2025 coming soon - the year we have to say goodbye to our buddy Windows 10
Posted by pr0ktor@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 140 comments
As you probably take a notice of, retirment date for Windows 10 will be October 14, 2025.
Here in our company we have a lot of older systems running windows 10, where the employees dont neet performance or new hardware for their work.
What do you think, will Windows will set down the requirements for hardware, so you can update them next year?
Or will we all have to buy hundrets of new computers to resolve this?
BTW: As its not allows you to do an inplace upgrade, you can just do a fresh windows 11 install, the setup won't check any hardware.
But as i tested this option, for the next upgrade to the newer Win11 Version (for example now to 24H2) you will have the same problem doing an in-place upgrade again as your hardware check will fail.
Ziegelphilie@reddit
The few systems I have left on w10 are sitting empty in storage, everything that's in use has been windows 11 for quite some time.
pr0ktor@reddit (OP)
Did you never had the error message with: CPU ii not supported?
As example: i5-6500T
Would easily be able to handle W11
Sharkytrs@reddit
its not about the performance, hell my i5 3470 can run win11, but the saftey features in later chip architectures are the real requirement, i.e hardware assisted paging, which is only on more modern chipsets (8th gen for intel I believe)
stephendt@reddit
Alternatively you could just disable virtualisation in the bios which eliminates the vulnerability it creates.
hunterkll@reddit
VT-x isn't creating a vulnerability, but it *is* allowing more security hardening than was possible before in new ways.
stephendt@reddit
That's the first time I've heard anyone say that having VT-x disabled in the bios is a security concern.
hunterkll@reddit
Having it disabled isn't really a security concern so to speak, but the security concern is you're effectively neutering almost all of the modern (Win10+) security hardening and functionality.
HVCI/Memory integrity (driver exploit mitigation, kernel structure protection and malware mitigation), Credential guard, MSR protection (rouge driver/driver exploit code mitigation, among other things), App control, etc.
A *huge* portion of modern windows security functionality relies on it. Windows 11 lights up all of these out of the box, but Win10 only did in specific conditions (hardware baselines, driver compatibility, etc.... Win11 can now rely they all exist properly).
These new technologies are why all the major hypervisors finally got pushed to really fully supporting virtual TPM (a lot of credential protection and early boot antimalware/tamper detection stuff here) and nested virtualization (the above stuff) en-mass almost all around the same time (Win10/2016 early lifecycle).
I suppose a concern could be malware inserting its own hypervisor underneath your windows install, if we discount all of the above that helps prevent it, but that requires a full system compromise already to enact. Essentially, you don't improve security by disabling it at all.
tl;dr, Having it off neuters most of the new windows security technologies slowly introduced since early Win10 and even more expanded in W11 lifecycle. Having it on provides massive amounts of additional protections, without really introducing risk/vulnerability. (This is the first I've really heard having VT-x on being called "introducing a vulnerability").
stephendt@reddit
Fair enough, it looks like I misunderstood how it works. There is malware that will try to hide itself via virtualisation, but that's probably a different matter. I mainly had issues with BSODs and system performance with it enabled on some older system so I made sure to just disable virtualisation for anything earlier than 2020. Newer systems are fine though.
hunterkll@reddit
Turning off "Memory Integrity" resolves the performance slowdowns (15-30% CPU performance penalty!) but those slowdowns don't exist on 7th gen and higher systems for intel (MBEC support in silicon, 6th gen and lower uses emulation code which causes the slowdown). So really, late 2017 and higher systems are fine. VBS on Win10 doesn't enable HVCI (Memory Integrity) automatically, so should be fine on any generation of system.
pr0ktor@reddit (OP)
Thank you for the information, in the list of supported CPUs its starting with 8th gen Intel i's.
hunterkll@reddit
7th gen, actually. And a lot of 7th gen systems are receiving and passing the windows 11 upgrade check now as they have data and are loosening the requirements/doing other tests, but 7th is the floor that meets the requirements to run all the security functionality without any kind of performance killing emulation code.
