Microsoft’s muddled messaging on Home windows 11 {hardware} compatibility necessities has been inflicting confusion for its clients for the previous three years. This week, a easy replace to an outdated help article sparked a frenzy of breathless headlines proclaiming that the corporate had given up on these {hardware} compatibility necessities and would quickly enable any outdated PC to improve.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. However it did not cease some tech-focused blogs from getting swept up within the confusion.
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It is all the time arduous to determine Affected person Zero in considered one of 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 doable to put in Home windows 11 on PCs that do not meet necessities. [I]n an sudden 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 sudden, puzzling, or gorgeous.
So, what really occurred? The true 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Somebody in Redmond up to date an outdated help article, initially revealed on launch day for Home windows 11. These newest updates have been exceedingly minor, consisting of some copy-editing clean-ups and the elimination of a piece on the outdated PC Well being Test app.
Then they launched the calmly edited article underneath a very completely different URL, with no reference to the sooner help 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 referred to as me, asking “Did Microsoft actually cave?”
I tracked down an older copy of that article, which was nonetheless out there at Microsoft.com however seems to have since been deleted.
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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 question heard from a supervisor who was bored with getting queries from different tech websites asking what was happening, and hooked up a be aware to the highest of the newly revealed model:
Essential: Up to date December 12, 2024
This help article was initially revealed on October 4, 2021, when Home windows 11 was first launched to the general public. On the time of publication and nonetheless at present, the intention behind this help web page is to element concerns for patrons to grasp the implications of putting in Home windows 11 towards Microsoft’s advice on units that do not meet system necessities for Home windows 11. Should 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 will be discovered within the article Home windows 11 specs, options, and laptop necessities.
Like I mentioned, nothing’s modified from final month or final yr 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 clients. You’ll be able to learn all about it right here: “How you can improve an ‘incompatible’ Home windows 10 PC to Home windows 11: Two methods.”
And this is a be aware 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 and early 2022, however to my information it was by no means utilized to official releases. My testing in addition to experiences from a whole bunch of readers says it isn’t occurring on launched variations of Home windows 11 in 2024 (quickly to be 2025).
I am going to let you understand if that article will get up to date.
