themselves in the hands of someone physically trying to login on them over and over and over, so having Windows Hello as a requirement on them doesn't seem to be a priority for now.

        • My guess is it's for Windows Hello, Microsoft's secure passwordless biometric login. It exists as an option on Windows 10 for those with computers that fulfill all the security requirements, meaning mostly business machines with TPM connected to a secure video pathway, and is disabled otherwise. It seems with Windows 11 Microsoft wants it available, and probably enabled by default, on all portable devices, not only on business-class machines. Desktops, on the other hand, are less likely to be stolen and find themselves in the hands of someone physically trying to login on them over and over and over, so having Windows Hello as a requirement on them doesn't seem to be a priority for now.

          To me that MS logic makes no sense. Requiring a camera does not help secure a device that much given this kind of protection is being fooled easily currently. Apple's Face ID system at least uses 3D imaging which is harder to fool but still can be fooled. While average laptops and devices are more portable than average desktops, more and more desktops are getting smaller. Small form factor PCs are used by many business and consumers where the user does not need a great deal of computing power. It seems a p

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by EvilSS ( 557649 )
        Pretty sure that requirements is for OEMs, and let's face it, who doesn't have one these days out of the box on a laptop. I wonder if the requirement is going to be for a Windows Hello compatible camera setup, which requires an IR camera in addition to the regular one so most laptops don't include it today.

  • Great News (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Vlad_the_Inhaler ( 32958 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @02:45PM (#61523994)

    This presumably means my "Windows machine" won't try and spontaneously update itself the way things happened with Windows 10. It fails on two major criteria - not UEFI-capable and the processor. Let's hear it for machines built in 2010.

    • Or avoid the whole fiasco all together. I've been testing out different versions of Linux to replace my Windows 7 machines. Linux Mint was my preferred choice until I discovered Pop! OS. Holy cow, you gotta check it out. I can't believe I've stuck with Windows 7 so long. All of my Steam games even play smoothly, and this on an i7-4770!

      • I love Linux Mint and would be hard-pressed to switch.

        With that said, serious question- what are some of the features in PopOS that persuaded you to choose it over Mint?

        • I love Linux Mint and would be hard-pressed to switch.

          I installed that for a (non-tech) friend, but went with Ubuntu MATE for myself.
          Similar interface but one less step removed from Debian.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        All of my Steam games even play smoothly, and this on an i7-4770!

        I'm having difficulty believing that, do you only have 2 steam games or are they all made by the same developer?

        Will it literally run cyberpunk 2077 or Quake-RTX or tens of thousands of other steam games without having to tweak things?

        • I'm having difficulty believing that, do you only have 2 steam games or are they all made by the same developer?

          I don't know about the OP but I have three Steam games right now that I'm using Steams Proton to run on Linux. Everything else is native.

          One (6?) of those games is Microsoft's very own "Halo; Master Chief Collection", which is Halo 1, 2, 3, 4, Reach, and ODST. So far I've played 1, 2, 3, and ODST, and have had zero issues running them on Linux.

          The Second is "Valheim" which uses the Unity game engine, and it is actually seems to be running faster on my Linux system than my Windows 7 box. Only problem I'v

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            So it's going to be a royal pain in the ass and many games won't work then. Just to put things in perspective I've reviewed 189 games on steam, I have 3500+ steam games. I like short games and indie games and more original content. The thing I like about windows 7 is that 99% of games just work without issue for me. I don't want to have to mess around with obscure configurations to get games to work. I totally appreciate the work being done to get games to work on Linux and this is one thing I like about V

            • I have no idea what your talking about with the "obscure configurations" comment.

              Only "obscure configurations" I've needed to do in Steam to use Proton was select "Proton Experimental" from a pull down menu. Even the custom version I use for FF XIV took more time to down load than to install. I just unpacked it's zip in the specified director and restarted Steam so it would detect it.

              From your comment I have to wonder if you've even tried using Proton.

              But it doesn't mater either way really. You can choos

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Octorian ( 14086 )

        Hehe, my main desktop is still a Linux machine with an i7-4770 and a continuously upgraded Fedora install.
        I keep saying that when I finally upgrade, I should be tempted by the System76 offerings. I just keep getting annoyed by their complete lack of front ports, which I kinda like having.
        But if I do that sort of change, I'm still not sure whether to try Pop!_OS, go with Ubuntu, or stick with Fedora.