hunterkll@reddit
7th gen, actually. And a lot of 7th gen systems are receiving and passing the windows 11 upgrade check now as they have data and are loosening the requirements/doing other tests, but 7th is the floor that meets the requirements to run all the security functionality without any kind of performance killing emulation code.
hunterkll@reddit
MBEC's available on 7th gen and higher for intel.
beritknight@reddit
A processor that launched nine years ago? No we don't have any of those left in production systems.
pr0ktor@reddit (OP)
Yes, in times where you just work with web application in the browser, there is no need for modern hardware, its running with a few percents cpu load.
Ziegelphilie@reddit
With that metric you might as well spin up a raspberry pi and be done with it.
trail-g62Bim@reddit
Give everyone a chromebook.
Expensive_Plant_9530@reddit
If your application requirements are so low and you don’t need to buy new hardware, I highly recommend you switch over to a supported Linux distribution instead then. Debian or Ubuntu, etc.
Better to swap OS’s than run an unsupported OS after EOL, if you’re not able to upgrade the hardware.
Did you have a W11 upgrade plan in place already or are you developing it now?
sexybobo@reddit
Performance isn't the only metric here. Older hardware is missing a lot of security feature the newer hardware has. So while it might handle the load is it really worth putting your security at risk because you don't want to replace 10 year old hardware.
FuriousRageSE@reddit
At most of my automation places, they had windows 95-xp machines in the lines producing stuff. :D
hunterkll@reddit
Sure, at the cost of a 15-30% CPU performance penalty.
stephendt@reddit
If it helps at all I have a Lenovo Tiny with this CPU and it runs perfectly fine on 24H2. Still fast enough for most things
Ziegelphilie@reddit
Sure, on two 7700k systems two years ago. Replaced them with newer systems.
With registry hacks it'll probably run windows 11 fine but the time and effort isn't worth it, especially if the end result is still unsupported by microsoft
SoonerMedic72@reddit
You should create a lifecycle policy and get everyone signed off on it. Replace all production machines every like 3-6 years depending on criticality. Then do the math on how many machines you have and batch new purchases into a schedule you can manage. Place I currently work buys a handful of machines every month. Helpdesk guys image them and deploy them throughout the month. I know of another place (much bigger) that does a huge purchase every January and rolls them out throughout the year. We even do this on server and network hardware. It is a lot easier to replace a handful periodically than everything in a month.
TECHDJNET@reddit
5 years means 20 percent per year
HotPieFactory@reddit
i5-6500T will be 10 years old next year. How much money are you saving exactly, pushing it another year or two? The current computers have been amortized 7-9 years ago already.
DrAculaAlucardMD@reddit
To be fair, even though they were amortized already doesn't mean there is a budget available to replace.
HotPieFactory@reddit
You're right. I wonder who is at fault for not planning ahead that 8 year old computers may need to be replaced in 1-2 years.
trail-g62Bim@reddit
I know everyone got upset about the Win 11 requirements, but I dont think theyre all that unreasonable. By the time Win 10 runs out, the oldest processor to support 11 will be what, 7 or 8 years old? I'm not sure how long is reasonable to expect a company to support a piece of hardware, particularly when they dont even make the hardware.
Jarocket@reddit
As a user who had to have their i5 5500 laptop replaced. The requirements helped me out. Got a much nicer PC out of this windows 11 swap.
wezu123@reddit
Yeah you're right, I should probably think about replacing my Windows 7 machines soon
FuriousRageSE@reddit
And all those windows 95 machines on lines in the industry :D
curkus@reddit
I wish. I still habe two production lines with MS DOS. Nobody knows exactly how the are configured and we do not have any replacements. Fun times.
bcredeur97@reddit
I once got an old program working for someone in DOSbox
They kept an old machine around just for that one thing and it was a simple little tool that helped them get measurements for /something/ (I never asked lol) that was made a long time ago and didn’t exist anymore.
