Windows 11 May Start Warning You If It’s Installed on Unsupported Hardware

When compared to prior operating systems, Windows 11 certainly has a notably terser set of system requirements. And this isn’t just restricted to the need for having ‘Secure Boot’ and ‘TPM 2.0’ enabled either. It also requires a fairly modern processor that, surprisingly, even saw 1st-generation Ryzen CPUs excluded from the party. – As we’re sure more than you are aware, however, despite its specifications, Windows 11 can still be installed on systems that don’t quite meet the official grade. The key downside to this, however, is that if the operating system is applied on an ‘unsuitable’ system, Microsoft will not (fully) open the doors to future security and/or feature updates. – On the surface though, everything will appear as normal.

Following a report via The Verge, however, the latest Windows Insider build has just given a huge hint that Windows 11 may start rolling out the ‘nagware’ when it is installed on a system that doesn’t meet its official requirements!

Windows 11 To Start Giving ‘System Requirement’ Notifications?

Following the release of the latest Windows 11 Insider Build, users who have it installed on unsupported system hardware have reported seeing a new notification on the desktop (as well as the setting menu) warning them that the operating system is being utilised on an ‘incompatible’ system. – Taking a similar guise to the Windows 10 ‘not activated’ watermark, however, by and large, with the exception of a few mostly unimportant features being deactivated, the issue seems to begin and end here.

What is the purpose of this notification though? Well, primarily, to tell users that their PC (or laptop) is not Windows 11 ready. Sorry if that sounded a bit obvious. – More than anything, however, we suspect that this is to highlight that, generally speaking, installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware is probably not a good idea. Particularly so since, as above, unsupported systems will not have any kind of substantial access to security updates.

Given that so few have updated to Windows 11 so far, however, (with an adoption rate possibly as low as just 2%) perhaps Microsoft should just be grateful that people are bothering to install it in the first place!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!