Info Win 11 Requirements and what you can do to resolve problems

[Colif]

Windows 11 requirements needed to Install

Basic Essentials

• CPU - Dual core or better at 1ghz or faster, 64bit processor
• RAM - 4gb
• Storage - 64gb or more
• GPU - DX 12 capable
• Display Over 9" with 720p

Extra essentials

• Secure Boot
• UEFI boot method
• Trusted Platform Module 2
• Certain Intel & AMD CPU

Secure Boot & UEFI Boot Method

Windows 11 needs your PC to be set up in GPT drive format with UEFI boot method and capable of using Secure boot - it need not be enabled.

Switching to UEFI boot method without swapping drives to GPT first can leave PC unable to boot, on Gigabyte boards.

How to check if you have GPT or MBR drives

1. open cmd (admin)
2. type "diskpart" and press enter
3. type list disk and press enter
4. any drives with an asterix under GPT is already in GPT format

You can swap drive formats by using a tool in windows - How to use MBR2GPT

Secure Boot

Each motherboard is different which is always fun, but it means I won't be telling you how to turn on Secure Boot in your bios. It should show in the manual. Win 11 simply needs the PC to be capable of enabling secure boot, its not essential to turn it on.

Trusted Platform Module 2

TPM (Trusted Platform Module) is a computer chip (microcontroller) that can securely store artifacts used to authenticate the platform (your PC or laptop). These artifacts can include passwords, certificates, or encryption keys. A TPM can also be used to store platform measurements that help ensure that the platform remains trustworthy.

Trusted Platform Module Summary

There are 2 main types of TPM, Discrete and Firmware.
Discrete is an actual chip on the motherboard
Firmware is built into your CPU so no chip required
AMD refer to fTPM by its proper name while Intel 's name for fTPM is Platform Trust Technology

Different types of TPM
Where TPM shows in Windows if its activated
Microsoft's reasoning for requiring it


CPU Requirement

This is a moving target but so far here are the models = Compatible CPU

Note: I would only do some of these steps if you actually trying to install win 11 now, not just preparing for it as its still at least 4 months until its out so don't rush. Converting to gpt and secure boot could all be fixed up if you clean install win 11. Don't break windows trying to get the next one... its not here yet


Explanation of terms

Spoiler

UEFI - Unified Extensible Firmware Interface

If your PC is less than 11 years old, you have a UEFI bios now

In 2006 or so Intel decided the bios as it was at time was too limited and needed to be replaced so that it supported newer technologies as they were invented
By about 2009 a consortium of hardware makers had combined to create UEFI standard

Old bios were limited, they didn't know what a mouse was for, so everything was keyboard driven
they weren't expandable, everything had to fit in a small amount of memory
they only supported Master Boot Record (MBR) which can only have 4 partitions per drive (there are tricks to get around this) and max drive size is 2.2 tb

UEFI bios overcame all the limitations of legacy bios (as it came to be called)
it supports mouse, it has a GUI so it looks better than previous bios could
Its expandable, it can be added to to grow as new hardware is created. Such as NVME drives
UEFI supports MBR & GPT Drives

GPT = GUID Partition Table
GUID = Global Unique ID = Every GPT drive on earth has a unique ID
GPT drives can have a max of 255 partitions on them
Max size of a GPT drive/partition is 18.8 Million TB

 

[Colif]

Note: above requirements are for updating to Windows 11 via Windows Update.

To install or update via ISO, you just need:
TPM 1.2 enabled,
64GB minimum storage,
4GB RAM,
dual-core CPU.

So once ISO are available you can try to install. The hardware is officially not supported but they can't stop people who at least pass those requirements.