It was really simple to get going and it’ll probably work forever
Sweyn78@reddit
I set up DOSbox at a bookstore I used to work at. Their inventory system was 16-bit, so they used to buy Windows licences and downgrade every new computer to 32-bit Windows. DOSbox let them run it on 64-bit. It was hard to convince the manager to let me do it, as he feared it was Korean spyware. He was... an interesting fellow.
FuriousRageSE@reddit
Hire me to upgrade them.. i could figure out something :D
cosmos7@reddit
WinME running DOS emulator...
Crispy_Jon@reddit
That sounds like a fun project
Prior-Use-4485@reddit
Our Production line machines have windows 11.
But the Production line was built this year.
FuriousRageSE@reddit
Yeah, many factories keeps the machine that runs and are paid off for around very long time, and not touching stuff that isnt broken. So i'll still expect to see win 95 machines in 10 years :D
NoReallyLetsBeFriend@reddit
Fun story, I got our machines on windows 98 up to XP through in place upgrades, and then to Windows 7. That's because the boot partition was fat16 and nothing beyond 7 would support it lol. XP was most stable (creating duplicates lm along the way) so then I virtualized those XP and 7 drives and they're running on Windows 11 hosts in VMware player. The old drives were sata connected 40GB drives so they were replaced around 2008 maybe? I was impressed they lived so long.
The new machines are this series, but the cheaper ones are gone now https://us-store.msi.com/PRO-DP21-13M-496US I just liked them bc they have serial ports in the rear for our machines to still work. And are super inexpensive at $500/pop
ceantuco@reddit
oh crap, I thought I was the only one still running a Win 7 machine for legacy software hehhee
ToastedChief@reddit
Ha, still got 55 prod machines ranging from NT4 to XP here in my huge paper mill
doubleknocktwice@reddit
Glad to hear America is being propped up on old infrastructure computer wise and pipe wise. We still have many Windows 2000 computers and Windows XP.
ToastedChief@reddit
Aye brother, I love whenever some get upgraded so I can throw them in waste disposal and stop repairing those old pieces of overly reliable junk
midwest_pyroman@reddit
Does this mean the 2003 servers need to go as well? What about the 2008 and 2012. :) Lots of those still in OT environments manufacturing a lot of stuff.
aes_gcm@reddit
The last version of Windows with a good UI. It's clean, straightforward, no ads, and there's only one set of UI controls to change settings.
gothaggis@reddit
I found a Windows NT box in a lab last year.
sharathchandrapotla@reddit
I don’t think Microsoft will set down the hardware requirements for future upgraded versions like it did for Win11. Though MS is enforcing those requirements, it is important for us to understand that the hardware requirements like requiring the TPM module to be available and enabled is a requirement to maintain security. So, it is very important to upgrade the hardware not just because we are being forced to, but to improve the security.
a60v@reddit
As I understand it, the TPM is only necessary for those using disk encryption. Not everyone needs or wants that. Requiring it for every machine is stupid.
altodor@reddit
It's also used for Entra regardless of if you use BitLocker.
sharathchandrapotla@reddit
What you said is correct. However, Microsoft might be trying to standardize on hardware requirements across the Operating Systems it is designing.
a60v@reddit
Because saying "TPM required for disk encryption feature" is too difficult for people to understand?
Zedilt@reddit
Because disk encryption will become standart moving forward.
a60v@reddit
But it isn't now. And I don't want it on a desktop computer that isn't going anywhere or on a VM that is in a secure data center.
mi__to__@reddit
I'll happily do without that "security".
FenixSoars@reddit
My guy, what hardware refresh cycle are you operating on? We get new machines every 3 years.
