Windows 11 May be the Worst Planned Obsolescence We've Seen

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The latest version of macOS will run on computers as old as the 2013 Mac Pro. Windows 11 may not run on a new PC purchased in 2018, just three years ago. It may not even run on computers released just last year. Is it such a large technical marvel that it simply requires that kind of power? No, not at all. It’s not bringing anything to the table that modders, macOS, or certain Linux distributions and customizations have had for years. So what’s the problem?

One theory? Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are suffering.

Apple controls both the distribution of their operating systems and the hardware. It’s why your iPhone will get updates for more than 5 years, and your Mac Pro from 2013 can run Apple’s latest operating system. Apple wants you to buy new hardware, but it’s not their only business. They own the App Store, and want you buying apps. You can only reliably do that if you’re on the latest OS. Apple has a fiscal benefit for keeping you up to date.

OEMs do not.

All they do is sell hardware. So what happens when someone tries to use their Windows PC for more than three years? They lose a potential sale. OEMs have deals with Microsoft, and, much in the way a lobbyist can influence policy by greasing the wheels with a politician, OEMs can drive Microsoft’s Windows distribution. They need each other, but OEMs could survive without Microsoft. Windows, however, wouldn’t have spread without them.

So Microsoft says they started enforcing a requirement that could cut out millions of active and perfectly good PCs for “security reasons.” But it seems like it’s more for monetary reasons.

Perhaps that’s why the arbitrary requirement isn’t too difficult to bypass.

In This Article:

Microsoft’s Windows 11 Blunder

Windows 11 looks amazing. The new, clean glass design, improved settings panel, and window management options will be a favorite among PC users. I’ve heard it’s as difficult to get the eGPU setup working on Windows 11 as it is on Windows 10, so I’ll likely upgrade my Boot Camp gaming setup to Windows 11… just as soon as I put in the time to get it working on Windows 10 (one of these weekends!). I’m looking forward to using it, it seems to fix a few things I really hated about Windows 10, mainly the way settings are a bit all over the place.

Windows 11 looks great, and it can run on a relatively basic PC from many years ago… that is, if Microsoft hadn’t added an arbitrary processor requirement that makes most PCs more than 1-3 years old obsolete. PCs released in 2019 and even 2020 may not be able to run Windows 11.

Windows 11 Arbitrary Requirements:

Intel Coffee Lake S (8th gen) minimum
- This first went on sale for desktops in 2017, laptops would start getting it later, often in 2018 or 2019
- The 2019 MacBook Pro, Apple’s latest and greatest MacBook Pro, is only using 9th generation Coffee Lake processors.
AMD Zen 2 Architecture
- First launched in July of 2019
- The Zen 3 is AMD’s current generation processor, launched in November of 2020
TPM (Trusted Platform Module) version 2.0
- This is the arbitrary measure that makes all of the rest of Microsoft’s requirements moot. All processors with this are new, and therefore blow past the actual system requirements below.
These may not be the only requirements. Microsoft is not being clear, but other items may block your PC from an upgrade, even if it meets the above requirements.

Windows 11 Non-Arbitrary Requirements

1GHz or faster processor
4GB of RAM
64GB of storage
DirectX 12+ compatibility
Internet connection during setup (Microsoft account and internet connection now required during initial setup)
PC Must be running already Windows 10, version 20H1 or greater

Overpowered Minimum

The minimum processor speed for running Windows 11 is just 1GHz. The slowest 8th generation Coffee Lake processor from Intel is a 6-core Core i5 with a 1.7GHz processor. It’s even more insane when you go over to the AMD side. There the “slowest” clock rate is 2.7GHz on a 64 core, 128 thread Ryzen Threadripper Pro. That processor is a beast. It’s absolutely insane to use it for anything but a workstation or server setup. The clock rate is lowered to account for the heat of all of those cores. And still, it’s nearly three times as fast as the bare minimum clock rate.

Coffee Lake supports up to 128GB of RAM, an ungodly amount of memory for a consumer PC (but useful for workstations and servers). Most people need at most 16GB, perhaps 32GB. Some video editors, gamers, or programmers may like 64GB, but it’s certainly not necessary. Windows 11 requires 4GB of RAM. Just 4GB. The last time an Intel processor had a maximum amount of RAM was on a 32 bit chipset from before 2010.

Storage? My rather small SD card for my camera has 64GB of storage. My micro SD card for my Nintendo Switch has 128GB of storage. It’s normal to see even small, budget PCs made just for web browsing coming with only 128GB of storage. 64GB of storage is a hurdle that would have been easy to jump over in 2002.

