Windows 11 (maybe)

[CosmicCruncher]

So who else is going to watch the super exciting What's next for Windows event on Thursday 24th July at 16:00 BST?

Experience the Power of AI with Windows 11 OS, Computers & Apps | Microsoft Windows

Experience the latest Microsoft Windows 11 features. Learn how our latest Windows OS gives you more ways to work, play and create.

www.microsoft.com

Have seen a few leaks of so called 'Windows 11' online, seems like a slightly reworked Windows 10 from what I've seen so far but they are only alpha builds. I hear rounded corners are in the works

A couple of things that I would really like:

• More UI consistency, Win 10 is still a bit of a mess in this regard especially when trying to navigate Settings / Control Panel.
• I still miss the aero glass from Win Vista / 7 but sadly doubt this will be coming back.
• Tabbed Windows Explorer would be very nice.
• Larger window borders and more consistent title bar sizes / styles.

 

[Retro]

Damn, it's during the last hour of my work shift. Howver, I'm working from home, so perhaps I can sneak it in between phone calls...

The one thing I really like about W10 is its styling and the square-edged corners, in particular, something that no OS since XP had. Now they're going back to rounded corners, which is gonna piss me off.

 

[chrisns]

Only one thing I really want to see:

• press F5, enter "L97:X97" and it starts up a copy of Windows XP

 

[CosmicCruncher]

Only one thing I really want to see:

• press F5, enter "L97:X97" and it starts up a copy of Windows XP

Windows 7 actually had that feature, kind of, in the form of XP mode.

 

[Retro]

My ancient 2700K based PC actually won’t run W11 according to the compatibility check tool. However, it doesn’t say where it falls down.

Looking at the requirements, it’s got everything except for the TPM chip, so perhaps it’s that. The problem could even be that my CPU doesn’t have the required instruction sets that came out later, who knows.

Regardless, it’s annoying to have to upgrade when my system still has plenty of processing power left in it.

 

[chrisgreen]

Just looked, my current system is fine, except for the TPM chip. I have a header for Gigabyte's GC-TPM2.0_S TPM module, which is currently impossible to buy. Without it, would seem that upgrading to Win11 on my existing board is a no-go, so I would work on the basis that Windows 11 is a no-go, as I have no plans to rebuild my PC any time soon.

 

[chrisgreen]

Actually - scrub that - turns out there a TPM 2.0 module built into my AMD CPU. Needs to be activated in BIOS, but apparently is sufficient to keep Windows 11 happy.

 

[CosmicCruncher]

Here some Windows 11 info I collated this morning that may help shed some light on things.

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Windows 10 Ongoing Support

Supported until 14/10/2025
Will run in parallel to Windows 11. Windows 10 21H2 still expected second half of 2021. Doesn't clarify if semi-annual feature updates will continue for remainder of its life though.

Source - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mic...perating-system-for-hybrid-work-and-learning/

Windows 11

Upgrades
Windows 10 can be updated to Windows 11 when released same as a normal feature update. Plan is for this to be a free upgrade for home users.

Hardware Requirements
There are new minimum hardware requirements for Windows 11. In order to run Windows 11, devices must meet the following specifications. 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.

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)

Soft Floor:
· Security: TPMVersion >= 2.0
· CPU Generation

Intel CPU support list - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...pported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors

AMD CPU support list - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...supported/windows-11-supported-amd-processors

Ongoing Updates
Looks to be moving to annual feature updates instead of semi-annual.

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For TPM, if you don't have a discreet hardware based one, (not much consumer grade kit does, some motherboards do have a header for a proprietary module) as @chrisgreen says there is a firmware based implementation for more recent processors. Intel Platform Trust Technology (IPTT) or AMD CPU fTPM. If supported there should be a setting in the BIOS for this. I believe Intel introduced this from 4th gen (Haswell) onwards, I'm not sure how far back the AMD solution dates. Again v2.0 is a soft requirement so not strictly needed but the previous v1.2 is a hard requirement.

Also note as above Windows 10 will still be around for some time, so if you do have older pre 4th gen hardware without any form of TPM you can keep running Win 10 for quite some time and chances are you will be ready for a hardware upgrade by 2025. You will also notice in the soft requirements that there are no processors earlier than 8th gen Intel or 2nd gen Ryzen listed in the compatibility list from MS, this means you may get a warning when trying to upgrade / install Win 11 but it should in theory still function.

 

[CosmicCruncher]

So in typical Microsoft fashion, the article I took the above system requirements from has now been revised to mandate TPM v2.0.

I know some older v1.2 machines can be updated to v2.0 but this will vary by hardware.

Compatibility for Windows 11- Compatibility Cookbook

Learn how to enable your apps are compatible for Windows 11

docs.microsoft.com

 

[Retro]

This is garbage. TPM shouldn’t be mandatory on a consumer PC.

 

[CosmicCruncher]

Interesting post here showing some early signs of potential 7th Gen Intel CPU support. Nothing guaranteed though and it doesn't change the TPM requirements. It does give a bit more information on the decisions MS are making.

Update on Windows 11 minimum system requirements

Windows Insiders, Today we’re releasing our first Insider build for Windows 11, and we’re looking forward to the insight that comes from you installing and using on a variety of your PCs. Last week’s

blogs.windows.com

 

[Retro]

The joke is that they’re making a big deal of making the compatibility app more informative, like it’s some major technical challenge, when in reality it’s trivial. All it says now is that it’s incompatible.

Also, they talk about 7nth gen processors a lot. These seem to be the minimum spec, so does that mean that my second gen is missing required instructions or other features? I’d really like to know.

 

[CosmicCruncher]

Minimum spec is actually 8th Gen, 7th is speculation as we don't know if they will be supported in the final release. Also note first Gen Ryzen processors don't make the cut.