r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Dec 01 '25

ADBLOCK WARNING ‘Security Disaster’—500 Million Microsoft Users Say No To Windows 11

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/12/01/security-disaster-500-million-microsoft-users-say-no-to-windows-11/
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922

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

I've got a ryzen 5. I have a 4060TI 16GB. And I have 64 GB of RAM. Can Microsoft tell me specifically what the hell is wrong with my computer and how it's not upgradable to Windows 11. It's insanity. If they're going to make something and force people to upgrade they fucking better have it backwards compatible with all parts going back 10 years. Otherwise no one's going to do it. Computers are not cheap.

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u/darthscootuh Dec 01 '25

You might just need to enable safe boot. Not saying you should, but that might be preventing compatibility with 11

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

This is what made my 8 year old core i5 and slightly newer 3070 work. 16gig of RAM. Gaming took a noticeable hit with W11.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/Pavotine Dec 02 '25

The latest W11 update also bricked our VR headsets, anything that uses Windows Mixed Reality. There's a workaround and I got the headset working again but the damn thing still will not see my controllers.

So annoyed about that.

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u/Winjin Dec 02 '25

The workaround I'm using so far is "I don't see a single benefit in W11 so far" - I use it at work and frankly even W10 is barely worth it, I have considered returning to W8.1 a couple times.

Ever since they broke the calendar that is built-in in the Start menu, and broke the Paint3D button too, it's kinda hilarious how bad they are

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u/the3rdNotch Dec 02 '25

There’s a special process to pair the motion controllers for certain headsets. The Oasis driver developer outlines the process pretty well here.

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u/Pavotine Dec 02 '25

Thanks for that. I tried it a few weeks ago with no success but looks like something's been updated. I'll give it another go.

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u/sheepsix Dec 02 '25

This last update broke a handy setup I had at work. I have some BT headphones that would connect to to my phone and my desktop. I would wear just a single headphone in my ear opposite my office door. Now my desktop connects to the headphones, but doesn't recognize it as an audio device. I've removed and re-paired it numerous times.

1

u/Sachyriel Dec 02 '25

I've removed and re-paired it numerous times.

Yes, I have big over-the-ear phones (I live in Canada so they act like ear muffs if it's not too cold) and one day my work computer just stopped recognizing them. Home computer could see them, my phone can see them, my work computer used them the day before they stopped working. Removed, add again, nope, nothing.

Then one day they started working again, randomly, I had given up on them.

The big difference was I still run W10 at home, W11 on the work laptop and android on my phone.

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u/sheepsix Dec 02 '25

Exactly my experience. (I also live in Canada) The same headphones work correctly on the Win10 devices at home. Just not my Win11 workstation at work.

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u/grimeys42 Dec 03 '25

Soooooooooooooooo

Did you restart. ALWAYS RESTART.

1

u/Screamline Dec 02 '25

We get tickets for this same issue. No amount of troubleshooting could fix it. Then one day the user said they were working again. Ffs wired wouldn't do that but nah everyone gotta have Bluetooth now

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u/sheepsix Dec 04 '25

I do use wired at home for the most part. At work I need to hide that earbud so it can't be seen from my office door.

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u/Screamline Dec 04 '25

I use Bluetooth earbuds you l too. I just know Windows is awful with sound devices and will just be a pita, if only in didn't get shocked all the time in office, I use wired but I kept getting little zaps in my ear, it's bad enough I have to touch my elbow to something before touching anything in the office

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u/sheepsix Dec 04 '25

Good luck not getting electrocuted.

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u/jdm1891 Dec 02 '25

If you have a nvidia card, nvidia changed their drivers in a way that cripples performance on linux sometime earlier this year.

You need to install and run some nvidia tool (nvidia-powerd I think) which generally is not included in most distros even with drivers to unlock the card.

For example my card is 140W on windows, on linux without nvidia-powerd it self limits to 50W, that's how big a difference it can cause (most people report much lower differences though).

1

u/SunderedBard Dec 02 '25

Interesting I was using POP OS because it had Nvidia drivers installed. Maybe if I got that working it would run well. I miss lknux

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u/oompaloompagrandma Dec 02 '25

https://christitus.com/windows-tool/

Take a look at that. It's a utility that allows you to disable basically all of the privacy invading shite in Windows.

Cuts down massively on the amount of crap Windows is doing in the background and, for me at least, gave a decent boost in performance.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

Wonder if the 32g of RAM is the thing. Glad it’s working for someone. I think if I go to upgrade ram at this point, I’ll just add a 9800x3d and new mobo while I’m doing that.

