Get your flaming torches and pitchforks, folks! Microsoft has just updated its hardware guidance for Windows 11, making the system requirements for the upcoming OS even stricter.
These were already real solid to begin with.
But with this latest revision, Redmond is standing firm on the necessity of a TPM 2.0 chip for a computer to be able to run the latest and greatest version of Windows. That goes with the removal of hard and soft floors in the Windows 11 compatibility cookbook.
The software titan issued this revision based around the release of the first Windows 11 Insider preview build, and its potential to support older processors. Though to be honest, this clarifies absolutely nothing, as we already knew that the final build will be the one that will be restricted.
This is how things stand:
Processor: 1GHz or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit CPU or SoC
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64GB or larger
Graphics card: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver
System firmware: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0
In order to run Windows 11, devices must meet the hardware specifications. Computers and devices that do not meet the hardware requirements cannot be upgraded to the new operating system, as Microsoft makes abundantly clear.
While the OS does not explicitly support the first-generation AMD Ryzen CPUs, or even any Intel processor made before the Coffee Lake generation, there was a sense in the community that it all came down to not being advised to install Windows 11 on older hardware, as opposed to not being able to.
Microsoft seems to be standing its ground here.
Looks like the march to Redmond headquarters is on!
