Want to check out Windows 11 but don't want to buy a new PC? Here's how to bypass the hardware requirements Microsoft has softened its stance on hardware requirements for Windows 11 by documenting a way to bypass them – though it warns against doing so and states that it is unsupported and will not be entitled to updates. The explanation was posted on the page about "ways to install Windows 11." It may be that Microsoft always …
Face it, it's GA release so it's going to be a bug riddled mess for at least the next 3 months, wait for various critical fixes to come out before you even bother with it!
The only people who want to try it are:
- Cretins who want simply state they're using Win11 at home on their 5 follower social media feeds
- Tech Reporters who have to review it as they drew the short straw
Win10 works and is supported for the next few months, seen it on MSDN for download on Monday evening but I can wait thanks.
Right, so when Microsoft automatically installs it (which they will) - what then?
I'm sure we all remember how aggressively they pushed W10 onto W7 and 8 computers. This will probably be even more difficult to block, unless you have a good knowledge of computers.
Just telling users 'tough, we don't support it' is really not an acceptable answer.
Honestly given how much of a mess Microsoft updates are unless your systems are domain joined and forcibly managed you're in for a lot of hurt one way or another. Sucks to pay for that but at the same time having some control over the user experience relieves a lot of bork even if the cost to pay the MS tax sucks. That said things often and do break....because Microsoft
My answer would be simple: don't BYOD. Use company equipment; that is supported. If you use something non-standard, and unsupported, well, you deserve what you get.
See further the many decades of Windows admins declining to support Macs or Linux systems. If you, the user, could make it work, fine (though some particularly virulent Crapple haters went out of their way to actively block access) but if you need help... tough. You're on your own, bubba.
From what was said, if a Win 11 device can connect without assistance, excellent. You need help? How sad. Too bad. Keep walking.
And, further, for certain senior members of staff… I’ll just remind them that we were supposed to have swapped out some machines last year, and more this year, but covid happened and the budgeted cash was diverted. We have zero company machines which can run Win 11 without resorting to unsupported and unsafe tweaks. We have zero people with experience with Win 11 on company equipment. We have zero training on Win 11. It’s not in the budget. Even if it was put into the budget today, I would need time to spec systems, time to arrange training, time to set up… so no, Win 11 is not supported and will not be allowed on the network unless and until someone senior says, in writing, to put BYOD Win 11 machines on the network, and absolves me of all blame for any problems.
Not willing to put it in writing? Piss off.
I don't have to. They aren't running Win 11. Nor will they be allowed to run Win 11 on the office network. Anyone who doesn't like it needs to make a case for using Win 11 on the office network, in writing. And to provide the budget for the necessary support. Personally, I'd just _love_ to see the justification for spending the additional money, particularly after recent budget meetings. Note that the extra money will NOT be coming out of IT's current budget, all the money's spoken for, and that, right there, will kill any attempt to strong-arm Win 11 onto the system until at least the next annual budget exercise, in February next year.
Now, if some other department is willing to pay, why certainly we can consider a project to add Win 11 support. It will, of course, have to be done as per established project guidelines, unless someone can show that this is an emergency or at least a high-priority project... and that someone had best be able to find the additional funding to run a crash priority project.
In the classic lines of Gordo Cooper in "The Right Stuff", 'Funding makes this bird fly'. No funding, no flight. Or, as Virgil Grissom allegedly put it, 'no bucks, no Buck Rogers'. Show me the money. Or don't let the door hit you in the ass as you leave.
> Right, so when Microsoft automatically installs it (which they will) - what then?
They might want to, but given the requirements that are the subject of this article, they'll struggle.
Of course, that probably won't stop them forcing an update which always fails.
I have too many perfectly good PC's to deal with that have no TPM that easily have half a decade or more of useful life in them in terms of CPU power, RAM size & SSD storage. So nothing will go to Windows 11 until everything can, as I don't want to deal with a bunch of different OS's. For all the noise about TPM, I haven't noticed it protecting anyone against the high Pareto threats like phishing & ransomware. Don't care about low Pareto threats like stolen laptops as there are perfectly good non-TPM solutions to mitigate the consequences of those.
