Screenshot?
Read the article? :D Doesn’t look like it’s live they just caught it in code
Am I reading correctly that ARM is required?
This might be only for a WinRT build (Windows mm ARM)
Yeah, so if they have the code, they could run it…
They kinda don’t have the sources there. That’s a decompilation by IDA in that image.
But nevertheless they could run it if they set up an arm64 machine, technically.
That’s not how code of this magnitude works off the cuff GetPhysicallyInstalledSystemMemory() and GetPhysicalDiskSize()) aren’t defined and might exist in a file they couldn’t access. It’s also in C++ so you’d have to compile it first no one’s going through all that for a visual screenshot of a watermark at this stage
Wow that’s some crappy C/C++ code, there’s even a goto 😁
But whats the 0i64?
If you want a serious answer, you could theoretically disable all security checks on Win11 so you could hex-edit patch it to run, but it would be (1) a lot of effort and (2) probably show that it’s nowhere near finished, because it still misses UI integration for example
Li-nux! Li-nux! Li-nux! Li-nux!
Don’t threaten me with a good user experience.
Yet another reason to toss non-DOS based software.
One has to wonder how many clock cycles are wasted to render the watermark
Enough to make an Arch user have an aneurysm.
I’ve spent half a day yesterday to set up a VM running Debian on my office’s Win PC. Since I’m tied to Windows because of my proprietary CAD, my plan is to limit my interaction to a minimum and instead do everything else in the Linux-VM. With shared drives and drag’n’drop I hope it will work out. It comes in also very handy that I started years ago to strictly choose open source software that’s available for both platforms - so no learning curve. Since MS won’t listen - we all need to laudly complain about the lack of linux support towards our software providers. And yes, maybe too naïve, it will change something in the long run.
I’ve gone full linux both at home and at work. Thankfully, most of the tools we use are cross platform / FOSS. But in the odd case, I use KVM (the linux equivalent to Hyper-V) to spin up a windows VM
It has it’s issues (like graphics card pass-through), but it works pretty well
Too bad I’m on Linux.
I can’t wait for it to be added to activate-linux!
Wasnt going to install it anyway so no loss
Given how Linux support for steam has been going I’ve just started migrating everything and just popping in to windows when I have something that doesn’t work.
Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinux
Who knew they were telling the truth after all. When they said Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows.
i’d rather have web 3.0 and crypto than ai
hardware requirements aren’t that huge … a cpu that supports 11 and 16GB RAM minimum. CPU has to support SSE4.2, which every 11 compatible cpu has. Honestly, this should be your minimum requirements nowadays. Anythjng that can’t do the job is literally 8+ years old.
My PC has a i7-4790k overclocked to 4.5 GHz. It runs smoothly since I got it when it came out and it is still not a bottleneck in any of the games I play. But if I wanted to upgrade to Windows 11 I would need to buy a new CPU, new main board and new RAM, and it would not improve my gaming experience at all. It was my last machine running windows which I changed to Linux 2 months ago and I haven’t looked back.
That CPU would probably meet these requirements abd wouldn’t be affected. The normal Windows 11 requirements are a separate thing which are more demanding but can be bypassed. Though Linux is probably better anyway, especially for older machines. Itt’s requirements haven’t really changed in the last 10 years.
Idk about you, but I want an OS that is efficient, not one that gobbles every resource I have.
Like Bro I use Linux. I agree it’s more efficient, that’s why I said it’s better for older machines like yours.
What I don’t understand is criticising Windows over this specific new issue. It’s like hating the Nazis because they had bad interior decor, instead of the fact they committed genocide. Like it’s not even an issue, Windows has much bigger real issues.
Not everything is a comparison. It’s entirely possible to discuss one new negative thing about Windows without comparing it to the worse things you dislike about Windows. I don’t have an old computer, I have a wicked fast i7 12700kf, 32GB of DDR5 4800, 2TB Samsung 970 NVMe drive, Auoris RTX 30170 ti, and a z690 Auoris pro MOBO. That doesn’t mean I want my frickin OS gobbling up my resources. I bought powerful components for my uses, not for Microsoft to calculate how to best serve me ads on my computer, using my computing power. Oh, and I do use Linux.
