720p lowWhat would be the meaningful difference between an unsupported Windows 11 platform, versus simply pressing on with Windows 10 past October 2025?

The right time to ask this will be after October 2025. Why now? And part of the answer might be that my Windows 7 still receives regular updates. To be fair, those are updates for MS Security Essentials and an occasional Malicious Software Removal Tool, nothing more, but it is something.

I don't have any problems installing or running Win11 on my desktop or tablet.
I have several problems unique to Win11 Explorer when trying to conduct my usual workflow in the realm of creation and file navigation.
When I have to suddenly stop and grab a file to quickly update something and that literal right click icon, click filename pinned to a taskbar app turns into a 23 click adventure circus while filtering through thousands of files in Explorer, I quickly forget where I'm going, wtf I'm doing and why. I get that ADHD isn't helping but it's also an extremely popular Twitch tag at this point so maybe that's becoming the norm for a particular group. This UI change is simply unfriendly to creators and there needs to be an alternative shell. Sticking to Win10 after it's EOL is good enough for me but doesn't evoke good memories from people that have already been through that security nightmare.

TPM 2.0 isn't going away.
Bitlocker is malware.
The Windows UI sucks.
There's already hint of mass exodus into linux.
Is there really any surprise?

yfn_ratchetToo little, too late. Win11's strategy up until now was to brute-force people out of Win10 by replacing it in the supply chain of new devices and pressuring people with the 'ooo we're going to drop support soon' BS. Were Win11 treated like the open test bed it was and is, its reception wouldn't have been as catastrophic... nevermind to the average user there is zero point in actually 'upgrading' their OS since Win11 has such insignificant extra functionality at a significant uptick to system requirements. It's Win10 with a fresh coat of Fortune 500 Conglomerate White(tm), who would ever ask for that?

Same basic thing back when Win 10 first came out concerning USB drivers.
They literally said newer hardware would not support USB drivers of older OS versions like Win 7 for example because newer hardware was incompatable with it..... Yet we all know about workarounds for those cases and the USB drivers, once they were installed worked just fine.
Then they (More or less) "Asked" the chipmakers to change microcode for support, that's evident from results about chips from the 3 series Ryzens onward not only refusing to install drivers but also killing functionality of these drivers even if they are working properly and all you do is swap out the system's CPU to a newer one and nothing else.

What's really funny is then you can swap CPUs back and you can get them working again.... Or even take the drive, set it up with some older hardware and USB just starts working again - Then swap it back to your original system/config before the CPU upgrade/swap and it still works.
Ask me how I know.....

It all points to the CPU as the root of it, hence why I mentioned microcode.
BTW even these newer CPUs work fine with older PS2 ports & peripherals.

Forced updates by taking away the option to decide IF you receive these updates or not..... Updates severly screwing systems to the point of it not working anymore, I witnessed the aftermath of that happening in a business enviroment concerning all the hell IT guys were catching because of it.... No, it wasn't pretty.

MS has screwed the pooch too many times with their efforts to "Entice" (FORCE) users to a newer OS, to accepting it having more invasive telemetry, putting up with their F up's and somehow, some out there are still suprised we are wary of it?
Well, it's for good reason as MS's own history has proven as fact with the consistency of their efforts to do so.

I refused Win 10 back when it became known about the removal of update options in favor of forced updates (I saw what was coming) so I went from Win 7 to Linux instead and I ain't going back.

Let's try a fresh install on a 3770K rig. I hope that they've also loosened the CPU requirements (works fine at least with Haswell with TPM).

edit: no luck. And I made a fresh install media about 20 mins ago.

Cut Recall and I'd try it.

I believe all the problems that are present on supported devices in an attempt to disqualify perfectly good hardware deemed unsupported aren't present on unsupported hardware I've been running Windows 11 on my core 2 quad core to Duo and X58 machines from day one and it works excellent with all that other garbage disabled I also have an AM4 machine that has weird bugs that are not present on my older unsupported hardware Go figure

Psstt they want people to install the malware called co-pilot and recall

OSdevrCut Recall and I'd try it.

Eliminate co-pilot and recall totally, no registey entries, no extensions, files nothing of it should be in anyones system.

l have tried W11 on two machines. One was completely unsupported with old old hardware and no TPM, and W11 actually ran pretty well. The other is my officially supported work laptop, which I want to throw in the river almost every single day.

eidairaman1Psstt they want people to install the malware called co-pilot and recall


Eliminate co-pilot and recall totally, no registey entries, no extensions, files nothing of it should be in anyones system.

It's actually easy to uninstall co-pilot and recall is also easy to disable

DirtyBikerIt's actually easy to uninstall co-pilot and recall is also easy to disable

Uninstall and disable isn't what you should do on a fresh OS. Besides, what about remaining registry keys? What about other forms of telemetry? Windows 11 needs some massive work for me to be acceptable.

