Microsoft has announced Windows 11, the successor to Windows 10, and of course, it’s impeccable in its updated interface and new features. Windows 11 will be released in the fall of 2021. In addition, it will be possible to upgrade for free from Windows 10. An insider build of Windows 11 is already available. Microsoft has released a particular PC Health Check utility to check if a computer or laptop is suitable for Windows 11.
Windows 11 PC minimum system requirements
- Processor: 1 GHz with two or more cores, x64-bit only or System on a Chip (SoC).
- Memory capacity: 4 GB of RAM.
- Disk space: 64 GB or more.
- System Firmware: UEFI, Secure Boot.
- TPM: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 is likely to be downgraded from version 1.2.
- Video card: Compatible with DirectX 12 / WDDM 2.x.
- Display: 720p display over 9 inches, 8-bit per colour channel.
- Internet: Microsoft account and Internet connection are required to install Windows 11 Home. PRO version is possible without the Internet.
Technical Requirements for Specific Features in Windows 11
The following hardware guidelines must be followed for Windows 11 to get the most of the new features, some of which improve performance.
- 5G support: 5G modem needed.
- Auto HDR: HDR monitor required.
- To Go, BitLocker Requires a USB device (Windows Pro and above only).
- Hyper-V: Requires processor with SLAT level 2 address translation capabilities (Windows Pro and above only).
- DirectStorage: Requires 1TB or more NVMe SSD to store and run games using the Standard NVM Express Controller driver and GPU with DirectX 12 Ultimate compatibility.
- Presence: Requires a presence sensor that can detect the distance from the device to a person.
- Intelligent Video Conferencing: Intelligent video conferencing requires a video camera, microphone, and speaker.
- Mute / Unmute from Taskbar: One click on the microphone icon turns off sound recording in all applications.
- Teams: This Will be built-in by default and requires a microphone and camera.
- Wake on Voice: Requires modern standby power model and microphone.
- Wi-Fi 6E requires new hardware, a WLAN IHV driver, and a Wi-Fi 6E router.
- Windows Projection: Requires a display adapter that supports Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 2.0 and a Wi-Fi adapter that supports Wi-Fi Direct.
Deleted and changed features
With a free upgrade from Windows 10 or a fresh installation of Windows 11, the following features will be removed and become secondary:
- Cortana: Will no longer be included in a startup or pinned to the taskbar.
- Desktop wallpaper: Cannot be moved to or from the device when logged in with a Microsoft account.
- Internet Explorer: Will be disabled but not removed.
- Math Input Panel: Will be removed. It will be possible to install if necessary.
- News and Interests: New features have been added, and the widget has changed.
- Status Brief: Removed from the lock screen.
- S Mode: Now only available for Windows 11 Home.
- Start Menu: This Will be heavily changed in Windows 11.
- Tablet mode: Removed and added new features and functionality.
- Taskbar: There are no more people; alignment to the bottom of the screen is the only correct place. You won’t be able to pin the taskbar to the side.
- Wallet: deleted.
- 3D Viewer: Removed. It can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.
- OneNote: Deleted. It can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.
- Paint 3D: Removed. It can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.
- Skype: removed. It can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.
Windows 10 vs Windows 11
- Windows 10 needed any x32 and x64 processors. For Windows 11, only x64 with two cores from 1 GHz.
- Windows 10 with an x32 processor could run even with 1 GB of RAM, and since Windows 11 only has an X64 bit processor, at least 4 GB of RAM is needed.
- The disk capacity has become more significant for Windows 11 from 64 GB. Windows 10 had 16 GB for 32-bit or 20 GB for 64-bit OS.
- Windows 10 does not require TPM, while in Windows 11, these are the minimum requirements.
- Graphics in Windows 11 starts with DirectX 12, and in Windows 10, it was DirectX 9.
The minimum system requirements for Windows 11 say that you need a TPM module, which caused a stir among many. When checking through the PC Health Check, many people get the error “It is impossible to start Windows 11 on this computer “, even when the computer or laptop has this TPM 2.0 chip and meets all the specified minimum requirements for Windows 11. This is because PC Health Check is very buggy, and Microsoft is aware of the problems. It would be best if you waited until they updated it.
In addition, if you see an error about the incompatibility of a PC with Windows 11, then by default, TPM may be disabled in the BIOS and must be enabled.