ZAFJB@reddit
Unsupported hardware is unsupported.
pr0ktor@reddit (OP)
But as my example above, i5-6500T is not supported, but from performance perspective the upgrade would be no problem.
So my hope is that microsoft will add this cpu to the list of supported ones, so i will not disable an awesome running device.
per08@reddit
It's not getting support. Recycle it, put Linux on the device, or disconnect it completely from the Internet, but whatever you do, it is not going to be able to officially run Windows 11.
stephendt@reddit
You say, this but Microsoft has a dedicated article on how to install Windows 11 on devices that don't meet system requirements.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/ways-to-install-windows-11-e0edbbfb-cfc5-4011-868b-2ce77ac7c70e
We have quite a few AMD Ryzen 7 workstations that are not officially supported that have been running on Windows 11 for years, and I just upgraded these to 24H2 via our RMM without issues. There is basically no difference between an AMD Ryzen 7 1800x and Ryzen 7 2700x, apart from clock speed and a slight die shrink. As far as I'm concerned, some of these "requirements" are BS.
ZAFJB@reddit
" If Windows 11 is installed on ineligible hardware, you should be comfortable assuming the risk of running into compatibility issues" ... on other words, unsupported.
stephendt@reddit
It still gets updates. Windows hardly has "support" anyway.
GeneMoody-Action1@reddit
Support does mean updates as well, the ability to bypass the requirement for example TPM, MS has a script in the W11 install that does lets you bypass this, but it was done to eval the system, in the future at any time the next critical update may not go in, its a bad position to be in at that time.
SoonerMedic72@reddit
This is the correct take. They've already broken those workarounds once with an update. Its entirely possible that the Nov 2025 Win11 update enforces the hardware req's again and your left with a dead machine.
stephendt@reddit
Even if that is the case 24h2 will get security updates until 2027. I'll take the risk
BwanaPC@reddit
What support?? Have you ever gotten support from Microsoft for an OS issue? I can barely get support for our corporate M365 Tenants and Azure installations. You'll never get support for an OS. If they provide security updates for the W 11 OS that is installed then that's all we really need.
MrClavicus@reddit
We’re at the stage now where you can buy refurb win 11 devices for $150-$200. It’s crazy to hear people wanting to support old equipment. There are always 2 schools in IT. Get by with the bare minimum and spend all your time on support and never get anything done, or find better ways to do things and get more done and keep support efficient and to a minimum. I wonder what the catalyst is to have people switch from one to the other
pr0ktor@reddit (OP)
Bro if I could, I would replace all outdated appliances with new ones tomorrow.But there is a strict budget from the business level, which I would exceed many times over.
Ottaruga@reddit
"Here's the cost of modernizing our hardware and never having this problem again, while also giving all of our users more efficient machines. Here's the cost of purchasing ESU licenses if we want to split that hardware upgrade over multiple years. Please let me know how you'd like me to proceed."
RCTID1975@reddit
You should've started thus 3 years ago then.
People find budgets for things that absolutely have to get done, and this is one of those things.
Original_Dish_4465@reddit
You know what else would exceed a budget many times over? Extended downtime during a security event, i.e ransomware, virus, etc. Technically if yall purchased quality AVs, like malwarebytes, that are independent of Windowz defender, as long as those CVE databases get updates regularly, it would get another couple of years.
That being said, if they won't support old hardware then you gotta get new hardware. In all fairness anything above an 8th Gen cpu machine would suffice, buy if you're already upgrading, why not buy better performing ones that should last longer and run more efficient in the long run, you'd hopefully get more "miles" out of it. Like I'd say a good Gen would be 9th or 10th Gen.
fatbergsghost@reddit
This is why this is an official project that you have to get business to sign off on.
Also, look at your cyber insurance. Say that the company won't be insured from 2025. They'll listen eventually.
The_Original_Miser@reddit
Laughs in non profit.
However. I do have a couple refurb outfits that I might be contacting. After the first of the year I'll have a list of upgradable/non machines and will see how bad it is. I'm thinking about 50% need replaced.
