Microsoft Announces Windows 11 is Coming as a Free Upgrade Over Windows 10

[AleksandarK]

Yesterday, we reported the launch of Microsoft's next-generation Windows 11 operating system. Featuring a broad range of improvements that include the new and redesigned UI elements, 40% smaller updates, layouts, widgets, and a bunch of other stuff, existing Windows 10 users are wondering how and when they will be able to experience the new OS. The OS is coming later this year, with some preview beta builds supposed to arrive in the coming weeks. That means that a large portion of people is interested in trying out even the beta version. However, there is an important note about the new OS. When it officially comes out, all of the existing Windows 10 users can upgrade to Windows 11 for free, by just performing the software update.

To run the new OS, Microsoft lists a few new requirements like 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage, 1+ GHz dual-core processor, and Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0. The TPM 2.0 needs to be physically present, however, it is often turned off in BIOS, so future users need to enable it in BIOS as well. For more details, please head over to Microsoft website to find greater details on the upgrade.


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[Snoop05]

Already lowered TPM requirements to 1.2

 

[mechtech]

Already lowered TPM requirements to 1.2

Lol nice

ya I’d imagine this will get force fed like what happened to everyone on win 7,8,8.1

 

[Chaitanya]

How many desktop users have TPM modules to begin with?

 

[Rhein7]

Yay I don't have to pay again.
I'm actually pretty satisfied with Win 10 but obviously gonna wait a bit before upgrading like usual.

 

[Flying Fish]

How many desktop users have TPM modules to begin with?

It depends how old they are.
Newer Intel platforms have Intel PTT (Platform Trust Technology) which is a firmware based TPM 2.0.
Newer AMD platforms likewise have fTPM as their firmware TPM 2.0 implementation.

I don't know how far back either goes...but I do know my 8th gen NUC has Intel PTT in it so your mileage may vary.

Additionally many motherboards have a TPM connector on them for adding a discrete TPM...but sadly said TPMs arent compatible with different brands of MB so you need to match MSI to MSI, Asus to Asus etc...not to mention differing pin counts within the same manufacturer to navigate and good luck finding any in stock.

 

[XiGMAKiD]

Looks like I'll pass the free upgrade since I can't find TPM on local online store for my Asus motherboard. Seems like 2025 is the year I will embrace Linux as my main desktop OS.

 

[bug]

Seeing that so far Win11 is Win10+restrictions and without nothing you'd want, "free" is too expensive.

 

[TheOne]

Yea, no, I'm still not a fan of the last "free upgrade" they gave me, but I would be interested in a TPU front page poll to see how many are planning to "switch". Also Microsoft's website still list TPM 2.0.

 

[XiGMAKiD]

...without nothing you'd want,

Double negative so it's with everything you'd want?

 

[freeagent]

Unless they make some more serious changes and give the user a little more flexibility this guy wont be running it, at least not for awhile..

To be fair though, 10 did some things better than 7 did that made my life just a little easier.. sometimes its the little things..

No regrats.

You are the product

 

[W1zzard]

Yea, no, I'm still not a fan of the last "free upgrade" they gave me, but I would be interested in a TPU front page poll to see how many are planning to "switch".

Great idea, coming right up

 

[Makaveli]

Looks like I'll pass the free upgrade since I can't find TPM on local online store for my Asus motherboard. Seems like 2025 is the year I will embrace Linux as my main desktop OS.

Intel (8th gen or newer) or AMD (Ryzen 2000 or newer)

Your skylake based system doesn't make the cut on the intel side.

 

[johnp]

My PC has no TPM module either, so I am not going to install Windows 11, unless there is some possible upgrade procedure from Windows 10 to Windows 11, for PCs that already run Windows 10, without TPM.

But in general, I always preferred Linux than Windows.

 

[GamerGuy]

Shoot, I checked and apparently, I don't have a TPM module in my mobo....

 

[Makaveli]

My PC has no TPM module either, so I am not going to install Windows 11, unless there is some possible upgrade procedure from Windows 10 to Windows 11, for PCs that already run Windows 10, without TPM.

But in general, I always preferred Linux than Windows.

You are still on a haswell based system. You can stay on windows 10 but you have 4 years now to upgrade its time!

unless you plan to still be using that hardware after 2025

Shoot, I checked and apparently, I don't have a TPM module in my mobo....

You are on a X570 board your system is new enough. check my post

however those intel rigs in your sig are too old.

Microsoft Launches Windows 11 Operating System

You can install it using a local account. Also Openshell works on it just fine. For a virtualbox vm, go get the test dev build of vmadditons iso. Oh and I had to install Openshell to get any kind of start menu. It defaults to that stupid macos taskbar on install. I don't have a mac or a...

www.techpowerup.com

@W1zzard lol may need some kinda sticky going to be getting this question alot over the next 6 months!

 

[trparky]

Shoot, I checked and apparently, I don't have a TPM module in my mobo....

My father's 2600X has an embedded TPU chip inside the CPU, check your UEFI for something called fTPM.

 

[trparky]

I had to go into my UEFI for my Intel system and enable Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT) in order for the tool to say that I can upgrade to Windows 11. A side effect of the change that I made in UEFI was that I can now use BitLocker to encrypt my boot drive.

That only covers the TPM part not the supported processor part. So your fathers Sandy bridge based cpu doesn't make the intel cut off.

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X.

 

[Makaveli]

I had to go into my UEFI for my Intel system and enable Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT) in order for the tool to say that I can upgrade to Windows 11. A side effect of the change that I made in UEFI was that I can now use BitLocker to encrypt my boot drive.


AMD Ryzen 5 2600X.

Noticed that after mis read that for an intel chip

 

[trparky]

I'm going to upgrade to it as soon as I can. Though I will make a full Macrium Reflect disk image of the system drive first just in case the shit hits the fan during the upgrade.

 

[Makaveli]

I'm going to upgrade to it as soon as I can. Though I will make a full Macrium Reflect disk image of the system drive first just in case the shit hits the fan during the upgrade.

good idea!

 

[Flying Fish]

I had to go into my UEFI for my Intel system and enable Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT) in order for the tool to say that I can upgrade to Windows 11. A side effect of the change that I made in UEFI was that I can now use BitLocker to encrypt my boot drive.


AMD Ryzen 5 2600X.

to be fair you can use bitlocker to encrypt your boot drive without a TPM, you just need to change a single group policy.

Computer configuration -> administrative templtes -> windows components -> bitlocker drive encyrption -> operating system drives -> double click require additional authentication at startup -> change it to enabled and tick the tickbox that says allow bitlocker without a compatible TPM (requires a password or startup key on a USB flash drive)

 

[Zubasa]

Intel (8th gen or newer) or AMD (Ryzen 2000 or newer)

Your skylake based system doesn't make the cut on the intel side.

FYI the Zen1 Ryzen 300GE APU is listed as supported while none of the other APUs based on the same chip are listed.
M$ just set some arbitrary cut off date for the list. The 300GE just happened to be released late.

 

[Makaveli]

FYI the Zen1 Ryzen 300GE APU is listed as supported while none of the other APUs based on the same chip are listed.
M$ just set some arbitrary cut off date for the list. The 300GE just happened to be released late.

Interesting find.

 

[Zubasa]

Interesting find.

You can also tell the CPU list is BS by how the Skylake-X Xeons and the 10980XE are supported, but the 7980XE and 9980XE are not.
There are no practical difference between the X299 platform CPUs, except the Kabylake-X stuff where Intel soldered a Desktop die on the LGA2066 package.
The only difference on the 10980XE is that it has a soldered lid and have some of the security fixes built in.