OK, then. I’m  a little puzzled. Last month, I upgraded one of my desktops to a rockin’ configuration. I did this specifically to prepare for yesterday’s Windows 11 GA date. That PC includes an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, 64 GB RAM, and more. It completely meets the Windows 11 requirements (and PC Health Check agrees with my assessment). But this machine gets nothing like the “Great news” item that appears on my X380 Yoga (see lead-in graphic). That’s right: my brand-new AMD PC gets no Windows 11 love from WU.

If Brand-new AMD PC Gets No Windows 11 Love, Now What?

Because I purpose built the machine for Windows 11, I could use the ISO I grabbed from MS yesterday. I’d mount that image, then run setup.exe to perform an in-place upgrade install instead. I wrote on Monday that it can take a while for machines to get the WU offer at Microsoft’s discretion. Little did I know that my new AMD PC (less than a month old) would fall outside that limit. Go figure!

I have to laugh. It’s always been a bit of a mystery as to how MS opens up availability during a “gradual rollout.” Ditto for the criteria it uses to gradually extend that availability to an ever-increasing population of PCs over time. I expected that new stuff would meet those criteria sooner rather than later. My expectations have been dashed, but I don’t take that personally.  I just need to decide what to do.

Upgrade Now Vs. Upgrade Later?

Because there’s no compelling reason for that AMD PC to run Windows 11, I’m tempted to wait and see how long it takes to get an offer from WU. As I observed in my Monday post, “The first machines to get an upgrade offer will be those for which telemetry shows no upgrade problems.” I’ve heard from plenty of AMD owners over at Elevenforum that they’ve successfully installed Windows 11 on such PCs. That includes builds with 5800X CPUs, just like mine.

Thus, it comes down to patience and curiosity. I’ll try to hold onto the former so I can further exercise the latter. But if history is any guide, I probably won’t last much past Halloween before I hitch that machine to the Windows 11 star. Stay tuned: I’ll keep you posted.

News of Performance Issues Say: “Later”

Just this morning a number of stories about Windows 11 performance issues on AMD CPUs have surfaced. See, for example this NeoWin item “AMD processors hit by performance issues…” Or this OnMSFT story “AMD acknowledges Windows 11 performance issues…” Looks like the “lack of love” comes out of genuine concerns for less-than-positive outcomes. I bet my status changes after the promised and forthcoming AMD performance patch is out. We’ll see!

Until Windows 11 Build 22454 came along, the only way to get PowerToys was to download or update it from GitHub. But, as shown in the lead-in graphic for this story, the Windows 11 Store now offers PowerToys for download. Windows 10 users, however, will need to stick with GitHub going forward — at least for the time being. That’s what I gleaned from the WinAero story on this fork in the PowerToys development path.

Visual Proof: Windows 11 Store Now Offers PowerToys

Because it’s available in the Store right now only to Windows 11 Build 22454 and higher, that restricts such access to Dev Channel Insiders. With the Beta Channel at Build 22000 at the moment, it could be some time before this pathway opens up to a broader segment of the Windows 11 population.

Being a “let’s try it and see what happens kind of guy” I checked the Store in the Beta version and searched on “PowerToys.” To my surprise, it came up there unhindered. It was absent, however, on Windows 10 when I tried the Store with the same search on my production PC (running Build 19043.1237).

I clicked the “Install” button on the Beta channel PC (a Lenovo X380 Yoga Thinkpad model), and it reported a successful install. That said, I already had PowerToys installed on that machine, and it still comes up in the Start menu as PowerToys (Preview).

The (Preview) qualifier still shows up, which makes me wonder if anything really got installed.

So I uninstalled it, and then tried the Store-based install again. This time, it showed a download and I got a prompt asking if the installer could make changes to my device. The Installing progress circle continued until it said installed. And guess what: it still reads “PowerToys (Preview)” in its start menu listing. It did ask me to restart the tool as administrator, which tells me it is a new version (because I’d already made that change in its previous incarnation). I guess that means that PowerToys is getting ready for prime time, but has not yet reached production-ready status. That’s consistent with its 0.45.0 version number (a leading zero usually indicates something still in testing rather than production status).

On September 15, MS released the new Insider Preview Build 22458 into the Dev Channel. Widespread reporting indicates that the build won’t install on target PCs that don’t meet Windows 11’s TPM requirement. Thus, it’s fair to say that Windows 11 22458 enforces TPM support. In other words, that build won’t install on older PCs unless the user resorts to one of the well-known workarounds documented to bypass this limitation.

Indeed, for PCs already in the Insider Program, a visit to Start → Settings → Update & Security → Windows Insider Program will recommend against making such an attempt. This warning appears as the lead-in graphic for this story. It comes from my Surface Pro 3, whose 2013-vintage 4th generation CPU and lack of TPM 2.0 support put it outside the scope of Windows 11 requirements.

Were I to try it on that machine anyway, I would get an error message and my attempt to install 22458 would fail. Here’s a snip from WinAero.com that shows what this would look like:

Without TPM 2.0 support, the latest Windows 11 Build 22458 won’t install. Workarounds remain possible, however.