So all processors that Windows requires blow past the actual minimum requirements by far. The requirement of TPM 2.0 has nothing to do with the functionality of Windows 11. In fact, with a lot of tweaking, a team of engineering students got Windows 11 running on an old Windows phone from 2015. Microsoft didn’t build Windows around that TPM 2.0 requirement.

Security Reasons?

Basically, TPM is a security feature. It allows you to boot from an encrypted drive. It can be built in to your processor or motherboard. Apple computers have a version of this with their T2 chips in Macs, which allows more secure booting from FileVault-encrypted drives. However, macOS still runs on less secure Macs because, well, the security is the feature, not the requirement. If you want the hardware security of TPM 2.0 or a T2 chip, you upgrade for that. Instead, Microsoft is requiring it. They say it’s for security reasons, and, surely, TPM-protected PCs are more secure, but that doesn’t have to be an OS requirement. In fact, if Microsoft really cared about security, they’d stop re-using Windows code from the early 90’s, instead of forcing people to throw out their perfectly good PCs.

Windows 11 works fine if you bypass the TPM requirements during installation. This suggests that Microsoft added it quickly. They didn’t build Windows around this requirement, they added it in. In fact, since Windows 11 was in development before TPM 2.0 chips, it wouldn’t have been possible to make it an actual requirement for the core functionality of Windows.

It’s relatively easy to bypass TPM requirements. If you run Windows in a virtual machine, like some people choose to run Windows on a Mac through Parallels or VMWare Fusion, then the requirement is ignored automatically. Microsoft built in ways to bypass this by default.

TPM 2.0 clearly isn’t a requirement for the operating system to work. Maybe it’s a “requirement” to help PC manufacturers who have been struggling with higher costs of chips during the chip shortage and shrinking margins though. This seems like a measure to sell more PCs and, by extension, create mountains of e-waste as perfectly good computers become obsolete.

Bypassing TPM 2.0 Requirements

Alright, I’m not going to walk you through these steps because it’s a bit of a pain in the ass. But, hey, when is something in Windows not a pain in the ass? If you want to make your Caps Lock key a Control key or swap your Alt and “Windows” key to match macOS’s easier-to-reach shortcuts you have to do registry edits and restart your computer.

Speaking of which, fixing Microsoft’s consumer-hostile and completely arbitrary TPM requirements is just an issue of… you guessed it, mucking about in your registry.

Or perhaps some custom images.

You can find a fantastic guide, with screenshots and descriptions, over at Windows Report. You can also find more information on the potential “problems” with your PC here. Basically, TPM 2.0 may be in your hardware, but disabled. You’ll have to figure out how to enable it for your machine before attempting to upgrade.

You have two options if you don’t have a chipset with TPM 2.0. First, you can modify your registry to add a “bypassSecureBootCheck” flag.You’d do this via the command prompt during setup, right when Microsoft tries to banish your likely still shiny and new computer from updating.

The other option is to download a Windows 11 ISO, mount it, modify it, re-package it, doing the same to a Windows 10 ISO, run your modified Windows 10 ISO from a bootable drive, and use that to install Windows 11. That’s more complicated, the registry edit is easier, but registry edits can be changed, and that may cause problems later. However, this is highly unlikely, as Microsoft bypasses the TPM requirements out of the box for virtual machines.

What to Do?

Shout into a pillow? Hope legislators go after Microsoft? Perhaps join a class-action lawsuit over planned obsolescence? There’s not much you can do besides grin and bear it though. If your machine can’t run Windows 11, and you’re not afraid of potentially being completely locked out of your PC, then definitely try one of the bypass methods. My MacBook Pro technically can run it, but it likely won’t work well with the changes necessary to get Windows to run in Boot Camp with an eGPU, so I’ll likely have to do some registry hacking myself. It’s not too difficult, but if this is your only machine and you need it for work, you may want to just give up, buy a new PC, and consider switching to a Mac.

Microsoft may have done this solely to cave to OEMs and help them boost sales. Macs have been quite popular, and have been maintaining that popularity. Though the switch to Apple Silicon may hurt Apple’s future prospects, the fact of the matter is, they’re doing better than most PC manufacturers. Microsoft will always have their OEMs to take care of. This won’t be the last time Microsoft forces arbitrary requirements, potentially to boost OEM sales.

Windows 11 May be the Worst Planned Obsolescence We’ve Seen