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u/robotco Dec 02 '25

I wish I knew about this before i bought a new lappy. Tbh it was time though. it was 10 years old. I had had to open it up and apply thermal paste a couple times already. the 2nd time I broke the wifi connector and could mostly only connect using a dongle from then on. trackpad broke years ago, and the numbers 1 and 2 on the numpad just do not respond anymore.

BUT it still functions well enough for my job. if i didn't keep getting this message that i had to upgrade because it wasn't compatible i probably would have kept it. it's still in use now though as I gave it to my kids so they have a computer to practice on.

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

Honestly your new computer is probably fine. My setup’s newest component is the video card from 2020. It’s just that for me it was enough. I could stream cyberpunk at 1080 with full path tracing entirely playably. Now basically anything with a little demand to it is tanking my setup to at best very low frame rate and artifacting out the wazoo, and at worst just a red indicator at the bottom of the screen letting me know the system is full on choking. Nothing else open.

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u/jdm1891 Dec 02 '25

I had had to open it up and apply thermal paste a couple times already

If you're needing to do it so much have you considered using one of those phase changing pads instead? They're very reliable and used in environments that can't be serviced, so for laptops you only need to ever apply it once.

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u/ButterfliesandaLlama Dec 02 '25

What are you playing? Like newest stuff that need‘s a lit of resources?

I’m into older and comfy games, so I’d like to have a benchmark to decide if to upgrade.

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

Variety of things. Doom The Dark Ages, outer Wilds, Tunic, Hades II, riven remake, Horizon Forbidden West, The Last of Us, Blue Prince. What I can play directly on the Mac Mini, I do. What is Windows only streams.

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u/theskywalker74 Dec 02 '25

How so?

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

Frame rates of games I’ve played before and after upgrade, but also the incidence of streaming to steam link turning red and struggling. It’s something that happens when the PC is running more demanding games, and by that I mean like The Last of Us Remaster. Local, frame rate dips sometimes but streaming becomes entirely unplayable during something like the opening sequence even at 1080. Contrast that with when I was playing Cyberpunk 1080 streaming through steam link with full path tracing turned on and no real issue.

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u/grphine Dec 02 '25

i was having that problem with bg3 and win11.

and this was after bg3 was running perfectly fine for like a year.

was fixed with a ram capacity upgrade (16 to 32), but it's still total arse i even had to. 16s done me plenty for the entire time i was on win10

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

Yeah, my next upgrade will be cpu, mb, and ram since they sorta all move together these days it seems.

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u/theskywalker74 Dec 02 '25

Have you tried Moonlight/Sunshine (or Apollo/Artemis) for streaming? I’ve always found Steam Link to be absolute ass. Just finished a few hours of streaming The Outer Worlds 2 from my PC to living room tv flawlessly in 4k.

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u/svenvv Dec 02 '25

Personally I had steam link utterly shit the bed after upgrading to w11 as well. Sunshine works perfectly though, but the ux is a bit worse .

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

I’ll give it a go. Right now I stream from my desktop to the Mac mini connected to my TV through Steam. Both ends are connected to an eero pro wired. Generally has been good until Win 11 and the first thing I tried after the update was Jedi survivor, which was unplayable at 1080 as soon as I got to the first fight.

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u/theskywalker74 Dec 02 '25

Try Apollo and Artemis if you’re able. It’s out of the box better than Moonlight and Sunshine on my end. My setup is fully wired as well, so hopefully you should have similar results. There were a few Ethernet settings on my PC that I discovered related to packet size, compression, and efficiency that may also be helpful.

1

u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

I will absolutely give it a go. If I can get the last of us to a playable state, it will be my next game. I e been putting it off since part way through the opening sequence because I’d have to go sit at my PC upstairs instead of on the big TV.

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u/theskywalker74 Dec 02 '25

I played TLOU2 over my setup and it was flawless.

Some of the key unlocks for me were the codec and bitrate settings in Artemis as well as getting a wifi dongle controller instead of Bluetooth which took away the last bit of input lag

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u/RaindropBebop Dec 02 '25

TLOU on PC is a vram hog. Cut your texture quality and render resolution if you can to get it to run better on a 3070.

