More Compatibility Quirks Around Windows 11 Gradually Surface
Published on June 26, 2021
- Installing Windows 11 may not be as simple as running a recent Intel chip on any machine out there.
- Laptops will have to feature a high-quality webcam, allowing the Windows Hello biometric login system to operate.
- Support for TPM 2.0 remains a hard requirement right now, at least officially.
Following yesterday’s realization that any systems running on processors that came before the summer of 2016 won’t be compatible with Windows 11 due to making support for TPM 2.0 mandatory, more details about various compatibility quirks of the upcoming OS surface. As such, we’re obliged to return to the topic and inform you of everything that has been made known.
First of all, there’s a small possibility that people using older chips (TPM 1.2) will still be able to install Windows 11 by simply dismissing the relevant warning. This has been circulating around but hasn’t been confirmed by Microsoft yet. On the contrary, the company has provided a detailed explanation on why support for TPM 2.0 is so critical today and how Windows 11 would like to keep security at its core, not as a supplementary, orbiting element. For now, the official stance remains that TPM 2.0 support is non-negotiable.
For those of you who are using Intel-based Macs hoping to hop to Windows 11 in response to the beginning of a new era in macOS that excludes features for your computers, the chances of this being made possible via an official alley are slim. Even though some of these models run chips that can intrinsically support TPM 2.0, Apple has never offered it.
It means that no matter the Intel chip generation on a Mac, they are all incompatible with Windows 11. Apple could update the firmware to enable support for the security protocol, but whether or not they would be interested in doing something like that remains highly doubtful.
Then there’s the element of webcams in laptops, which will be a point of consideration for compatibility with Microsoft’s new OS. Reportedly, for a laptop to be able to run Windows 11, it needs to have a webcam, and its video quality must be HD (720p) or better. Additionally, the camera needs to have auto-exposure capabilities, as well as be able to perform auto-white balancing.
This rule will take effect starting on January 1, 2023, ensuring high user experience quality in laptops sold to consumers with Windows 11 pre-installed. This has to do with the central role of Windows Hello, Microsoft’s facial recognition and biometric security system that will allow users to log in to their laptops just by showing their face on the webcam.
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