It didn’t realize I was replying to someone else. The person I thought I was replying to was on a 4790K.
This change isn’t a problem at all, just like the Nazis interior decor wasn’t a problem. AI needing certain instructions to run well isn’t unreasonable at all. They are using these instructions and resources to provide a service. This isn’t them wasting resources unnecessarily, presumably they are only used if you engage those services. Don’t get me wrong Microsoft does waste resources but this isn’t an example of that afaik.
What you and others are doing is a motte and bailey argument. First you say these AI requirements are unreasonable, then I say actually they aren’t unreasonable at all and is well exceeded by the actual Windows 11 requirements or most machines made in the last 10 years, then you counter that the Windows 11 is slow and has unreasonable requirements. Do you see how the first and second points are unrelated? The general Windows 11 requirements are way more strict than requiring SSE 4.2. any PC back to like 1st or 2nd gen will have the needed instructions. Maybe the 16 GB requirement is a bit more than some people have, but it’s not a large amount either and you can just keep using it without the AI features.
I think the 16GB requirement is ridiculous, considering Microsoft’s own laptops and Surface Pros don’t come with 16GB standard. They seem to be trying to drive sales through intentional obsolescence of adequate hardware.
you should be able to ‘rufus’ an installer for that. the instruction in the ‘new’ minimum requirement dates back to 1st gen.
Do you need my PayPal or Venmo account so you can send me money to replace perfectly working hardware?
I have a computer I use mostly in my office, but someone’s I run games on it, because why not, that has a Xeon x3460. It can run literally every game I’ve thrown at it at 60fps, and it can do literally any workload I need it to do. It’s 15 years old. This isn’t the 80s or 90s where technology is changing so fast that you have to upgrade every year or two to keep up. There’s very little reason to upgrade if you have a working computer.
That CPU came out in 2009. I think things have changed since then. The Intel stagnation issue ended with Ryzen.
Not saying you should throw away your machine, but expecting it to support all features of an OS made 15 years later is unreasonable. They also aren’t saying it won’t work, just that you don’t get all features. It already is way past what Windows 11 was designed to run on (which imo was unreasonable at the time).
If you want to use 15 year old hardware then use Linux. I do anyway for other reasons, and it keeps my FX-6300 server running fine too.
Anythjng that can’t do the job is literally 8+ years old.
So what? How about Microsoft lets me define what ‘the job’ is and I will decide for myself whether my machine is up to it? In my opinion the job of an operating system is to expose computing resources to whatever the user wants to do and then get the fuck out of the way.
The minimum requirements are there for them to set a lower limit on what they’re willing to support. You do whatever you want, just don’t complain when something doesn’t work, or breaks because you’re bypassing those limits.
People do this all the time and then complain and blame Microsoft for issues when they are using an configuration they were told was unsupported and might have issues.
Most people don’t want Win 11.
The minimum requirements are there for them to set a lower limit on what they’re willing to support.
I agree and they’re free to do whatever they want. I get to have an opinion on their actions though.
What I take issue with is they are enforcing minimum specs because they’re choosing to put a bunch of stuff in the operating system that won’t run (well) below those specs. In other words they are choosing the job that the operating system has to do (GenAI in this case) and I think that is up to the user, not the OS vendor.
If the GenAI stuff they want to build in were optional then you could choose to purchase a cheaper computer or upgrade your existing hardware to a current OS. By going this route Microsoft is artificially inflating hardware requirements.
PC vendors are still selling laptops with 4GB RAM. 16GB should absolutely be the minimum (and should have been since 2020), but it’s very much not true that anything with less than 16GB is over 8 years old.
Microsoft itself doesn’t even sell their own laptops with 16GB RAM standard, it’s always an expensive upgrade.
Imagine unironically defending Microsoft making their product shittier
Maybe they should just make the OS work on any computer? Kinda seems like they’re shooting themselves in the foot, yeah?
I’m only addressing that last line, but really think it through. Should you really expect, or even want, an OS that runs on a 386? It wasn’t that long ago that most Linux distros could. But they all moved away from it because that limited performance on anything more modern.
The newer instruction sets are created for a reason, and that reason is typically higher performance. If the OS (or any code, really) can use them, it will work better. But if you can’t or don’t, the code will be more compatible.