We don't need much horsepower. Most of our stuff is hosted elsewhere anyway.
AppIdentityGuy@reddit
The supported list is set by what the CPU supports from a modern security perspective. A lot of the really strong security features in Windows 11 are dependent on hardware based virtualization features that are baked into the CPUs...
stephendt@reddit
Except the AMD Ryzen 7 1800x and Ryzen 7 2700x are both functionally identical but one is supported and the other isn't. Go figure.
buidontwantausername@reddit
Pretty sure you can enable fTPM on older Ryzen chips and they'll work with W11 natively. Should be a bios setting on supporting motherboards.
stephendt@reddit
Nope. Ryzen 7 1800x isn't supported because Microsoft says so. It's stupid, considering it a high end 8-core CPU.
buidontwantausername@reddit
I actually do agree, but to play devil's advocate; It is an almost 8 year old, high end CPU. What should the cut off be for support?
stephendt@reddit
The cut off should be when hardware lacks the necessary features for security and functionality. There are even older CPUs that are supported, and even CPUs released in late 2019 that are unsupported.
buidontwantausername@reddit
The supposed feature is GMET, which was only included from Zen 2. Reportedly, installing a Zen 1 CPU and enabling memory integrity can cause an enormous performance hit, as it is emulated in software on older CPUs. Now I would argue that this sounds like poor software optimisation, but that is the reason given. So there is a tangible reason for the Zen 2 minimum.
stephendt@reddit
Easily mitigated by simply disabling virtualisation.
AppIdentityGuy@reddit
It's actually largely controlled by CPU firmware.... This is the same type of issue that was exposed by Rowhammer several generations ago
xCharg@reddit
There's no "but". It's unsupported. You may not like it and you may have aegulents, valid or not, why - but at the end of the day decision was made a years ago and end result is - it's unsupported, simple as that.
Expensive_Plant_9530@reddit
You need a plan to deal with the possibility that they won’t increase the supported hardware list.
What’s your backup plan for when all of your unsupported machines start to fail hardware checks?
Do you have a plan to upgrade and replace the old hardware?
TheJesusGuy@reddit
Businesses aren't not replacing one machine. They're not replacing hundreds+ that are then security vulnerabilities and certification failures. Buy the new fucking hardware.
bageloid@reddit
That CPU is on par with an n100, something you find in minipcs in the under 200 segment.
It's slow and over 9 years old at this point.
Some of the latest intel 200 gen CPU's get 8x the score in multicore benchmarks.
ZAFJB@reddit
Microsoft won't.
You have only 348 days left to buy and deploy new hardware. Get on with it.
superwizdude@reddit
Repurpose a 6500t machine as a batocera box. Popular choice. r/batocera
wrootlt@reddit
Well, at work there will be some machines that won't support it and not replaced by that date, but hopefully not that many and it is not my pain actually (another team dealing with PC assets and replacements). We are now 70% on Windows 11. But at home. I have no reason to replace my i5 desktop. I ran it on Windows 7 one year past EOL and then begrudgingly updated to 10 in 2021, just to have throw it away 4 years later?? :D Maybe, go Linux finally? Probably will use it for some time past EOL again as i am too lazy. I am 40+ and work all day with IT, have no will in me to shop for parts and building home PC again. F MS!
Mindestiny@reddit
It's over man, let her go.
Upgrade your workstations, you've had years to deal with this.
mschuster91@reddit
I mean I don't care since I run macOS... but every time I have to touch a windows 11 and hell even a Windows 10 machine in non-work context, I'm seriously getting why people desperately try to stick to even Windows 7.
The amount of utterly ridiculous bullshit MS puts you through if you don't pay through your nose for a corporate license is insane.
CartographerProper60@reddit
I'm going to get a lot of hate for this. Would switching to Linux be a bad idea? A lot of people talk about how much they don't like Windows 11, but they use it anyway because they don't want to use Linux. What is stopping people?