    • Still rocking a Xeon X5650 hex core here. No reason for me to upgrade.

      • Same thing here I just upgraded my old Intel i7 920 4 core running at 3.6 GHz to a 6-core Intel Xeon x5690 now running at 4.2 GHz. This machine also has 24 GB of RAM and triple channel setup that was upgraded a few years back from 12 GB of RAM. This computer is now 12 years old and it is still running strong.

        I was able to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 after disabling a bios feature for virtualization. And the machine has been running stable the whole time.

        I don't see a reason to upgrade to Windows 1

  • Checks list... (Score:4, Funny)

    by 50000BTU_barbecue ( 588132 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @02:51PM (#61524012) Journal

    6510 not on there.. I'll stick to GEOS.

    • I'm suspicious of the list. My FX processor running Windows 7 isn't listed but has been running for several years with no problem.

      • sudo dmidecode --type 4 shows mine as being AMD Phenom II X4 910e
        and there is nothing remotely like that in the Windows 7 list or the "current Windows 10" list. It's dual boot but the Windows partition started off with Windows 7 and then I downgraded to Windows 10 when 7 went out of support. It is not exactly a muscle machine but it does the job whenever I have some task which has to run under Windows, that's less than once a month so most of the time it is up it is updating.

  • What kind of requirement is that? I'd just borrow a webcam from a friend to pass the installation process and return it back to them. While you're at it, why not require a mouse and keyboard? Those seem more important for interacting with the operating system

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Dracos ( 107777 )

      My guess is that Win11 will authenticate users via facial recognition. Because fingerprint scanners weren't ridiculous enough.

      • What kind of requirement is that?

        My guess is that Win11 will authenticate users via facial recognition. Because fingerprint scanners weren't ridiculous enough.

        Microsoft is also including Teams with Windows 11, so I'm guessing the camera requirement is to help foster that -- and any other apps that MS wants to push that most people probably don't need/want.

    • My guess would be that it is going to utilise Cortana and run like a helpline.

      If you want to open Microsoft Office say "one"
      If you want to run Microsoft Edge say "two"

      I'm sorry, I did not understand your response. If you cannot tell me what you want I will terminate this session

    • Re:webcam lol (Score:5, Informative)

      by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @05:49PM (#61524600)

      If you actually read the document, these requirements are for new computers to bear the 'designed for microsoft 11' designation, they are not the minumum requirements to run windows 11.

      The camera is so that if you buy a computer 'designed to run windows 11' that stuff like windows hello and teams video chat will all be functional.

  • This is really going to screw people who run Windows in a VM on a Mac or Linux host using something like VirtualBox or VMWare.

    The TPM requirement is also going to kill off dual-booting, as to the best of my knowledge Windows doesn't like it when "the other OS" rewrites the boot record.

    • Not really hypervisor TPMs [wikipedia.org] are a thing.

    • That is unlikely because software doesn't require Windows 11 and by the time it does then you will have upgraded your box. I would also point out that UEFI is what does the booting so boot records are no longer used.

      Honestly, it all seems like more reasons to stop using Windows completely.

    • Though honestly who actually dual boots anymore? Just pick a daily driver OS and use a VM to run the other. I honestly don't have the patience to deal with bootloaders, boot menus, etc, let alone the fact that I have to close all of my running applications just to go to the other OS. Way better to just have both running at once. Plus virtualization is so good that you basically get native performance without having to sacrifice anything; even GPUs are virtualized quite well.

      • There's one reason to have a bootable USB stick somewhere inside, and that's as an emergency OS where some hardware goes south.

  • They will backtrack (Score:4, Insightful)

    by danbob999 ( 2490674 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @02:56PM (#61524034)

    like they always do. They have no interest in having to maintain both Windows 10 and 11. It's in their interest that as much people as possible upgrade.

    • They may for 11, but this is the list that OEMs need to implement if they want to be ready for 12 (or whatever it's going to be called). 11 is a training camp, like Vista was the training camp for 7, and like 8 was the training camp for 10. If you've skipped Vista and 8, skip 11 too.

