Last Updated on June 28, 2021 by GrahamWalsh
I want to get my have my Dell Precision Tower Windows 11 Ready. It is running Windows 10 today, but of course I want to ensure it is Windows 11 ready. However, when I checked out the minimum requirements, it had to be on TPM 2.0. What is TPM? This is the Trusted Protection Module that you would use with say Windows 10 BitLocker to enhance the security of your system. If you enter your system ID into the Dell support site, you can see if your system can be upgraded. As you can see below, when I run Start > Run > tpm.msc I can see that mine is 1.2.
When I go to the Dell website, I can see that mine is capable of being upgrade as it is listing TPM 2.0 under the Security category.
One thing you should do before you apply that firmware is clear the current TPM ownership and disable auto provisioning, otherwise you’ll never be able to upgrade the TPM version. Open an elevated PowerShell command and run Disable-TPMAutoProvisioning. Full details here on the Microsoft site. You could do it just for the next reboot.
Once you have run this, you can then clear the current TPM state. Just run tpm.msc and then reboot. You have to be in front of the device to do this. I had to press F12 to clear the TPM before it would boot back to Windows.
Now I can update the TPM version on my desktop using the file I downloaded from the Dell site. Of course another reboot.
Once rebooted, I run tpm.msc to check my TPM version and hey presto. Version 2.0 is now on my desktop.
So now let’s check the Windows Insider Programme and see if I’m ready to receive Windows 11.
Arrgh, why not? So lets click on Learn more and this shows us what is needed for Windows 11. But it doesn’t tell me why it’s not ready for Windows 11. Come on Microsoft, make this easier for the average consumer. After a conversation on Twitter, Ian Moran shared a handy tool that someone has built. This is what Windows 10 should have built in!! Now when I run this tool, it tells me what the issue is.
So it turns out my Intel i7-6700 processer isn’t supported. A full list of support processors for Windows 11 certainly doesn’t include my CPU. My 6-year-old processor can’t run Windows 11 🙁 Surely it could run Windows 11, albeit a little slower?
On the site page about learning more as to what Windows 11 requires, there is a PC Health check tool here. So let’s run this version and see what it says.
Once installed, let’s run the app.
Well at least it is short and to the point
So, what does Learn More tell me? Nothing, I can buy a new PC!!
So, can I run Windows 11 with a degraded performance? Well, I hope to be able to. Not sure why Windows 11 is so strict against the processor. Otherwise, I can carry on running Windows 10.
Let me know any thoughts below.
Updated evening of 28th June: Microsoft added a new blog post here outlining an issue with the Health Check tool and it’s been removed for now. The good news is that I can now install Windows 11 on my Dell desktop. I am also checking my Surface Laptop, and this too cannot run Windows 11 due to CPU issues. My guess is that Microsoft will use the data from us Insiders to work out how well Windows 11 performs before it goes GA in the fall, around October timeframe is the rumour.
Also published on Medium.