Well things have changed since recording my Windows 11 will it run video last week! Last week I talked about Microsoft’s hard and soft floor limits that enabled you to install Windows 11 on “unsupported” hardware. Since recording things have changed, the requirements are simpler but leaving many unhappy users.

Gone are soft floor and hard floors and there is now compatible or not.

Here are the latest details from Microsoft:

There are new minimum hardware requirements for Windows 11. In order to run Windows 11, devices must meet the hardware specifications. Devices that do not meet the hardware requirements cannot be upgraded to Windows 11.

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC)

RAM: 4 gigabyte (GB)

Storage: 64 GB or larger storage device

System firmware: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0

Graphics card: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver

S mode is only supported on Home edition of Windows 11. If you are running a different edition of Windows in S mode, you will need to first switch out of S mode prior to upgrading.

For Intel processors the requirement is now an 8th gen with TPM 2.0 enabled. There is also a similar limit for AMD and Qualcomm processors, leaving some powerful hardware out in the cold.

Microsoft PC Health tool will let you know if your PC is able to install Windows 11, but if it isn’t a recent model, it probably won’t. It could be Microsoft take another look at the processor requirements, if they don’t there are going to be plenty of upset enthusiasts. I should also say the minimum specs are slightly different for Windows Insiders, unsupported devices will be able to install Windows 11 but once the new OS is released, we may have to reset our machines back to Windows 10 to get supported.

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