There also isn’t “any” computer; it’s simply not a thing. The question becomes how old (more technically, what minimum specs) do you want to support, and performance you want to be limited by?
While I agree that Microsoft has leaned too heavily into newer hardware as an expectation, there’s definitely a line to be drawn.
I’m not sure if you are overthinking, by trying to equate a 386 with a top of the line only a few years old.
Or if you under-thought, buy not going back to a 286, or an XT, or a mainframe.
Or that you are in lala land by not including Macs on a Power PC chip.
My point was, where do you draw the line? Any answer is equally arbitrary. MS drew it at 8th Gen Intel Core. Would 6th Gen have been the right answer? 3rd? Core 2 Duo? All of them can run Win 10 just fine, and can (at least technically, and for today) run Win11.
Funny. Linux doesn’t care how old your hardware is. It still works fine. Too bad Windows can’t be that robust.
I’ve just moved my work PC from a cast off from a customer - it had a BIOS date stamped 2012, and was a rather shag Lenovo with a … Intel Core something and four GB RAM. Cheap though, ie free. I did wedge in a SSD to make it usable.
I run KDE which isn’t known for being tiny and I have a Postgres DB and a few containers for experiments running. The new box is a i5 Intel G13 thingy - HP mini jobbie. Luxury
To ensure that I am as disadvantaged as everyone else, I run ESET Endpoint AV and full disc encryption on it. It boots EFI and Secure Boot is enabled. I will pass a Cyber Essentials Plus audit (UK standard) without having to employ any misdirection. I’ve also read up on the US standards. The STIG for Ubuntu 22.04 is doable but my desktop is running 23.04 and 24.04 has just come out.
I run my company and we have some customers who have some rather more stringent requirements than others. We also have our own standards.
every laptop that’s on sale right now under $600 has less than 16gb of RAM
it’s not compatible with windows 11, but today apple is still selling $1500 laptops with 8gb of RAM
i just directed someone to a 12th gen laptop (i5-1235u) with 16gb ram and 512gb nvme at dell for $430 in a ready-to-ship configuration, search their site for nn3520gsbbs to find it.
Amazing price but I see $699 when browsing from Italy the USA store (and not available at all in Italian store)
If it was available in my country for that price I’d buy it even if my laptop is still newish
Good, to be honest. Like it or not, Microsoft is going all-in on AI stuff, and when Windows starts crashing randomly because the tech kid in your family decided to override the minimum requirements to upgrade to Windows 11, you probably want to know beforehand.
The requirements as documented in the article are “popcnt” and SSE 4.2 support which have been default in just about any amd64 CPU capable of running Windows 11 for at least a decade. The Snapdragon check is probably there so people using unlicensed copies of Windows 11 on their Macs aren’t surprised when the AI stuff starts crashing programs.
Imagine unironically defending Microsoft making their product shittier
Maybe they should just make the OS work on any computer? Kinda seems like they’re shooting themselves in the foot, yeah?
How is warning users that their ancient computer is going to be unstable because they (or more likely, some technically skilled family member) ignored and overrode the minimum requirements?
This isn’t the “Ryzen 2 or 8th gen Intel or up” spec Windows requires. This thing checks for an instruction set that has been standard since Nehalem/K10. There are other operating systems your 18 year old CPU will run just fine, in fact, it’ll run even better.
They can afford to do the ARM check because there aren’t any non-Snapdragon devices that legally run Windows 11 on ARM in the first place.
If this check triggers, the user is running an unsupported configuration that Microsoft already doesn’t want users to run, exactly because the software assumes the system passes the base spec at the very least. They’ve explicitly told everyone their software isn’t designed to run on older hardware, so I don’t see why they should be making their OS work on it. Why invest the time and money to debug the OS on some Intel Atom from 2009 that barely manages to boot the OS in the first place?
Have you considered the fact that your daily driver of an OS should… idk, work on normal hardware?
Why run it at all if you’re going to be wasting that much of your machine’s resources on the fucking Desktop Environment?
It does work on nornal hardware.
Enjoy your high-idle-ram-usage spyware then ;)
Who is going to be forcing Win 11 on old computers for their family members that don’t know much about computers?
If someone buys a new computer, it will support Win 11.
