Windows 11 System Requirements Update

Windows 11 Release Date

Windows 11 Version 21H2 Maintrack is due to be released next month on the 5th of October 2021. This means Windows 11 should be made available to the Release Preview Channel very shortly. There is unlikely to be any significant changes to Windows 11 Version 21H2 Maintrack from the current Windows 11 Beta Channel Insider Preview especially in the fundamental areas of Microsoft Product Activation and installation/driver support for hardware...

Windows 11 PC Check App

Microsoft have released an updated Windows PC Check Application which is available to download using a Microsoft Account here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsinsiderpreviewpchealth 

System Requirements Microsoft Traffic Light Designation

Although the PC Check App now states what is supported and what is unsupported. Microsoft have actually split the system requirements into three categories. These use a traffic light colouring system where:

• Green (all requirements satisfied).
  • 8th Gen and higher Processors.
• Yellow (the Processor model and/or TPM 2.0 requirement are not satisfied but all other system requirements are satisfied).
  • 6th and 7th Generation Processors.
  • 5th Generation Processors (Not Tested)
• Red category (not supported).
  • Systems without a UEFI Boot with Secure Boot patched for the 2020 GRUB2 Security Exploit.
  • 1st to 3rd Generation Processors.
  • 4th Generation Processors (Not Tested)

Windows 11 Insider Preview ISO

The Windows 11 Insider Preview Beta Channel ISO is available here again requiring use of a Microsoft Account:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-insider/isos 

It can be used to create a Bootable USB that can be installed on systems that pass the Yellow and Green System Requirements.

Creating a UEFI Bootable USB for Dell UEFI BIOS with Secure Boot

Dell UEFI BIOS + Secure Boot Blocks Windows 11 USB

Note there are some issues with making Windows 11 Installation Media compatible with Secure Boot on some supported Dell systems.

Essentially Microsoft provide an ISO with an install.wim that exceeds 4.0 GB, the upper limit of the FAT32 file system and Rufus therefore formats the USB using NTFS.

The NTFS Formatted USB passed Secure Boot on my XPS 13 9365 (Yellow) and XPS 13 9305 (Green) but was rejected by Secure Boot on my OptiPlex 7040 (Yellow), OptiPlex 7050 (Yellow) and OptiPlex 7060 (Green).

It seems Secure Boot on the OptiPlex models only support booting from a FAT32 Partition... Ideally Dell should should update the UEFI BIOS in all models to support booting from a USB with a NTFS Partition as Microsoft are commonly releasing Windows Insider Preview ISOs and Windows Direct Download ISOs with install.wim files that exceed 4.0 GB.

Multi-Partition USB Workaround

It is possible to manually create a UEFI Bootable USB using Disk Management that has multiple partitions:

• A 1.0 GB FAT32 BOOT Partition
• The rest of the space on the USB assigned to an NTFS INSTALL partition.

Then manually copying the files over:

• All the files from the ISO should be copied to the INSTALL Partition.
• All the files except the Sources folder from the ISO should be copied to the BOOT Partition.
• A Sources folder should be manually created on the BOOT Partition and the boot.wim from the Sources folder of the ISO copied over to it.

For those having issues with this, I describe this in more detail here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3JMmrFNA2U 

It is also possible to create a USB with a single FAT32 formatted partition and split the install.swm into multiple install.swm files.

Dell Driver Updates

Although Dell officially only support Green systems. Dell Command Update has worked on a Clean Install of Windows 11 for driver installation on my Yellow (6th and 7th Gen Processors) and Green systems:

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000177325/dell-command-update 

I have tested:

• XPS 13 9365 (Yellow)
• XPS 13 9305 (Green)
• OptiPlex 7040 (Yellow)
• OptiPlex 7050 (Yellow)
• OptiPlex 7060 (Green)

These systems run Windows 11 as expected.

System Requirements Microsoft Traffic Light Designation Continued...

Microsoft made an on the fly statement regarding unsupported systems "not receiving future updates" which has been picked up by the media. This is likely to reference major future Feature Updates and not minor Quality Updates and be applicable to systems that are Red and not Yellow.

They have recently moved the Windows 11 Dev Channel away from being a testing ground for the upcoming Windows 11 Version 21H2 to begin work on the next development of Windows 11 i.e. towards the next Feature Update. In the Windows 11 Insider Preview Blog, for the next Dev Build they have reiterated that:

• Yellow systems: Will (at least for now) continue receiving Windows Insider Preview Builds however they will have a yellow notification in the Windows Update → Windows Insider Settings, that the PC may not perform as well as expected and may have issues that Microsoft may not fix.
• Red systems: Will instead get a red warning warning in the Windows Update → Windows Insider Settings, stating that the PC is ineligible for the Windows Insider Program, prompting them to roll back to Windows 10. 

See the following Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22449 blog for more details:

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2021/09/02/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-22449/ 

"In support of the Windows 11 hardware requirements, the minimum requirement for previewing Window 11 builds in our Windows Insider Program was set to match the overall requirements for Windows 11, with the exception for TPM 2.0 and CPU family/model – the yellow column in the chart below. These PCs will continue to receive Insider Preview builds normally depending on which channel they have opted their PC into."