Windows 11: Should You Bypass Hardware Blocks?

If you’re like most PC users, your current computer can’t run Windows 11 Microsoft has put a line in the hardware sand to ensure that modern machines with only certain features that offer strict security can run Windows 11.

Kind of good. The company provides a solution, I will discuss in a moment. The question is whether you (or your users) should take advantage of this loophole to upgrade your PC to Windows 11.

First, if you want to know if a computer can run Windows 11, you can To be able to Use the PC Health Check app, Microsoft’s diagnostic tool. But if your PC doesn’t support Windows 11, then Microsoft’s app doesn’t do a great job of explaining why. Instead, I recommend using the Windows 11 Requirement Verification Tool from ByteJams.com or WhyNotWin11 available on GitHub. Both tools provide details on why a machine should not run Windows 11. On my personal laptop at home, for example, the processor hypervisor cannot support hardware for Enforced Code Integrity, and Windows 11 doesn’t like displaying graphics.

But you do There is To meet all the requirements of Microsoft to get an acceptable experience with Windows 11? If a machine is not old, what if I put an item from Windows 11?

Windows 11 bypasses the hardware block

This has often been the case over the years, with Microsoft putting somewhat shaky room in the hardware mandate for Windows 11, indicating that you can use the following registry keys to bypass the hardware block:

Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup

Name: AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU

Type: REG_DWORD

Value: 1

This tactic comes with a precaution from Microsoft, such as if you install Windows 11 on a PC that does not meet the minimum hardware requirements, “your PC will no longer be supported and will not be entitled to receive updates.” It doesn’t come. “

Note, however, that Microsoft has not yet been able to enforce the threat of such users not receiving updates. I personally think this is more of a performance alert: if there are some sort of performance issue with some unsupported CPUs, my guess is that Microsoft won’t work to fix the issue.

For personal computer systems – especially for intelligent end users who like to try new things and get good backups, and especially for getting back on extra computers – I have less concern about using the work that Microsoft itself has provided. Apparently it’s a blind eye rolling and realizing that we want to play around.

But do you really want to use this solution in business?

For Something Business I would argue that you do not need any of these hardware mandates. The fact is that Microsoft has added more protection to its enterprise customers than to individuals or small businesses. Some key security features for Windows 11 are only supported if you have proper licensing and Windows Enterprise – for example, Credential Guard, in which Microsoft writes:

“Windows 11 uses hardware-enabled, virtualization-based security capabilities to protect systems from pass-the-hash or pass-the-ticket authentication attacks. This helps prevent malware from accessing system privacy even if the process is running with admin privileges. In the future, Credential Guard will be enabled by default for companies using the Enterprise version of Windows 11. “

For this reason, running Windows 11 requires hardware virtualization support and a TPM 2.0 chip. But unless you buy Windows 11 Enterprise, you will not be able to deploy Credential Guard.

Windows 10 is a great option for many

That said, it may be too early to move your users to Windows 11 right now. Even businesses now buy computers To be able to Running Windows 11 could be better than running Windows 10 for many years to come.

For many of us who have a computer at home as well as the ones we use in the office, having a different operating system on two machines can be confusing. The two items that frequently visit me between Windows 11 and Windows 10 are the centralized start menu and taskbar. With the Windows 10 menu on the left side of the screen and the Windows 11 widgets now on the left, I find myself clicking on the Widgets menu when I want to turn off the Windows 11 computer. And the modified Windows 11 taskbar means I’m still stumbling a bit to find cut, paste, and other tools.

If your machine is powered by Windows Update and qualifies for Windows 11, it should be offered on your system now. If you choose not to install Windows 11, you may be offered this at a later date. Remember, you can use Intune in addition to the registry key or group policy to place machines in Windows 10 instead of going to Windows 11. Windows 11 will not be given to business devices powered by Intune or WSUS; An administrator must specifically approve Windows 11 upgrades.

Lately I’ve been helping people buy new computers, often slightly older laptops which are a good standard. These PCs support running Windows 11, but for now I’m setting up registry keys to keep systems in Windows 10. I plan to help them move up to 11 when the time is right

For my own business, many of my users still have Windows 10 in their homes, I am currently choosing to keep firm computers in Windows 10. I find it easy for users to have the same type of computer at home and at work. Over time, we’ll be moving to more and more machines in Windows 11, and then I’ll decide whether to use the bypass strategy to keep any older systems in Windows 11.