It may have some theoretical value but overall with real browsers and poorly trained users and security flaws in applications and OS, it's pointless. I've a bunch of PCs with no TPM and the others have a connector, but no-one sells the module.
Most stuff is now Linux here for five years.
"Apart from being 'shiny' what is the main reason for upgrading?"
More efficient telemetry sucking up more of your personal info, better ways to monetize your data, hardened communication tunnels to the MS mothership, setting the stage for the inevitable monthly fee to let you log on and of course back door deals with hardware manufacturers to supply you with new hardware.
Oh, you though the end user would benefit in some way? No, not at all. Just MS Shareholders.
Something new in Windows 10 is that all drivers must be signed by Microsoft. I haven't been able to confirm this, but it seems like since Microsoft owns the certificate that they have a kill switch for Windows 10. Unlike previous versions of Windows where you could perform tricks to keep them running, it isn't obvious to me that this will be possible with Windows 10. People who are willing to pay for the extra service can probably get extended certificates, but I'm not sure that will be an option for the rest of us.
Can anyone confirm this or (hopefully) show me the error in my thinking?
It depends on the VM software.
For TPM, VMWare products already have this, and as mentioned above, Parallels on Mac also includes TPM.
Whereas Oracle VirtualBox currently doesn't have TPM.
Apparently it's being worked on. Once released, I'd assume a new setting will appear, likely under System > Motherboard, to enable TPM (same place where EFI is located, which includes secure boot also needed by Win 11).
Not sure on the CPU side, as VMs generally pass the host CPU ID through to the guest, so I guess that comes down to how old your CPU is, and if you override Windows 11s hardware checks.
I have done some VM testing. My host is a 10-year-old Poweredge running Hyper-V Server 2016. Clean installs from ISO.
Provided you configure the VM with access to the TPM and secure boot, it installs fine (despite the age of the server, it does actually have TPM2). The CPU is is reported as unsupported by the health checker program, but it still installs despite that.
If the VM doesn't have TPM access, it won't install at all.
and if I want to build a test VM from scratch, i.e. a "clean install", using VIRTUALBOX, will this registry hack still work? Is it even POSSIBLE?
Oracle is apparently working on a new version of VirtualBox that will emulate TPM 2.0 but I am concerned that the Linux and FreeBSD versions may lag too slowly behind.
Additionally, a virtualbox "driver" to pass through TPM requests would be IRRITATING, since it APPEARS that the new CPU I got for the spare workstation I had to rebuild (Ryzen 3 1200 quad core, price and availability being the main factors) is NOT compatible with "Windows II". However, it is EXTREMELY compatible with Linux and FreeBSD and any *SANE* operating system.
But if it looks like VirtualBox can RELIABLY support TPM emulation on Linux or FreeBSD some time within the next few months, I may choke back the bile, and take a chance on renewing MSDN (which is now called Visual Studio Subscription or similar but is basically the same thing) one more time.
I may try buiiding a virgin Win-10-nic and then "upgrading" using the registry hack, assuming my crappy bandwidth can download it before the subscription expires.
So how do you make the registry change during the install ?
.. Thinks back to custom Windows installs with a file system of add-ons and drivers and then re-burning that to disc.
Why can't they have a "I don't care, just install" button and make this easier for everyone ?
If they have decided not to worry about older hardware, then perhaps they could also add another button that points to a Linux install that will quite happily run on that hardware - let the customer choose and all that ..
Don't think that would work currently anyway, not with VirtualBox, as you still need TPM 1.2 as a min, even with this 'fix', and VirtualBox doesn't have TPM of any version currently.
