Check if your PC is compatible with the Microsoft Windows 11 tool

Virtualization Based Security features, such as HVCI/Memory Integrity, are now a requirement for Windows 11; Insider builds are not enforcing these requirements for now.

Update on Windows 11 minimum system requirements
https://blogs.windows.com/windows-i...te-on-windows-11-minimum-system-requirements/

Virtualization based security level is one step below the 'Secured-core PC' level.

 

Time to check what they actually make their profit on these days.
Know where most of their license money comes from? Guess how those licenses work.

 

Ask yourself those same things.

 

yeah memory integrity, how to frack a lot of working devices with old drivers.

 

Hey cmon man, don't yknow money is only evil if you're bad at getting it?

 

Yes, they used to put it all under umbrella term Device Guard, but now it's HVCI code integrity - and it seems to work best with Intel MBEC (Mode-based execute control for EPT), which is only available since Skylake X / Kaby Lake, or AMD GMET (Guest-mode execute trap for NPT), available since Zen 2.

MBEC (Mode Based Execution Control) the culprit why only more modern CPUs can run Windows 11

There are also UEFI features that require UEFI 2.5/2.6 specs from 2015-2016.

SLAT / IOMMU are availablie since Intel Yorkfield (VT-d) and AMD K10 (Vi) from 2007-2008.

 

Spoiler

No PC is compatible with Windows 11!

 

well, I don't see why I should keep that useless thing disable on my system. I repeat, good for new systems, good for enterprise/servers/critical stuff. No good and useless for users that don't have any real valid reason to upgrade.

 

Azure, Office, Windows enterprise contracts, Game Pass etc.
OEM and retail licenses are not the big income, OEM doesn't cost much and those who got a retail license will get it as a free upgrade regardless, there is much more money to gain by getting people to take some of the subscriptions.

 

I must be in the crazy minority that loves they finally bring all of this to mainstream users. If they stick to them until the bitter end, Windows 11 will be a significant jump in performance, security and reliability from Windows 10, and I didn't expect that after seeing their lame presentation.

 

You don't seem to understand where the profit from Windows 11 comes from. The profit comes from control, consolidation, data collection, etc. MS have all the incentive in the world to push Win 11 hard, even if it was hardly any different than Windows 10. Getting mindshare and getting people to want to use the Win ecosystem matters a lot more than you think, and you're wrong to think that it makes no difference to their bottom line whether people want to use Win 10 or 11.

They wouldn't be doing exactly what they're doing right now if they didn't calculate that it results in more profit long term.

 

Already posted:

https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/c...t-windows-11-tool.438500/page-11#post-5924782

 

I guess you are excited about this seeing as you posted the same message three times in three separate threads... xD

In this thread? I went back and looked and cannot find it... I do have.. I think two users muted so maybe I am missing it because of that, that said I was replying to a specific user, not announcing it for everyone.

 

In Windows 10 HVCI code integrity can work without MBEC/GMET, and thus not require at least Skylake and Zen 2, though with some performance impact:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...ualization-based-protection-of-code-integrity

Note
Because it makes use of Mode Based Execution Control, HVCI works better with Intel Kaby Lake or AMD Zen 2 CPUs and newer. Processors without MBEC will rely on an emulation of this feature, called Restricted User Mode, which has a bigger impact on performance.​

Unfortunately UEFI requirements will likely stay, because UEFI firmware released before 2016 is unlikely to be updated to the newer specs. Hopefully 'hackintosh' UEFI emulators can do something about it...


BTW, UEFI firmware support in the PC market has been in abysmal state. Most motherboard and system vendors only make small bugfix updates during first few years after release. Just a few manufacturers, like ASUS, GigaByte and MSI, would hold on for a several more years.

OTOH Apple made some major UEFI firmware updates for Intel-based 2009 Mac Pro models years after release, downporting important features like NVMe boot from the later model...

All of this virtualization has been already available in Windows 10 since the beginning and is turned on by default on supporting PCs since 2019.

PDF: Overview of Windows 10 Requirements for TPM, HVCI and SecureBoot - UEFI Spring Plugfest 2015​

The initial specs for highly secure Windows devices were devised in 2017, the 'Secured-core PC' specs were published in 2019, and understood to be applicable to servers and corporate environments with additional security requirements.

Microsoft brings advanced hardware security to Server and Edge with Secured-core ​

Then all of sudden, in year 2021 they start to require compliance to that 2017-2019 spec from all existing home and corporate desktops - so anything before 2019 from AMD and before 2017 from Intel is suddenly not compatible with the newest revision of Windows?

Well, good luck with that.

Even Apple (!!!) still supports 2013-2015 Intel-based Mac models in the latest macOS Monterey. The Windows community can be extremely disloyal, it has been proved multiple times over the last decades - so if Microsoft thought their taking the Apple path of planned obsolescence to the extreme, even for the reasons of advancing the common good, will be met with an unilateral approval typical of the Apple user community... all of this sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

 

@DmitryKo I'm certain they know that no matter what they do, people will stick with the previous version of Windows if they want to, so they might as well go full on and have a clean codebase to work with for the next decade.

The user "disloyalty" might be also used internally to justify that since users will be "disloyal", we might as well go on as planned nonetheless.

 

Doesn't matter where profit from Windows 11 comes from when subscriptions are their largest income, they want you to use office, one drive, game pass and so on, that is where the long term profit is.
If they wanted to push Windows 11 hard they are doing it wrong btw.

 

It's the usual with every new Windows version besides that Bill Gates is evil.

Getting the codebase cleaned up for Windows ahead in time where also my thoughts, tbh. though, that could probably have been done in a more elegant way to avoid the current confusion.

 

Like all things that Apple does, Microsoft also affects open source software. I would love if the whole SecureBoot/TPM setup was easier on Linux, instead of the clusterf*ck it is right now. Hopefully a mainstream OS doing something about this will push things in that direction.

 

It's not just some 'people' - that could easily become the majority of Windows users, if you recall Vista and 8.x situation where users stayed on their XP or 7 hardware forever, and even new devices were routinely downgraded to to a previous version.

Sure, just ignore your user base and let's hope Android, iOS and macOS devices would not eat into Windows market share. That strategy surely worked great for Windows 8.x and early Windows 10...

Well, where's the cleanup, exaclty? They're using virtualization hardware to isolate existing insecure code, instead of cleaning it up.

Overview of Windows 10 Requirements for TPM, HVCI and SecureBoot - UEFI Spring Plugfest 2015

 

Windows 10 will ensure MS will not lose desktop market share. They're going to support it for quite a few years to come. When people buy new computers over the years, W11 will gain more and more users. MS always had the policy of requiring OEMs to only ship systems bundled with the latest Windows version. MS also stops selling retail versions of previous versions of Windows, even if they still support them otherwise.