Windows 11: Microsoft sticks to system requirements, despite sluggish conversion
Microsoft released Windows 11 in 2021 as the successor of Windows 10. Unlike previous Windows systems, Windows 11 came with an updated set of system requirements.
Main requirements included a relatively modern CPU and support for TPM 2.0. PCs that did not meet the requirements could not be upgraded to Windows 11 using Windows Update.
While Microsoft introduced bypasses to install Windows 11 on devices that do not meet the system requirements, it warned users of the consequences. PCs that do not meet the system requirements of Windows 11 are not entitled to receive updates, according to Microsoft.
While cumulative updates have installed fine on unsupported Windows 11 machines up until now, the same cannot be said for new feature updates.
This year, Microsoft did block one method of installing the operating system on unsupported hardware. It prevented the installation of Windows 11, version 24H2, on very old systems as well, even though previous versions installed just fine.
Slow conversion
Third-party statistics service StatCounter observes traffic on more than 1.5 million websites. The company sees Windows 10 leading the field when it comes to Windows PCs.
Windows 10 has a usage share of more than 61 percent as of November 2024. Windows 11 follows in second place with a share of around 35 percent.
Windows 10 loses about a percentage per month and Windows 11 gains that percentage. With eleven months of support left for Windows 10, it is clear that conversions need to accelerate to even make it past Windows 10 until October 2025.
Millions of PCs won't be upgraded to Windows 11 or replaced by a Windows 11 device by October 2025. That leaves these customers without support, unless they plan to purchase extended security updates.
Microsoft is making them available to home users, businesses, and Enterprise customers for the first time. Home users may subscribe for a single year of update extensions, whereas business and Enterprise customers get the option to extend by three years.
System requirements are here to stay
Microsoft could reduce the pressure on its customers and do something for the environment, if it would change the system requirements of Windows 11.
At least one requirement is non-negotiable, according to Microsoft. Microsoft employee Steven Hosking explains in a long blog post on the company's Windows IT Pro Blog that TPM 2.0 is essential for Windows 11.
The trusted platform module is used for cryptographic operations and also storage. Devices that do not support it are blocked from upgrading, but there are ways around this as mentioned above.
With Microsoft putting its foot on the ground, the only other potential lever left is the processor. It would allow systems with TPM and a not-so-recent processor to upgrade to Windows 11.
Closing Words
While it seems doubtful that Microsoft is relaxing the requirements, outside pressure could force Microsoft's hand.
More than 100 million incompatible systems and customers could potentially be lost in October 2025, if Microsoft decides to play hardball and customers decide not to replace their perfectly-fine PC with a new one.
Windows 10 users have some options besides upgrading to Windows 11.
Do you use a PC with Windows 10 or earlier versions of Windows? What are your plans going forward? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
MS still feeling cocky. I have 1 Windows 11 laptop and like 20 or more Windows 7/8.1 machines. In a few years OpenHarmony for traditional PCs not tablets/phones will rule the world. Then Windows + Linux can both go to hell. BTW, for those who don’t know, Linux runs like ass on my Windows 7/8.1 machines, much much slower than Windows. Those who tout Linux over Windows don’t know what they’re talking about. OpenHarmony will prove itself much superior to Win/Lin
Your link, within the sentence “Third-party statistics service StatCounter observes traffic on more than 1.5 million websites. ” is not working.
I have three Windows 10 PCs that can’t be upgraded due to TPM requirements while also running two Windows 11 machines. I’ll just keep running the Windows 10 rigs past EOL and keep my AV up to date. I’ll be just fine.
I use 0patch for critical updates. Check it out to verify it’s legit. It is. They patch 0days far faster than Microsoft by using hotpatches/micropatches, a technique that Microsoft is only now testing.