JustSomeGuy556@reddit
The Win11 upgrade is going to be a pain in the ass for us. We've been rolling it out for awhile, but we've got some non-TPM stuff and we are behind on application testing and we've got some VDI stuff on 10 with servers that don't have TPM, and and and...
It's death by a thousand cuts for us to be 100% on 11.
We'll be close.
Of course, I still have a windows 2000 box in production, so WTF.
ceantuco@reddit
Win 2000 just works lol
netsysllc@reddit
If your hardware does not support Windows 11 it is past any normal replacement cycles and fucking old.
ceantuco@reddit
well vendor site says it doesn't support win 11 but it works fine on 10 year old workstations lol
ceantuco@reddit
Exchange 2019 and Win 10 both EOL October 2025.
we also have many windows 10 workstations. I started the Win 11 upgrade at the beginning of this year. We also use old hardware. I am only able to upgrade workstations with TPM modules. The ones without it need to be replaced.
We will migrate to Exchange online August 2025.
BitOfDifference@reddit
There is a registry mod that lets you get around the hardware check...
maggotses@reddit
Yep. You can also replace a file in the sources with a Windows 10 file (appraiser.dll) and it will not check for any Windows 11 compatible hardware.
AboveAverageRetard@reddit
I just started on the rabbit hole of Windows 11 in hyper-v and good lord.. you can't create them without first installing HGS which id never even heard. All this work just to get TPM working.
joshtaco@reddit
Anyone that thinks Microsoft is going to lower their hardware requirements for Windows 11 is huffing gasoline. Use your brain
Rhythm_Killer@reddit
Let’s all remember it was a total piece of shit when it came out
79LuMoTo79@reddit
it still has wrong translation in a few places!
mi__to__@reddit
Still is.
Without a bunch of extra tools...OpenShell, O&O ShutUp 10, Winaero Tweaker and others...it would still be borderline unusable garbage to me.
But not unusable enough it seems, so they made 11 even more of a mess. God knows how cataclysmic an eventual AI-riddled Windows 12 will turn out. Windows 13 will just drive to your home, fuck your wife and sacrifice your firstborn to the great dark one.
Just one thing is certain - the heights of offline usability like with 7 or later XP will never return.
jmeador42@reddit
I don't need Windows 10, thanks. I'm on Windows 2012 R2.
CelticDubstep@reddit
We're running older servers, 12th gen & 13th gen Dell PowerEdge Servers. I have some Windows 10 Pro VM's that I use for various things such as PRTG & Veeam. Despite these being virtualized, the CPU prevents these from upgrading to Windows 11 Pro. Not sure what my long term fix is going to be, don't want to pay for a two Windows Server licenses (need 4 VM's) just to have a supported OS. Our servers are of course out warranty but we have so many spare parts and servers plus Hyper-V Replication in the event of a hardware failure, just don't need the extra computing power of a new server.
I did buy a little Beelink Mini PC for under $300 for a conference room for Zoom/Teams Meetings, so I could go that route for Veeam & PRTG. I could probably ditch PRTG in all honesty but it's nice to have around.
The_Pacific_gamer@reddit
There's extended support, but it can cost a lot of money.
Dizzy_Bridge_794@reddit
Guessing they will extend
GoodTofuFriday@reddit
I i had put in a mandate for my office this year to switch to win11 and thus upgrade any hardware that was too old for it. Cost me about 60k in the end as we like our machines to not be the bottleneck during work. I have a feeling it will cost more as the 12/13/14 series intel cpus disappear from stock as other companies also upgrade.