It is apparently being worked on by Oracle, so once TPM has been added, then your approach might then work, but then as long as EFI is enabled (which has secure boot on by default) as well as TPM 2.0 enabled, then you could probably just do a clean install direct from a Win 11 image anyway at that point!
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Shift+F10 when setup starts and run regedit. Just did it on a 7 year old Dell XPS 12. Installed just fine, running no worse than Windows 10. A few missing drivers that look to have been picked up after install by Windows update; the fact it didn't pick them up during setup when it goes online to check for updates is, well, not entirely surprising.
Only want it installed as I'm selling and I'm hoping the "lure" of shiny new Windows 11 will get me a few more quid for it.
Finally, MS talk about security a lot, but in 2021 you can still answer the security questions with your password when setting up an offline account. I'm only setting up the account to get the laptop ready for selling, so I just answered the 3 questions with the password, but amazed you can actually still do that.
I'm not going o junk the old devices (I'm responding on a Windows 7 machine) - I was planning to buy some more PC's but cancelled the plan when I saw the Windows 11 was going to need a big internal change ... I wonder if many users have put off buying systems until we all know that a new PC will actually work and not need a hardware update?
Or are we going to see millions more devices chucked into landfill?
the better ones end up on E-bay and get Linux or FreeBSD on them. Or maybe even 7 or XP...
and with the supply glut, the price will be low. time for a new server box???
"Or are we going to see millions more devices chucked into landfill?"
Maybe in 5 years when Win10 goes EOL, but not yet. I'm sure there is plenty of new kit still on sale now that won't be supported by Win11.
I'm more surprised they went with Win11 from Win10 when they previously went from Win8 to Win10, skipping Win9. Especially considering that Win10 was supposed to be the "last" Windows. I wonder what they'll do when Win12 is approaching EOL? Will they go with Win13?
Remember the days when in order to get Linux installed and working, you sometimes had to hack around with low level hardware configuration before you had a working system?
Well, Windows has finally devolved to that level, whilst I've not had a Linux installation that didn't work instantly for years.
Issues with proprietary Nvidia drivers are a pain of late, but that isn't an issue with Linux as such, the nouveau driver works fine, it's Nvidia, especially with older unsupported cards i.e. 340.108 drivers.
Nvidia could really do with ironing out the issues with Linux, though support is still somewhat better than AMD in terms of longevity, if you use a patched driver. If Nvidia played their cards right, they could be seen as the default ''go to' graphics on Linux.
Linux is entering the limelight, given there is such bad press for the artificial constraints Microsoft have applied to the hardware requirements of Windows 11. Microsoft have messed up making people jump through too many hoops to install Win11.
"Microsoft have messed up making people jump through too many hoops to install Win11."
It's still a catch-22 though. Most of the big corporates, including local councils, Government, education, are locked into Windows by their software suppliers. None of the big s/w suppliers see a market for Linux version of their s/w so won't invest and if no one invests, there's nowhere for the herd to follow. A very few big organisations have tried to switch to Linux, few have succeeded and the of those who actually did it, the pressure on them to revert back to Windows was and is enormous.
I doubt the C-Suite will know or care about any extra hoop-jumping the peons have to do.
I don’t care. Win 11 is not supported here, and likely will not be supported for at least nine-twelve months, or long enough for the early bugs to be addressed at least twice. (Note that I didn’t say ‘fixed’. I expect that some early bugs will still be there years later.) If users do BYOD with Win 11, it would be entirely their problem to get it to play nice on their hardware and the network. We will just watch them flail.
I managed to finally get my little Windows10 tablet to update from 1909 to 21H1 the other day, so I was interested in what Windows Update might say about WIndows 11 :
This PC doesn't currently meet all the system requirements for Windows 11
Phew, I was worried for a moment.
Only extreme fanbois would pay that. I certainly won't. And I say that as someone who has bought a lot of Apple equipment. When Mac users say that something costs too much, you gotta know that there's a problem.
Besides, there's a software fix for the TPM problem on many motherboards.
