Microsoft’s muddled messaging on Home windows 11 {hardware} compatibility necessities has been inflicting confusion for its prospects for the previous three years. This week, a easy replace to an outdated assist article sparked a frenzy of breathless headlines proclaiming that the corporate had given up on these {hardware} compatibility necessities and would quickly enable any outdated PC to improve.
That is not true. Nevertheless it did not cease some tech-focused blogs from getting swept up within the confusion.
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It is at all times arduous to determine Affected person Zero in one in all these incidents, however so far as I can inform that honor goes to the German PC-Welt. Its U.S. sister publication, PC World, translated the article for a U.S. viewers: “Regardless of years of warning, it is now formally attainable to put in Home windows 11 on PCs that do not meet necessities. [I]n an surprising and puzzling transfer, the corporate is issuing directions for putting in Home windows 11 on incompatible PCs.”
And the race was on.
None of that was true. Nothing modified this week. Nothing was surprising, puzzling, or gorgeous.
So, what really occurred? The actual story is about as anodyne as tech information will get, and typical of Microsoft’s bumbling communications on Home windows 11.
Somebody in Redmond up to date an outdated assist article, initially printed on launch day for Home windows 11. These updates have been exceedingly minor, consisting of some copy-editing clean-ups and the elimination of a bit on the outdated PC Well being Test app.
Then they launched the calmly edited article below a very totally different URL, with no reference to the sooner assist article. A tech blogger noticed it, assumed it was contemporary information, and leapt to some uncalled-for conclusions. Even a few of my well-connected colleagues noticed the protection and known as me, asking “Did Microsoft actually cave?”
I tracked down that older article, which remains to be accessible at Microsoft.com. You may learn it for your self right here: “Putting in Home windows 11 on gadgets that do not meet minimal system necessities.”
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Then I copied its textual content right into a Phrase doc, copied the textual content of this week’s article into one other Phrase doc, and used Microsoft’s personal redlining options to see the extraordinarily minor adjustments.
After a pair days of this, some red-faced tech author at Redmond little doubt heard from a supervisor who was uninterested in getting queries from different tech websites asking what was happening, and hooked up a notice to the highest of the newly printed model:
Essential: Up to date December 12, 2024
This assist article was initially printed on October 4, 2021, when Home windows 11 was first launched to the general public. On the time of publication and nonetheless at the moment, the intention behind this assist web page is to element issues for patrons to know the implications of putting in Home windows 11 in opposition to Microsoft’s suggestion on gadgets that do not meet system necessities for Home windows 11. In the event you put in Home windows 11 on a tool not assembly Home windows 11 system necessities, Microsoft recommends you roll again to Home windows 10 instantly.
Home windows 11 minimal system necessities stay unchanged and might be discovered within the article Home windows 11 specs, options, and laptop necessities.
Like I stated, nothing’s modified from final month or final 12 months or three years in the past. Microsoft actually does not need you to put in Home windows 11 on unsupported {hardware}, nevertheless it supplies mechanisms for doing so, primarily for the advantage of company prospects. You may learn all about it right here: “The best way to improve an ‘incompatible’ Home windows 10 PC to Home windows 11: Two methods.”
And here is a notice for that harried tech author at Microsoft HQ. One level in that article may want yet one more spherical of edits. The article says when Home windows 11 is put in on a tool that does not meet the minimal system necessities, a watermark is added to the Home windows 11 desktop. That was true for preview releases of Home windows 11 in 2021, however my testing in addition to experiences from lots of of readers says it is now not true in 2024 (quickly to be 2025).
I am going to let you recognize if that article will get up to date.