    • Re:They will backtrack (Score:5, Informative)

      by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @05:56PM (#61524630)

      They don't need to backtrack.

      If you actually read the document, these requirements are for new computers to bear the 'designed for microsoft windows 11' designation; pretty much says exactly that on the 3rd page of the pdf after the table of contents.

      The camera requirement in particular should have been a dead giveaway to anyone with some critical thinking skills.

      These do NOT appear to be the minumum requirements to run windows 11. Those still appear to be quite nominal, and that's not surprising.

      Windows 11 is really not much more than the next semi-annual windows 10 update, except they're calling it windows 11 instead of windows 10 21H2 or whatever, and throwing some new desktop glitter on it.

      Everyone here is just spreading and reacting to bullshit FUD... as usual.

  • I can't see Win11 becoming a new corporate standard by limiting the CPUs that can running it.

    I can recall an Oracle upgrade -- if memory serves it was an ``upgrade or lose support'' move -- that mandated that we upgrade the processor boards in the clusters that we were running their RDBMS on. Boy... was that ever popular with management.

  • "Microsoft is also requiring a front-facing camera for all Windows 11 devices except desktop PCs from January 2023 onward." Because as Satya will tell you people masturbating on the go is much more fun to watch!

  • GOOD and this is why: (Score:3, Informative)

    by couchslug ( 175151 ) on Saturday June 26, 2021 @03:03PM (#61524076)

    People should not want to run evil operating systems and everything that can drive them away from Windows is a good thing. (Legacy installs can be run in VMs disconnected from the internet).

    I welcome every additional annoyance MSFT inflicts on users. The only reason to run Windows is for a limited range of desktop software. It's vulnerable trash for every other purpose.

    Choosing Windows was always everything FOSS advocates warned us about. It is volunteering for abuse and I find it hilarious the Windows has enthusiasts and defenders.

    • I wish I had mod points. couchslug hit the nail DIRECTLY on the head.. I keep wondering just how long the computing public is going to tolerate all the broken updates, and otherwise just BAD behavior by Microsoft/Windows. I spent a 20 year career as as sysadmin/windows "janitor", from the days of DOS/Win311/Novell to the middle of the XP to W7 migration. The only Windows I touch anymore is a W7 VM with no network connection that runs a couple of programs that don't play nice with Wine.

  • I don't even want to use any of the TPM-related features, and because I build my own PCs using OEM parts I don't want to bother buying those overpriced modules. Eventually, sure - they'll be more standard - but I don't really want TPM anyway.

    I mean, drive encryption is just a bad idea in terms of using resources for what I care about, and I don't particularly want to limit my choices of using other OSs whenever I want.

    So long as I can bypass that requirement, I might try Windows 11.

    I know the preview versi

    • TPM doesn't seem like a feature for the user anyway - it's more for admins (and MS itself) to lock down a PC for direct physical access.

      That just may explain why open-source has incorporated it [phoronix.com]. Those tricky communist are trying to take over the world. /s

  • I see they're trying to set the requirements for the one after 11. Gotta keep the pattern going, right? One tolerable, one turd, repeat.

  • While it's ridiculous that Win11 arbitrarily won't run on my i7-4700K, I can't pretend to be too bugged about it, considering I'm still on 7 (my idea of a safe, sane desktop environment does not involve having to disable a bunch of ridiculous active desktop spam every update - if I wanted to know what the current local temperature was, I'd ask, and no I wouldn't fucking ask Cortana).

    Microsoft is also requiring a front-facing camera for all Windows 11 devices except desktop PCs from January 2023 onwards.

    This, right here, is the true headline. Why the fuck does Microsoft need me to have a front-facing camera, or a camera at all,

    • It makes sure your device will work with stuff like Teams. Also OEMs want an excuse to upcharge you for the equipment.

      • They could also require an iLok dongle to make sure my computer's compatible with Pro Tools. How about requiring a light gun to make sure my computer works with Duck Hunt and Time Crisis?

        I mean, yeah, I get that this is basically a kickback to OEMs who've been faithfully pushing Windows over Linux all these years, but the excuses are so hilariously paper-thin shitty that they deserve to be attacked on their own merits / lack-thereof.

