Windows 11 - don't get too excited, yet!

On 28th June 2021, Microsoft announced the launch of Windows 11 - a slick new update to the Windows operating system.

This, in itself, was a departure for Microsoft as Windows 10 was supposed to be the 'final' version of Windows with regular updates and enhancements being released for eternity.

The announcement of Windows 11 was met with much excitement from the tech community and, on the surface, it looked very modern and reports from those who had tried leaked versions of Windows 11 said that it ran faster and smoother than Windows 10.

However, this excitement was short-lived, as Microsoft released a tool that you could download to check that your current PC was compatible with Windows 11. Unfortunately, many discovered that their fairly new and quite powerful PCs were unsupported. Even current machines that were for sale on Microsoft's on site were incompatible.

Why? Well, for two reasons, the first understandable. The second not so much.

Firstly, Windows 11 requires the processor to have a security feature called TPM 2.0 installed. This provides hardware support for various encryption protocols. The good news is that TPM 2.0 has been around for quite a while now, even if it is not enabled by default on some systems. Switching it on requires an adventure into the BIOS settings, but this in itself is not too difficult.

The second requirement is, however, more difficult to understand and overcome. Microsoft have released a list of processors that it deems to be compatible with Windows 11 - anything not on this list will be prevented from installing the new operating system. Unfortunately, as of the date of this blog, Microsoft has not released the reasons why these processors have been chosen, even though they seem perfectly powerful enough to run the new operating system.

This means that, currently, literally millions of computers around the world will not be able to run Windows 11. Microsoft have currently gone quiet after a deluge of complaints and have removed the compatibility checker app from their website.

The release of Windows 11 is not due until Christmas 2021 so they have plenty of time to resolve this - let's just hope they do.