Will your PC run Windows 11? (with video)

This week Microsoft revealed Windows 11, the next generation of Windows. The new OS will be available later this year and next week for Windows Insiders, but the big question is will your PC run Windows 11?

UPDATE: Microsoft have changed the rules so I have written a new post and created a new video

There are three options:

If your PC meets the minimum requirements, then you are good to go. If it doesn’t meet the soft floor requirements but does meet the hard floor, then you can install the OS with a warning. If it doesn’t meet the hard floor requirements, then you cannot install Windows 11.

The next question is what is the soft floor and hard floor? This is from Microsoft:

Hard Floor:

• 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)

If your machine doesn’t meet the above specs then you can’t run Windows 11.

This is the soft floor specs:

Soft Floor:

• Security: TPMVersion >= 2.0
• CPU Generation

If you machine meets the hard floor specs but not the soft floor you will get a warning but you can install the update:

Devices that do not meet the hard floor cannot be upgraded to Windows 11, and devices that meet the soft floor will receive a notification that upgrade is not advised.

Microsoft’s own Windows 11 PC checker reports that you can’t install Windows 11 on PCs that don’t meet the soft floor requirements so I think Microsoft need to update the app so it reports the warning rather than the update can’t be installed. The app doesn’t go into details on what has failed so you have to try and work it out yourself, I think most of the errors are caused by the Soft Floor requirements (meaning you can install it).

The list of supported process is long but only goes as far back as 8^th gen Intel processors which excludes my Surface Go, but as that is the Soft Floor requirements, I should be able to install it with a warning.

Hopefully, Microsoft will update the checker app to provide more clarity and the difference between being unable to install Windows 11 and installing with a warning.