While the newer generation PCs are all eligible to get their hands on the new Windows 11, there was always a question of whether the older PCs will be able to run it, officially, or not. In a piece of good news (via The Verge), Microsoft has announced today that it won’t block older PC users to install Windows 11. Apparently, this will be the case for “most” of the older PCs, and not for “all” older PCs. Microsoft has already announced the minimum requirements for installing Windows 11. Notably, only AMD Zen 2 and Intel eighth-gen processors or later were supported. However, users could not digest the fact that older versions won’t be supported. Thankfully, now users can manually flash the Windows 11 ISO file boot disk and still install the OS on their older PCs. This trick or process was originally meant for businesses to install Windows 11 on machines without internet access. Taking advantage of this, older PC users can flash Windows 11 and enjoy its new features.
Microsoft will not recommend or officially advertise this method of installing Windows 11
This will impact millions of PCs that were previously not eligible for Windows 11 installation. Although Microsoft has announced this process officially, it won’t be advertising it. The company however does not recommend installing Windows 11 following this method. The reason being there is no guarantee if it will come with full driver compatibility or system stability. So, overall, installing the Windows 11 OS via this procedure is at your own risk. If you are okay with some issues here and there, then you can go ahead with the installation. For now, the minimum requirement to install Windows 11, including the process for older PCs, is to have a 64-bit processor with two cores or above. It should have a base clock of at least 1GHz, along with 4GB RAM, and 64GB of storage. This configuration is available on most Chromebooks nowadays. It shouldn’t be an issue, apart from the ones mentioned. One important point that Microsoft has mentioned is the PCs that are upgraded following this way may not be entitled to receive any kind of Windows updates, even the security updates. Again, it all depends on the user if he/she wants to enjoy all the new features introduced with Windows 11 on their older PCs or not.
