3 instruments to test Home windows 11 replace compatibility

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Upgrading to Home windows 11 can have many advantages, so long as the PC is prepared for it. IT directors ought to test that PCs can deal with Home windows 11 earlier than going by with this replace.

Microsoft launched Home windows 11 on Oct. 5, 2021, with key options together with higher assist for digital desktops and a repositioned Begin button with a capability to run Android apps. Different options embody the choice to personalize widgets, which customers can straight entry within the taskbar, and an easier interface with rounded corners and a centered Begin menu and taskbar.

Though the OS internals do not appear to have modified drastically from Home windows 10, sure Home windows 11 {hardware} necessities pose improve challenges for PCs bought earlier than 2018. Microsoft recommends towards upgrading older machines to Home windows 11. Though customers can forcibly improve older PCs, Microsoft may withhold future updates, together with safety patches, from these PCs.

Key Home windows 11 {hardware} necessities

All the main points regarding Home windows 11 specs and necessities can be found from Microsoft. A choose few are prone to pose compatibility points for older PCs. Older PCs should assist the next options or capabilities:

  • System firmware. Requires Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and should be Safe Boot succesful.
  • Trusted Platform Module. Should run TPM model 2.0 or higher.
    • This doesn’t require discrete TPM circuitry. Newer Intel, AMD and Azure Useful resource Supervisor (ARM)/Qualcomm CPUs assist TPM 2.0 by way of firmware emulation.
  • CPU necessities.
    • Intel. Should be eighth-generation CPU or newer, with minor seventh-generation exceptions for sure Microsoft Floor PCs.
    • AMD. Should be Epyc 72xx or higher, or Ryzen 2300X CPU or higher — together with most Ryzen 3 and 5 fashions.
    • ARM/Qualcomm. Should be Snapdragon 7c or 8xx, or MS SQ1 or SQ2 mannequin.

Instruments to evaluate Home windows 11 replace readiness

Microsoft provides a PC Well being Examine app, out there by the Microsoft Retailer, that works on particular person PCs, one after the other. To search out the app, sort “PC Well being Examine” into the Begin Menu search field (Determine 1).

The PC Health Check app in the Start Menu.
Merely sort ‘PC Well being Examine’ within the Home windows 10 Begin Menu to launch the app.

If the model of PC Well being Examine on a goal PC is outdated, Microsoft will replace the app earlier than it runs. When the PC Well being Examine app opens, click on Examine now to run the Home windows 11 system necessities evaluation (Determine 2).

The opening screen for the PC Health Check app.
Click on ‘Examine now’ to launch the compatibility evaluation.

Click on See all outcomes within the ensuing pop-up to get to the PC Well being Examine window and discover out whether or not the goal PC meets Home windows 11 necessities (Determine 3).

The screen showing the results of the PC Health Check.
The Floor Professional 3 PC on this instance, bought in 2014, fails as a result of it is working a fourth-generation Intel CPU (i7-4650U).

IT organizations may use third-party Home windows 11 compatibility evaluation instruments on company PCs as a result of the PC Well being Examine does not work with policy-based PC administration. On such PCs, the native Microsoft device’s test produces solely an error outcome (Determine 4).

The notification that PC Health Check results are not available on a PC because it is centrally managed.
Centrally managed PCs do not work nicely with the PC Well being Examine.

For PCs that may’t correctly run the PC Well being Examine device, there are a number of third-party instruments that IT admins can attempt. WhyNotWin11 is a venture out there on GitHub that runs as a standalone Home windows utility. It experiences on a collection of checks that it runs on track PCs, equivalent to CPU compatibility and storage availability. The applying lists the necessities for Home windows 11 and identifies which of them the goal PC does and doesn’t meet (Determine 5).

The screen showing results in WhyNotWin11.
WhyNotWin11 reveals an incompatible CPU and a lacking TPM.

The Home windows 11 Compatibility Examine is one other venture out there on GitHub that takes the type of a batch file and runs inside an administrative command immediate or PowerShell window on track PCs. It additionally works on centrally managed PCs to supply an inventory of which Home windows 11 necessities a goal PC does and doesn’t meet (Determine 6). To carry out the test, begin CMD.exe on the listing the place Win11CompChk.bat resides and run the file, or do likewise in a PowerShell session.

The screen showing results in WhyNotWin11.
The Win11CompChk.bat file gives a bit of extra element about what’s lacking.

Automating compatibility checks

Each WhyNotWin11 and Home windows 11 Compatibility Examine can run remotely by way of PowerShell scripts or batch recordsdata. They every assist an export facility to avoid wasting outcomes and ship them to a central assortment level. IT directors should embed these scripts with knowledge to determine the PCs that the outcomes tackle — machine identify or another distinctive identifier equivalent to asset ID or vendor ID — to allow them to distinguish one pc from one other after the compatibility knowledge’s assortment. The outcomes from both of those instruments ought to give IT the knowledge to find out what portion of the PC fleet is prepared for Home windows 11, and what portion is just not. Remediation previous to the Home windows 11 improve normally requires changing incompatible older PCs with newer, appropriate ones. Nonetheless, finish of life for Home windows 10 does not happen till Oct. 14, 2025. That must be lengthy sufficient to plan migration and handle the refresh cycle to buy substitute PCs.

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