I just upgraded to Win11 because my PC was over 10 years old and not worth investing the time and $ to fix. My dh uses a Win10 PC that is 8 years old and has no intention of getting Win11, so if and when his dies, I will give him mine and put Linux on my old one just to see how it works. We are tired of MS calling the shots. Office 365 is subscription-based, as are most Adobe products. No thanks – I now use Libre Office and am getting along fine with an older version (not subscription-based) of Adobe Acrobat, and if that stops working, I will use PDF24, a powerful, free tool. Wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Microsoft wanted a subscription for Windows 12 either!
“TPM 2.0 is essential for Windows 11” and yet its optional for Win11 24H2 IoT LTSC along with Secure Boot and UEFI so just remember that if you have unsupported hardware that is about to become ewaste. Its also supported till April 2034.
Rufus to the rescue.
Microsoft is like Joe B, and the whiteshouse! Meaning it’s all about the $. Pushing ads inside the OS, and making people use the OS, no matter what, that has bloatware out the butt hole. Microsoft is just hurting themselves, and don’t know it.
In addition to Trump University, steaks, watches, cologne, shoes, alcohol and bibles. Trump is now selling TrumpOS, a closed source, free market operating system with none of the woke monetization restrictions of open source OSes.
Because it’s not about the $ at all!
The more people that use linux because their hardware is too old for windows, the more attractive a target it will be for hackers.
People will pay the equivalent cost of a PC* for a new phone, with only a few years of support, every time a new model comes out yet they complain when their 10 year old PC is no longer supported.
/facepalm
* A pc that meets the need of most poeple, not a “Gaming rig” or “Video editing rig”.
Not many people will move to Linux because they can’t upgrade to Windows 11. They will either continue to use Windows 10 or just buy a new computer.
I moved to Linux earlier this year, because I was fed up with what Windows has been becoming since Windows 8 – intrusive, obnoxious, controlling, ugly, slow, bloated and impeding on use, at least for me.
I was also concerned to move to Linux, because my previous attempts didn’t work out – I had troubles with installing drivers, running games and many other problems, but this time it worked out and I can play 95% of the games I want to, the rest I just give up and not play, besides, my way of life has changed in the last year so I barely even play games anymore, I have 5-10 games installed that I plan to play, but I never really do so I might as well just delete them.
Linux has evolved a lot since I last used it and it’s much easier, but it requires to be technically educated and still many people who are, still shy away from it, either due to stubbornness, bias or some other reason. So I doubt Linux market share will grow exponentially any time soon. Maybe by 10 years it might pass 5% world share and be going for 10%, but that would be wishful thinking.
So I don’t think hackers will be targeting Linux in the foreseeable future. It’s not impossible and Linux is not protected or secured, just not a target yet.
If I remember correctly, around 1992, Microsoft sabotaged Linux and to this day, Linux is still suffering from this and never became mainstream and probably never will. Unless big companies start selling PCs and laptops with Linux, it won’t gain share, I’ve also had a friend who bought a PC for his mother, the PC game with Ubuntu and he took it to a PC repair shop to have Windows installed on it, but then again his mother uses special software that would be a pain to run on Linux, it’s even a pain to run on Windows, because some of it is so old it needs virtualization for Windows XP to still run and it’s understandable.
People just don’t want Linux. They will buy a PC with Linux and have Windows installed instead. It’s the same as people awaking to the Truth and “unbelieving” the lies they’ve been fed all their lives – they would rather be lied to and feel comfortable than swallow the red pill.
@Allwynd
Nice reply. I agree with all of it.
Many of the games we play (we’ve 2 gaming rigs) won’t run on linux. Many won’t run on Win 10 and the newest one won’t even run on a GPU that doesn’t support RayTracing.
I’ve dabbled with Linux on and off for years. I know most of the basics but still need help for some things.
I recently installed ZorinOS on one of my old pc’s. Z87, i7-4790K, Nvidia GTX980Ti. The Mobo has a slot to add a TPM module but it was time to replace them anyways.
It was mostly plug n play. The few things I needed to open the terminal for are things most users wouldn’t care about. I would reccomend to anyone considering a move from windows to linux to go take a look at it.