If Windows 11 22458 Enforces TPM Support, Then What?

I’m playing things straight. The PCs I can’t upgrade to meet Windows 11 requirements will stay on Windows 10. The Surface Pro 3 is a great example. Most of my fleet already meets those standards. I’ve got one more PC — my production desktop — to upgrade to match those requirements. I’m going to try to get it done this weekend.

But for those who don’t mind — or outright enjoy — flouting MS requirements, there are workarounds based on ISO installs and registry hacks that bypass the TPM and other hardware checks. MS recommends against such tomfoolery and warns those who indulge that future security updates may not be provided for out-of-spec machines. That isn’t stopping a lot of folks, as the “Let’s run Windows 11 on … incompatible hardware” thread at Elevenforum.com clearly indicates. To these brave stalwarts I say “Have fun, but keep a backup handy, and be ready to roll back to Windows 10 when and if that’s needed.”

I’ve found 3 tools useful in checking my PCs — mostly laptops — to see whether or not they’ll run Windows 11. When it comes to checking target PC Windows 11 readiness, I turn to one of:

1. Microsoft’s PC Health Check* (re-released August 30). Its output serves as the lead-in graphic for this story from my 2018 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (8th gen i-7 CPU, etc.)
2. GitHub project WhyNotWin11
3. GitHub/ElevenForum project Windows 11 Compatibility Check

Please note: Microsoft’s tool is currently available only to registered members of the Windows Insiders program. Knowing that some readers may not want to register simply to get the tool, I also provide links to the other two as alternatives.

Checking Target PC Windows 11 Readiness Is Easy

PC Health Check is the only one of the three that needs installation. It downloads as a Microsoft self-installing file (extension: .msi). Of the other two tools, one runs straight from the executable download (WhyNotWin11.exe). The other consists of a batch file named Win11CompChk.bat: it runs in an administrative command prompt.

Of these three tools, all do an adequate job or better. Were it not for the Insider program membership requirement, PC Health Check would get my highest accolades. That status won’t last long though: it should soon go into general release (probably no later than the official GA date for Windows 11 itself, October 5).

Right now, WhyNotWin11 gets my top vote because it requires no installation, runs quickly, and delivers accurate results.

Win11CompChk.bat has a few rough spots still, but experienced users can steer around them pretty easily:

• For one thing, it treats support for WDDM 2 as a must-have (it’s only required for those who want to wirelessly project to an external monitor).
• For another thing, it won’t pass Secure boot capable systems unless secure boot is turned on (both other tools pass systems, whether or not secure boot is enabled or disabled, so long as it’s present).

Be sure to check them out, and see which one(s) you like best. Cheers!

We knew it was coming, but not when it would come. Just today (September 1) out-of-spec PCs participating in the Dev or Beta Insider Preview channels found out. They’re seeing a “Sayonara” message in Windows Update, Windows Insider Program settings pages. The lead-in graphic above shows what that says, as out-of-spec PCs lose Windows 11 eligibility.

Why Do Out-of-spec PCs Lose Windows 11 Eligibility?

It’s a matter of MS policy, based on a desire to boost security for users of the new OS . It also means MS can count on more advanced graphics functionality, 64-bit operation, and other odds and ends designed to improve the overall user experience.

In a recent Tweet, Paul Thurrott summed this up humorously as “Thanks for Testing Windows 11, Now Leave…” Senior Program Manager of the Windows Insider Team at MS Brandon LeBlanc responded with “We communicated this would be the case back via this blog post on June 24th…” (Note: I’ve provided links to both tweets and that blog post so readers can see for themselves what’s at issue.)

I Hate to Say It, But “I told you so!”

Just the other day I raised the question of why somebody would want to push their luck on an out-of-spec PC when updates could go bye-bye at any time. I have refused to play that game wishing to avoid the uncertainties involved. Now those crows have come home to roost. Good thing I’m still planning to refresh the hardware on my production PC before October 5 to make it fully compliant, eh?

Sure, it’s fun to try to run a new OS on old hardware. At TenForums, for example, the Let’s run Win10 on really really old hardware thread currently runs to 93 pages, with a total of 928 posted items therein. People obviously enjoy this kind of challenge. But MS is forcibly asserting that those who want to mine this vein will have to do so without support from the company, including access to Windows Update. I predict this is going to get a lot more interesting in the months ahead, as creative people purposely beat their heads against a wall somewhere “because it feels so good when they stop!”

And indeed, that’s life for a certain obsessed element of the population here in Windows World. Why else would one find ongoing stories about running Windows 10 (and even 11) on now-ancient Windows Phones (e.g. this Lumia 950 XL item at The Verge)? Good for them, but this is not my thing, not by a long shot!

Note Added September 2

Windows Insider Program Manager Brandon LeBlanc has clarified that out-of-spec PC will receive CUs until October 5, but no further upgrades to new Windows 11 versions. On and after that date, out-of-spec PCs running Windows 11 will be asked to downgrade to the Windows 10 Insider Preview Release Preview channel via a clean install of the appropriate OS image.