My understanding is that 10 will continue to be supported (at least with security "fixes" until 2025.) Am I wrong? I will dual-boot all my home machines to Linux (either Zorin or Mint) beginning about 6 to 12 months in advance, and when 10 "goes away," so will I. Unless MS relents on it's terrible plan.
If I believed for a nano-second that 11 would place even a *dent* in the vulnerability of every Windows computer on the planet--viruses, malware, hacks, leaks, ransom-ware, identity-theft, etc.,--I might be interested. Evil-doers all over the world will take said nano-second to get around TPM and whatever else is in this new spaghetti code. And I'm not at all interested in spinning up and maintaining virtual machines in order to run Windows 11. Forget it. The only beneficiaries of this HW BS are the HW manufacturers. New PC's will be required for ~50% of EVERYBODY. No Thanks. When support for 10 ends, it's Linux for me. Goodbye MS BS.
Oh gosh, I did that when Win7 hit EOL - 8 & 8.1 sucked; 10 was a hard-to-dodge imposition with crowdsourced QC, the cheapskates. Just like 10, Redmond has stepped on its own crank with golf shoes and insists on stepping on mine. No. No. Have 4 machines here, all running Mint Linux. Only real problems I've had are with printer drivers and GPU drivers that don't work as well as their counterparts do in a Windows installation. Win7 is on another drive with the internet access turned off, accessible via Restart/F8 to run, clicking in Computer to mount & access drive contents. Duh. I have what I need.
There's not really an issue with printer drivers in Linux, if you choose the right printer to start with, i.e. a printer supplier that puts Linux support on an equal footing to Windows, in terms of the drivers/software supplied. (Windows 10/11 drivers can be a bigger problem with older printers, where Linux will work, Windows won't).
Top Tip:
Always check the Printer's support pages before buying a particular printer, and search for Linux drivers.
I did that when XP went EOL and switched to Ubuntu. Since then, I've maxed out the memory on that system (8 GB) and added a bigger hard drive - but otherwise am using the same hardware!
If only I could figure out why gnome-shell was consistently using a lot of CPU, it probably wouldn't be slow even now. But I might upgrade the processor to a quad-core just to get rid of that headache. (Memory is only half-used and swap sits at 0, so I figure processor really is the bottleneck.)
I have to say, If I was running a small business and MS comes along and tells me that my 2 year old PC's are all obsolete and will no longer be supported in 3 years time.
This would be the thing that pushes me over to Linux.
As a private user, but for the games, (And a handful; of proprietary programs that I use) I would have probably jumped ship already.
Not so bothered about the TPM/secure boot thing so much (Though the future implications are disturbing)
But not being able to use a rather expensive CPU that I only bought 2 years ago is outrageous! (AMD Threadripper)
Its almost like a monopoly electricity company suddenly changing the supply voltage in a way that 90% of appliances, even ones a year or two old, cannot use and then telling its customers to just suck it up!
MS should not have the right to obsolete billions of dollar worth of computer equipment around the world on a whim. The overwhelming majority of which works just fine.
(How many billions? I can not begin to imagine. 10's, 100's. More even perhaps. It isn't just home PC's, its industrial and medical equipment too)
Perhaps the US government should do a standard oil job on MS and break it up!
:((
I am quite sure that MS was getting a lot of pressure from their OEM partners to push some form of required hardware upgrade. PC sales are way down and have been for years. The OEMs could count on a 5-7 year hardware refresh due to new Windows releases, plus the new PC purchases due to "my PC is running slow" which the peons don't realize was caused by Windows and not their PCs. A cleaning or fresh install would fix it, but the PC sellers are not going to tell them that!
Windows 10 has to a degree stopped the "slow down" issue. At least we have not seen as much of this in our Enterprise.
So the OEMs need sales! So now we see Windows 11 (when 10 was supposed to be the LAST Windows). Unfortunately, they are doing this all during a serious supply chain crisis.
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