The confusing official narrative around Windows 11 hardware requirements just got a bit more confusing last week. Microsoft rolled out a change that has generated quite some outcry.
With the latest release in the Beta channel, Windows 11 build 22000.194, Microsoft has added a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 requirement for virtual machines too.
Essentially, VMs will now have fulfill the same criteria as the host system. A Windows 11 installation running on a virtual machine will no longer receive further updates if the virtualization player does not satisfy the newly added requirement.
As Redmond notes:
“This build includes a change that aligns the enforcement of the Windows 11 system requirements on Virtual Machines (VMs) to be the same as it is for physical PCs. Previously created VMs running Insider Preview builds may not update to the latest preview builds. In Hyper-V, VMs need to be created as a Generation 2 VM.”
In other words, Microsoft wants all system requirements to be the same everywhere, so in theory you will no longer be able to run Windows 11 in a VM unless TPM 2.0 is available.
This is going to be a downer for many people who installed Windows 11 in a virtual machine instead of a standalone system. That allowed them to be up-to-date on all the changes that Microsoft was working on, without letting any potential bugs or stability changes impact the performance of their device.
Installing Windows 11 this way was, up until now, as easy as it got.
And now this!