        • Depends on what hardware OEMs have sitting around in the warehouse. If they had millions of light guns then you'd better believe that they'd find a way to force customers to buy them.

  • It's the only way to get our voices heard. I just know some old grandma who wants just a word processor and doesn't want to go on the internet will be stopped by Windows 11 home's internet requirement. Also Microsoft hasn't addressed the chicken and egg scenario for someone who doesn't have Internet at home yet (Only 94% of UK households have internet).

    Windows 11 is already shaping up to be worse than Vista and Me combined. Vista could run on a Pentium III from 1999 if you fed it enough memory. In fact W

  • This means they won't be pulling the same "Do you want to upgrade? Yes/Yes later/No, just kidding, yes." bullshit they did with Windows 10.

  • Well duh ... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 )

    By limiting the supported CPUs to new models only, Microsoft is excluding more current/existing systems that would take advantage of the free upgrade path. This way more people will have to buy new(er) systems, probably pre-loaded with Windows 11 and pay the "Microsoft Tax".

    Honestly, and especially if the more stringent HW requirements hold, Windows 10 will probably be my last and I'll make the permanent switch to Linux. I already have several systems and several of them run Linux and I only have a few a

  • I looked at the advertised Win 11 new and improved feature list and took in a few videos on it

    To be honest, I saw a couple of new things that I might appreciate or use (if I ran Windows). The rest of it seemed like needless tweaking and fiddling around to me.

    A bunch more 'keep the user engaged' stuff was added(ugh) and some settings were removed, like the ability to have a taskbar on the side or top. Why remove that? Was it costing them money to keep that feature?

    All in all, mostly harmless but not somethi

    • The new start menu includes a lot more space for 'cloud' suggestions. Space for more sponsored news stories, I suspect.

  • Look at the list of supported processors for Windows 10 20H2 and 21H1. Officially that requires 5th gen core processors but I'm running it on half a dozen boxes that are 3rd and 4th gen without any problems.

  • It's becoming harder and harder with each version to claw back some sense of ownership over my own PC. I spent a lot of time disabling a lot of 'call home to mama' stuff on Win10 short of blocking microsoft's servers at the router level (I don't push my fanatical beliefs on the rest of my family's computers, it's not worth the trouble) and I now have a reasonably updated, beautifully stable Win10 installation with no adware or excess junk on it and I control when or if updates happen.

    Microsoft is strugglin

  • my guess is they want it for DRM around the Windows store. They're probably going to take another crack at creating an Apple style walled garden. If they ever pull it off it's billions and billions in revenue for doing basically nothing.

  • I haven't had a compelling reason to upgrade since leaving Windows XP. Why would I want to upgrade my Windows 10 machine to Windows 11? When my PC dies, I'll buy a new machine and it will come pre-installed with Windows 11.

  • Unbeknownst to MS, this is not a bug to many people.
  • I have a 1.5 yr old machine, i7 9700k, Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Elite MB... and a computer science degree.

    Here's my experience.
    I ran the readiness check... Failed.

    To the BIOS! I then discovered my BIOS won't recognize when a keyboard is plugging in, I've tried everything, different ports, different keyboards.... well fine, I can use the mouse. Using the mouse, I have to disable some CSM settings, save, reboot, go into Secure Boot settings, reset factory default keys, in order or enable the secure boot

  • Don't care! (Score:2, Informative)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 )
    Don't use any Microsoft products and life is good ;)
  • I found mile-long lists of compatible AMD and Intel CPUs on Microsoft's site. Including improbably Intel CPUs in the Pentium, Atom and Celeron family lines. I am not seeing the problem here.
    • I have an i5-6600, plenty fast just happens to be 5 years old, it doesn't qualify according to that list. No way would I replace it and the 16G of ram and the motherboard just to run Windows 11.

  • Thanks to Microsoft's "PC Health Check," today I learned my PC is eight years old and cannot run Windows 11 because it doesn't support secure boot.

    I'll have you know my BIOS most certainly supports secure boot.

    WTF, Microsoft? You are cutting off your nose to spite your face, stupid.

    • I suspect the check is just looking at the current configuration of your BIOS, and if you have Secure Boot disabled, reports back as incompatible.

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