Darmok N Jaladl have tried W11 on two machines. One was completely unsupported with old old hardware and no TPM, and W11 actually ran pretty well. The other is my officially supported work laptop, which I want to throw in the river almost every single day.

Obviously, Microsoft has never heard "if it's not broken, don't fix it".

AusWolfUninstall and disable isn't what you should do on a fresh OS. Besides, what about remaining registry keys? What about other forms of telemetry? Windows 11 needs some massive work for me to be acceptable.


Obviously, Microsoft has never heard "if it's not broken, don't fix it".

The joy of it all, is that I’m a “fast ring” user at work, so I get the major updates before the masses so I can report issues. Can’t wait for 24H2!

Darmok N JaladThe joy of it all, is that I’m a “fast ring” user at work, so I get the major updates before the masses so I can report issues. Can’t wait for 24H2!

I don't know what the point of major updates is, though. The only reasons one needs updates on an OS are bug fixes, security and hardware support. I don't know why Microsoft is trying to reinvent the wheel every (half) year or so. This is one of the many things that bug me about Windows these days. It keeps changing for no reason, and not for the better, either.

Most people (me included) do not want Windows 11 so Microsoft are ready to do anything to make us migrate. I will hold as long as possible! W10 is still the best OS for Gaming (as of now) so there's no reason to upgrade yet.

until I start hearing "windows 11 is actually good now" from multiple sources I'll pass

I hear 24H2 is a hot mess. I'm still on 23H2 and will remain on it until people report that 24H2 is stable.

Am I missing something? This has been policy for years, no?

eidairaman1Psstt they want people to install the malware called co-pilot and recall


Eliminate co-pilot and recall totally, no registey entries, no extensions, files nothing of it should be in anyones system.

I agree - It's silly to think a simple tick in the registry box will truly disable it.
It's called malware for good reason and I doubt you'd be rid of it that easily. Doesn't help it's also related to AI, we know what an AI can do if it wants to regardless of us or our own "Wants".
Microsoft Copilot - Wikipedia
5 Reasons why you should (and shouldn't) use Windows Recall on Windows 11 | Windows Central

Legacy1What about Secure Boot?

I have a GA-X99-UD4 but don't think it has Secure Boot:(

It should - my GA-X99-Ultra Gaming does. You will need to purchase a discrete TPM 2.0 module, though. It's the 12-pin GC-TPM2.0, or compatible clone. Make sure it has a Infineon SLB9665 chip if buying a clone. However, WIndows 11 24H2 still works fine without a module. Only buy if you can find cheap and/or can spare the cash.

DaemonForceTPM 2.0 isn't going away.
Bitlocker is malware.

It's funny that these things have been around since Windows Vista and it's taken almost 20 years for Microsoft to push for them to be present. It's not even a hard enforcement yet, and people are genuinely Pikachu-face surprised about it

I'm waiting for some of the biggest issues with Win11 to maybe be resolved before I decide to upgrade from an already outdated windows 10 installation to windows 11. I have legitmately no reason to install windows 11 other than the fact I think the UI looks pretty. I'm the baby being distracted by Microsoft's keys, windows 11 UI in this case, as you could say lol. :D

AusWolfPerhaps not even that - there are office suites for Linux, too. Many people just don't know that alternatives exist.

I am a Senior Unix Systems Engineer with 27 years of experience, and I can tell you that the Office alternatives are just not there. While MS Office has its plethora of issues, it is the de facto standard. Office on web just doesn't cut it. While all of my machines are *nix based, I always have a VM with Windows where I have the full blown Office suite.

It's like they said, M$ realized that people are not so interested in using AI (Copilot) and, therefore, they no longer require people to buy a new PC capable of running their AI.

KadathI am a Senior Unix Systems Engineer with 27 years of experience, and I can tell you that the Office alternatives are just not there. While MS Office has its plethora of issues, it is the de facto standard. Office on web just doesn't cut it. While all of my machines are *nix based, I always have a VM with Windows where I have the full blown Office suite.

I second this, LibreOffice and OpenOffice user for 20 years and let me tell you, there's no option that can overthrow MS Office Client software.
For really simple stuff, sure. Open Document formats work fine. But even as an ISO standard, no entity or person is mandated to use it and so interoperability becomes an inconvenience and a nuisance, because everyone else has used .doc, .xls, .ppt, etc. since the 90's.
But the thing is, the MS Office code is restricted to Windows by (business) choice, as there is nothing that would actually prevent it from being released in *nix, except for...you know, paying for it (See: MacOS).

Here is a list of changes ( bypasses ) that need to be used during Windows 11 installation on older PCs.

