To improve the security of the Windows platform, Windows 11 has more stringent system requirements than any previous edition. Windows 11 may be installed on computers that are not supported by Microsoft, but the company has added warnings to the installation and threatens to withhold future upgrades from these systems. As of now, the corporation hasn’t kept its promise. It’s soon to grow more difficult to use Windows 11 on these older machines.
For unsupported PCs, the latest Windows 11 update includes a “system requirements not fulfilled” watermark, similar to a watermark you would see when you’re running an early beta or unactivated version of Windows. The PC in the image below supports TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, however it is powered by an unsupported 6th generation Intel Core CPU. See the image below for more information.
This notice is likely to display if your PC does not fulfill one or more of the operating system’s key security criteria, such as a compatible Intel, AMD, or ARM CPU; Secure Boot support; and TPM 2.0 hardware or firmware support. Because of this, even if a PC meets the minimum requirements for Windows 11 but has Secure Boot or TPM disabled, it may display an error message (many motherboard BIOSes came with one or both disabled by default for years, though recent updates have changed those settings).
Build number 22000.588 of Windows 11 is presently being tested in the Windows Insider Release Preview channel, which is designated for updates that are expected to be released to all users in the next days and weeks. In other words, if you’re keeping your PC up to date, you’ll likely encounter this notice sooner rather than later.
Windows 11 beta releases had messages similar to this one in early February, indicating that Microsoft has been contemplating these changes for some time. It’s safe to say that the watermark has no effect on the operation of these Windows 11 PCs at this time. Registry adjustments should be able to remove the watermark if you’re not interested in using them. Even after you’ve installed the operating system, Microsoft may distinguish between supported and unsupported PCs and utilize that distinction to withhold updates or deactivate some Windows capabilities in the future, as seen by this new capability in Windows 10.
