Microsoft is releasing Windows 11 version which can be upgraded from Windows 10, this upgraded will be a free one for a period of 1 year, but the catch is that you need to have a computer which is compatible with Windows 11.
Minimum system requirement for Windows 11
Following are the requirements for Windows 11:
Processor : 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC)
Memory : 4 GB RAM
Storage : 64 GB or larger storage device
System firmware : UEFI, Secure Boot capable
TPM : Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0
Graphics card : DirectX 12 compatible graphics / WDDM 2.x
Display : >9” with HD Resolution (720p)
Internet connection : Microsoft account and internet connectivity required for setup for Windows 11 Home
Windows 11 is a 64 bit only Operating system, hence there is a specific requirement for a compatible 64-bit processor.
Not all features are going to work with your old computer, to check and verify which one are going to work check system requirements
Microsoft will be soon rolling out Windows 11 as feature update the same usual way we are using for Windows 10 as of date, but keep in mind that our systems might not be compatible or few features might not run.
Check for Hardware compatibility
You need to download Windows PC Health Check provided by Microsoft. Use the following link to download the setup provided by Microsoft. You will be able to download the file with following name WindowsPCHealthCheckSetup.msi.
Once downloaded, launch it to install. This will launch Windows PC Health Check Setup, agree the license agreements and click Install.
You will get message “Windows PC Health Check is installed”, click on Finish to launch the application.
PC Health Check once launched will show you PC health at a glance with lots of other information such as Tips on PC Health and to know more on Windows 11.
We are interested with Windows 11 compatibility check to check if this PC meets the system requirements, click on Check now.
As I tested this on a system which is approximately 4-5 years old, seems like the CPU processor is not supported for Windows 11 upgrade, hence I got the message “The processor isn’t supported for Windows 11. While this PC doesn’t meet the system requitements to run Windows 11, you’ll keep getting Windows 10 updates”.
This comes as a setback for lot of us if they are thinking that they can simply upgrade themselves to the higher version of Windows without having any issues.