TrippTrappTrinn@reddit
Give new PCs to those that can benefit from it, and move their old PCs to the light use people. I hope not all your PCs are getting close to 10 years old?
jmbpiano@reddit
Where are you getting the "10 years old" from? I have a Dell laptop on my workbench right now that was new off the line three years ago with an unsupported CPU in it.
hunterkll@reddit
What CPU is that?
jmbpiano@reddit
Ryzen 3 2200U
hunterkll@reddit
Interesting, I do see that is a 2018 model (both CPU and laptop) though. Still unfortunate, but that was really the year the windows 11 baseline CPUs (7th gen on the intel side, etc....) became widely available/used. That's a rather anemic CPU, however..... and will be 7 years old, which is the middle of my "how old a PC that doesn't support Win11 is" - which I rule of thumb'd as 7-8 years. (Almost 9, really, but i'm not counting the end of 2016 when baseline machines started shipping).
pr0ktor@reddit (OP)
Yes, that was the procedure the last years, but there are lot of light use users, as they work on terminal servers and just use them as kind of thin clients.
RCTID1975@reddit
Then why not just use thin clients?
19610taw3@reddit
Ugh. Windows 11.
iwashere33@reddit
I am thinking linux mint is going to shoot up very soon
trail-g62Bim@reddit
I very much doubt that. There aren't a lot of companies that are going to want to move to Linux for desktop just to get around buying new computers. And most home people will just roll with an unsupported OS or buy a new machine.
ErikTheEngineer@reddit
That's not really true anymore...they've slowly been closing up the workarounds to get the OS to install without a TPM. I wouldn't do it anyway, because Microsoft is going to write patches and features as if every system meets the requirements. There may come a time where you have 5000 PCs who all bluescreen on some update and need replacement immediately.
hunterkll@reddit
Had this issue with some Dell 2850's running 2012, can't run 2012 R2... missing CPU instruction.
First gen 64-bit intel and first two generation AMD 64-bit can't run 8.1 or 2012 R2.
Windows 11 23H2 could run on late gen pentium 4s and up. 24H2 can't run on anything below 1st gen core i-series, this is the first hard requirement bump we've seen with 11. But we've seen it happen in the past too, with 7, and even 10 dropping some platforms mid-lifecycle with inability to update past a specific point.
The TPM requirement is one thing (though all OEM shipping machines since mid-2016 have been required by Microsoft to have TPM 2.0 installed and enabled immediately, and just for connected standby machines at least TPM 1.2 since mid-2014.... and *ALL* 4th gen and higher intel systems can receive a UEFI update to add the PTT module - firmware based TPM - it's usually the vendor intentionally or not shipping the UEFI module as to why a system doesn't have it, but all 4th and higher CPUs support it and can be upgraded to TPM 2.0 spec with a UEFI update) but hard silicon requirements from the processor side are starting to appear once again on below-spec machines.
pointlessone@reddit
Home machine? Sure, go nuts. I'm all for using every workaround I can find if it doesn't matter. Potentially taking the entire company offline for days because I don't like how a menu is laid out? That's just negligence.
hunterkll@reddit
For what it's worth, while the baseline requirement isn't (yet) at 7th gen (the true hardware baseline for all required silicon features/support).... 24H2 jumped almost 3-4 generations of CPUs the kernel will function on now. It literally is *impossible* to boot on systems 23H2 would.
Sure, those systems are ancient (late model 64-bit pentium 4s and higher), but now the hard floor is first generation core i-series systems - the previous generation core 2 quad need not apply, for example. And I can see this trend continuing as development goes forward/evolves.
This is due to hard requirements of CPU instructions being used by the kernel, and we saw this happen before with even Windows 7. 10's also dropped some platforms mid-life too.
Also note, with the security settings applied (which may eventually become fully baked into the kernel so that they can significantly harden many aspects of it against potential security issues - or other pieces of non-kernel software as well), and the emulation code (introduced in Win10 to support current/slightly older machines in 2016 or 2017 with HVCI) running, you are staring directly at a 15-30% CPU performance loss on below 6th gen systems.
