Windows 11 the real reason for the new system requirements

It's been a week since Microsoft announced Windows 11. Windows is getting a new design, a new notification center, Android app support, and improvements in general. But the one change in Windows 11 that has caused a lot of backlash is the new system requirements.

RAM and storage requirements have doubled to 4 GB and 32 GB, respectively, but this does not seem to be a problem. There are two major reasons people are concerned, the TPM requirement and the CPU requirements.

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At first glance, the CPU requirements don't seem out of the ordinary. The only difference between the Windows 11 and Windows 10 requirements is that 32-bit CPUs are no longer supported, nor are their single-core processors.

But then Microsoft published a list of supported CPUs, and this list is much more extreme. According to the list , Intel 8th generation and newer are supported, as are AMD Zen 2 APUs. If you have a three-year-old PC, it probably won't be suitable for Windows 11.

This change was not “elegant.” When the company first introduced the new operating system, it didn’t mention anything about it. All the new requirements were discovered in the documentation. Four days later, Microsoft justified itself in a blog post. The company briefly states that it changed things for three reasons: security, reliability, and compatibility.

Obviously, Microsoft could include older computers, but there is another key reason that is not mentioned anywhere. Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer.

The Redmond company wants you to buy a new computer every five years or so.

When Microsoft started offering free Windows 10 upgrades, everyone was wondering how it could make money from Windows. Well, it generates revenue from Windows by selling OEM licenses. This is the fee that each manufacturer pays per machine to run Windows on it.

The change that Windows 11 is trying to make is great, and probably one of the biggest in the history of Windows. However, it is important to note that Windows requirements have not changed substantially for a long time.

Windows 10 was released six years ago on July 29, 2015. There have been some minor changes to the requirements, especially for new computers. Indeed, a year later, Microsoft began to want TPM 2.0. A little later, he wanted 64-bit CPUs.

However, the requirements dating back to Windows 7, which were released in 2009, have been retained. This is because Windows 10 had a different purpose than any other version of the operating system prior to this release.

The goal was to bring all Windows users into one version. At that time, Microsoft had some very ambitious plans. He wanted over a billion Windows 10 devices in two to three years, and those devices would include computers, phones, game consoles, augmented reality devices,
IoT and others.

It took a lot longer to reach one billion devices. Today, Windows 10 is installed on 1,3 billion devices.

In the early 2000s, computers were pretty good. By the time Windows XP support ended, well over a decade after its release, there were still many computers running the older operating system. Because these people had no reason to upgrade their computer. It worked just fine. This put Microsoft in a difficult position because it wanted to sell Windows Vista, and later Windows 7.

Anyway, this is why Windows 10 has not changed the system requirements that have existed since 2009.

For the past six years, Windows 10 has been free. We will not talk about the fact that nothing is free at the expense of our privacy because our issue is different.

Windows 10 was and is free for those using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. This meant that if you bought a computer between 2009 and 2015, you had a free upgrade to Windows 10. And if you bought a computer before 2009 and upgraded to Windows 7, you would still have a free upgrade.

It was unprecedented. Before that, you should pay at least 100 euros for the upgrade, maybe less depending on the version, when you bought it and much more.

But Microsoft owes us nothing. If it wants to limit Windows 11 to a subset of computers already in circulation, so you have to buy a new one, it has every right to do so. Most will continue to work with Windows 10.

Windows 10 will continue to be supported until October 14, 2025. If you can't upgrade your PC to Windows 11, you'll still be fine for the next four years. What can Windows 11 do that Windows 10 can't?

When Microsoft explained why the requirements for Windows 11 are what it is, it also said that they could change. The post made it clear that Intel 6th generation and older processors, and AMD pre-Zen processors, would not be supported. However, Intel 7th generation and AMD Zen 1 may be supported.
Maybe Microsoft is making a "discount" on the requirements. The question is, how far will Microsoft really go?

giorgos

George is still wondering what he is doing here….