During initial phase of Windows 11 installation press Shift+F10 to execute Command Prompt from Windows 11 Installation Dialog

Bypass Microsoft Requirements

** Update #1 **
HKLM_SYSTEM_Setup_LabConfig
BypassCPUCheck REG_DWORD ( 32-bit ) 0x00000001
BypassRAMCheck REG_DWORD ( 32-bit ) 0x00000001
BypassSecureBootCheck REG_DWORD ( 32-bit ) 0x00000001
BypassStorageCheck REG_DWORD ( 32-bit ) 0x00000001
BypassTPMCheck REG_DWORD ( 32-bit ) 0x00000001
Notes
www.techpowerup.com/287584/windows-11-tpm-requirement-bypass-it-in-5-minutes

** Update #2 **
HKLM_SYSTEM_Setup_MoSetup
"AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU"=dword:00000001
Notes
Microsoft has released an official method at
support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ways-to-install-windows-11-e0edbbfb-cfc5-4011-868b-2ce77ac7c70e
on how to reduce the TPM requirement from TPM 2.0 to TPM 1.2 for upgrade installs

** Update #3 **
HKLM_SYSTEM_Software_Microsoft_WindowsSelfHost_UI_Selection
UIBranch REG_SZ Dev
UIContentType REG_SZ Mainline
UIRing REG_SZ External
HKLM_SYSTEM_Software_Microsoft_WindowsSelfHost_UI_Applicability
BranchName REG_SZ Dev
ContentType REG_SZ Mainline
Ring REG_SZ External

Microsoft just don't get it, do they? An almost negligible fraction of people care about Windows. They run it because it's what they have, it's compatible with what they have, and it runs the software they want.

Nobody wants to do a Windows upgrade.
Nobody wants to learn a new interface that's different simply for the sake of being different.
Nobody wants to be pushed incessantly towards paid cloud services from Microsoft for browsing, searching, AI assistance, file storage, webapps that don't need to be webapps at all, etc.

If I created a poll at work and asked what people most wanted from an operating system, I'm confident enough to bet my own life that the majority just want it to be more responsive and less intrusive, in other words, they think windows is a slow, bloated mess full of unwelcome and unnecessary irritations and interruptions.

Funny, I saw an article just a few days ago claiming that Microsoft plans to put a watermark on Win11 machines using unsupported hardware. And there is corroboration in Microsoft's official documentation, as of this moment:

When Windows 11 is installed on a device that doesn't meet the minimum system requirements, a watermark is added to the Windows 11 desktop. Notification might also be displayed in Settings to advise that the requirements aren't met.


If a device that doesn't meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 11 experiences issues after upgrading to Windows 11, Microsoft recommends going back to Windows 10.

I don't know whether Microsoft has, in fact, walked back its stance on the TPM requirement. For a couple of years now, Win11's hardware requirements have been in sort of a No Man's Land--with Microsoft tacitly endorsing "unofficial" methods to bypass those requirements, even going so far as to publicize instructions on their own website, while at the same time maintaining that such methods are "not recommended," and also periodically shutting off previous methods e.g. to bypass online registration.

And therein lies my problem. Yes, you can bypass the requirements, but there's no reason to trust that the bypass will continue to hold. Same deal with various privacy settings. Even on Windows 10, there were at least two occasions when an update silently reset all of my telemetry options. (There was another time when a Win10 update helpfully erased home users' home network settings.) We needn't discuss more recent developments like Recall, and the ongoing general controversy about Big Tech mining private data to train AI.

Users' relationship with their OS shouldn't be adversarial. Updates will occasionally change or break things no matter what you're using. God knows I see that on Linux, but at least with Linux I don't feel like the developers are working against me on purpose. With Windows, even when Microsoft walks back a controversial decision, the subtext is always that MS still holds the pimp hand. "In light of overwhelming criticism, we've decided not to attack you in this specific way, today, but keep your eyes peeled!"

I think most people, at least on this forum, would accept a new Windows edition with stringent hardware restrictions, provided that the hardware were used to provide tangible benefits. Win11, from my perspective, fails on both counts: the OS comes off as a not-so-glorified reskin of Win10, and its extra hardware requirements largely concern ephemeral security measures with questionable upside, dictated by a party with questionable motives.

TPM is a great example: there are scenarios where a TPM-backed auto-Bitlocker system might make sense (e.g. a ditzy college student's laptop), but for experienced users, gestures like this come across as arrogance. It isn't Microsoft's business where or how I store my encryption keys, and it surely isn't their place to silently force encryption of my disks, with the default failsafe conveniently stored on their cloud servers. Another poster suggested that Microsoft's trying to make itself into Apple, by asserting total control over not just the OS, but also the machine on which it runs. I wish them luck if this is their plan going forward, but Microsoft got to where it is today in large part because it represented the open platform, in contrast to walled gardens like Apple's.