This *currently* can be worked around, but for how long? On Win10 it was optional and disabled by default due to early day driver compatibility, on W11 it's on by default.... and most 7th gen and higher spec hardware/peripherals/devices can be expected to have compatible/compliant drivers. I haven't had to turn it off on Win10 or 11 since about 2018 when a rash of driver updates came out from many vendors to enable it to work.
For a business, you're paying up the ESU fee, Business pricing is $61 first year, doubling each year after that, ending after year 3.
deefop@reddit
Yeah, not looking forward to it.
It's not a concern for me at work, but my home PC is still running w10, and I've resisted 11. It took them years to get 10 to a good spot, wish I could sit on it a bit longer. Oh well. At least my ancient homelab server can sit on server 2016 until 2027.
Erassus@reddit
Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 is your key.
LTSC releases are designed to provide longer update support (10 years) and it lacks most of the Store (UWP) apps.
Its supported until Jan 13, 2032.
stephendt@reddit
Very expensive though, might as well buy new hardware
Deifler@reddit
I've been doing the regedit to upgrade a few unsupported machines and anything really old replacing. With only 300ish PCs and 100 laptops its not to bad. The hard part is finding time to do in place for some people. User's I have left all like to work late and my happy but is done at 4.
I don't see MS dropping down the reqs, At this point official supported lowest CPU is 8 years? Anything that old should be replaced. I know I will have 1 or two stuck on 10 due to the software but they are air gapped.
magicc_12@reddit
We also have WinXp where there are no security issues (no network access, no internet, etc) or the hardware is not compatible with newer systems.
Today I installed first time Win11. I did not understand why was it required to install some driver - without it it was impossible to move forward. The NVMe was detected without this driver
Expensive_Plant_9530@reddit
Over the past year we’ve been deploying Windows 11 exclusively, and when a computer comes in for service we often upgrade to W11 at the same time.
We should be in a good spot when W10 goes EOL.
Cyberhwk@reddit
Speaking of which, anybody been having difficulty getting cumulative patches to install?
jmbpiano@reddit
I'm not sure how you're deploying it, but that's definitely not true for WSUS. We have several machines we approved the upgrade on only for it to fail, leading to the discovery that those machines had unsupported CPUs.
Barrerayy@reddit
This is a genuine question I have, what kinda systems do you have that are unsupported for w11? Is it the usual OEM e-waste grade stuff that doesn't support it?
rayko555@reddit
I have been slowly replacing lots of old PCs in my Org, I actually use the win10 retirement as an excuse to replace pcs that are over 10 years old running ddr3 and 3 to 4th gen intel core CPUs lol. This org struggles with upgrades, no one wants to upgrade and prefer to run old slow hdd hardware lol.
bluehairminerboy@reddit
MSP here - We've got a few internally that are just unsupported but work absolutely fine so these have been pushed to W11 with the reg key. We've told customers about the machines they have that are unsupported, got about 500 left. Some customers are receptive to replacing them, some aren't at all.
McGarnacIe@reddit
You can read up about extended support:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/extended-security-updates
I have seen pricing listed, but it's not on this link. You may have to do some further digging.
At the end of the day, it's up to you and your business on the risks vs the costs.
Ducaju@reddit
just do the regedit changes during install to skip the checks. you can run win11 on pretty much everything, the real question is, why would you? it's that much slower...
ConstructionSafe2814@reddit
We'll buy new computers at work for hosts that aren't officially supported. Upgrade the rest to W11.
At home, my wife runs macOS and I run Linux. The kids don't have a PC yet and will be educated to use Linux as a host OS with potentially a Windows VM which the school will likely use.
MFKDGAF@reddit
Feel like it was just the other year we were saying goodbye to Windows 7
themanonthemooo@reddit
Move to Linux on older hardware if you wish to keep it updated and secure.
No doubt Microsoft is planning on refusing Windows 11 to work if it detects unsupported hardware in the coming releases.