We only use that one for media and displaying the weather and an occasional web search to answer a question that came up in converstaion during breakfast though. It’s life as a Gaming Rig is over.
@Allwynd
Linux is socialism. I understand this may fit your far left worldview, but open source by it’s very nature is communist. There is a reason communist countries have embraced Linux (Red Star, Kylin, Nova, Canaima) while capitalist countries use free market operating systems (Windows, MacOS).
Hardware rarely has an (exploitable) vulnerablilities. Software is the prime attack vector. So if your hardware is a decade doesn’t really matter (as long as the performance is sufficient). What counts (from a security perspective) is the software.
There are a few exceptions from this rule of thumb (eg Spectre/Meltdown, Rowhammer), but those are (luckily) rare.
BTW, TPM is unfortunately RIDDLED with vulns. This means once an attacker gains a foothold onto the system through one of these, you’ll never ever get him out of the system again and have to actually discard the hardware, if he uses these vulns to write himself into the TPM. THAT’S a f*cking mess. In former times it was sufficient to discard the HD and before that it was sufficient to reformat the HD. With TPM, you have to discard the system, the HD and every device in the network, that can flashed.
I understand, why people wanted to enhance general security this way by extending it to the hardware level, but the sloppy way it was done terribly backfired resulting in a total mess, which achieved actually quite the opposite.
You are right about the absurdity of (many) people’s behavior when it comes to buying new phones. The explanation seems fairly obvious to me, though. Phones are far more visible than PC’s; they have become a status thing like Rolex watches, to be displayed to demonstrate someone’s success/importance. Good marketing does things like that, and Apple, in particular, was/is exceptional at that kind of marketing.
PS. My phone is 6 or 7 years old and works fine for what I use it for (phone calls, texting, the occasional photo, podcasts and music in my car, and limited internet use), although it does need a new battery. It also thankfully has the now outmoded home button which I still very much prefer for one handed use when necessary.
Oh my gosh! After months of no bookmark icon showing in my Bookmarks Toolbar for gHacks, it suddenly appeared when I clicked on the horrible default looking thingy. On a Windows 11 computer and Firefox. I didn’t do anything, but it makes the Toolbar look much better. Thanks!
win11 is skippable beta trash.
‘No more updates’ is just making win10 even better.
People have been demanding an end to forced updates and unpredictable reboots since forever.
The paid updates proposal just gave other operating systems and linux a reference ceiling for what they could get away charging for seamless migrations like elementaryOS (a mac-like linux). Sure most of those are made available at no cost but paid/subscription versions could be even better or include extra quality of life features that would normally be paid extras like codecs or printed manuals.
Will stay at , my fine working , 23H2 as long as possible ……………not in a hurry for 24H2 , its buggy , and full with errors ………maybe later better ?
I will continue to use Rufus or other means to upgrade. I don’t need a new PC, and I don’t want to contribute to eWaste.
I would not be surprised if it is found that manufacturers have a deal going with Microsoft to force people to buy new hardware.
There is no need to toss out an old PC. Just install Linux.
I already have 2 PCs running Linux Mint. One is an old core-duo. It runs as smooth as ever.
I will install Linux on my laptop. Goodbye Microsoft.
This Thinkstation S30 and a core-duo machine are on Linux Mint.
Buh Bye MicroShaft!!!!
Microsoft could have planned this transition a whole lot better than it did. Windows 10 had support for TPM 2.0 so this should have been a requirement to support it in all Windows 10 devices. Maybe some consumer models would not have it enabled but certainly have it in place to support what Microsoft knew would be a future requirement. This was just bad management at Microsoft to prematurely place an early EOL on devices simply because Microsoft did not have the foresight to require hardware makers to include TPM 2.0 support. Now we will see an increase in waste just because Microsoft is stubborn. Wonder how many jilted by this will simply move away from Windows altogether?
Not enough
John, they may have had a good incentive from manufacturers.