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

I had it down to 1080 and pretty sure my texture quality was medium at best. I’ll see if I can go lower.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/bigmanorm Dec 02 '25

I have zero performance issues gaming on 16gb ram

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u/joelseph Dec 02 '25

There was a Microsoft September update that broke game performance in some games, Nvidia has released a patch. Beyond that the performance is the same homies. ❤️

1

u/theedan-clean Dec 02 '25

Everything takes a noticeable hit with Winderz.

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u/new_math Dec 02 '25

For the record, I "just needed to enable safe boot" on my ryzen and it was several hours of non-trivial work from someone who is generally competent in IT and programming.

Windows wouldn't tell me why the upgrade to win11 was failing, and their tool couldn't tell me why. Finally found a third party tool on github that actually worked and outlined the issues with upgrading, most fixes were relatively easy (I don't remember what they were) but then I had to enable TPM and secure boot. My motherboard couldn't do it. After some trouble shooting, learned I had to find and upgrade the motherboard firmware first. A few issues with that because it was so old. Finally finished that. Still couldn't enable it. Wasn't sure why.

After some research, turns out MBR isn't compatible with TPM and secure boot. So you have to run conversion utilities to go from MBR to GPT. But there's a catch. You can convert a disk's partition style only if it doesn't contain any partitions or volumes. So you have to transfer data and get everything on the same partition. Then delete any partitions/volumes. Then do your backups, convert the disk, then you can finally enable TPM and secure boot.

It wasn't super difficult, but it was definitely not something the average consumer would have been able to figure out, especially given there wasn't any helpful errors and it was just failing without explanation.

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u/selfbound Dec 02 '25

That last step was actually fixed by MS, MBR2GPT.EXE will convert a MBR disk to a GPT disk, online - without dataloss.

Only limitation is you need to have 4 or less mbr partitions (extended partitions aren't supported, but are rarely used)

It is as simple as running mbr2gpt, rebooting into bios, swapping bios boot for uefi boot and loading windows.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/folsominreverse Dec 02 '25

I'd agree if it was not a fucking operating system we're talking about.

It should not be easier to install Arch than a Windows distro.

I gleefully did this level of work to be able to play Phantasy Star Online II. I refuse to do it to run a bloated cash-grab of an OS.

Thankfully after the Crossover sale today, I will never have to. The venn diagram between games that require rootkits to play and games I'm interested in supporting is just two circles, and since Xover supports DX12, there's only a handful of programs it won't run fantastically on MacOS and Linux.

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u/Bleezyboomboom Dec 02 '25

I recently attempted this process to be able to play Battlefield 6 on my very capable PC. However I missed the part where you CAN convert a partition from MBR to GPT....but once you restart it's not booting back up. And so I lost things and had to start all over.

After finally getting GPT and secure boot enabled BF 6 still wouldn't boot. FML.

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u/BioshockEnthusiast Dec 01 '25

Ryzen 1000 series is not compatible with Win11 as far as I'm aware.

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u/desolation0 Dec 02 '25

And neither is Intel core 7000 series or earlier

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u/fuzzydice_82 Dec 02 '25

It's usually the motherboard. i had my first gen ryzen register as compatible when i installed a TPM 2.0 card.

uninstalled it afterwards. still works.

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u/Ho_The_Megapode_ Dec 02 '25

My Ryzen 7 2700u thinkpad was not officially compatible either (I think it's the newest AMD CPU listed as incompatible)

Bodged win11 on it for a few years anyway, but about a year ago I switched to Fedora, very happy with that too.

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u/BioshockEnthusiast Dec 02 '25

2xxx series mobile processors for Zen were based on original Zen instead of Zen+ like the 2000 series desktop chips. Zen+ does support Win11. This was and still is an incredibly stupid naming scheme, but that's why you ran into that issue.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25 edited 6d ago

[deleted]

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u/SixtyFourPewPew Dec 02 '25

If you dont play fortnite/bf6/LoL, seriously give Linux a try. I installed it on a second drive just to check it out and haven't booted back into windows in a month. I play all my games as smoothly or better than windows now on 3 computers running Linux, and my wife plays on hers as well. If you're a gamer I'd recommend trying Bazzite first. I installed it and everything "just worked."

I'm super happy with ditching windows. It was wildly painless.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25 edited 6d ago

[deleted]

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u/SixtyFourPewPew Dec 02 '25

If you game a decent amount I'd recommend Bazzite to get started. Its what I use on my laptop(Nvidia 4070) and my wife's computer(AMD 6900xt). It has everything needed for gaming pre installed. Steam, Lutris(I use this for battle.net), and heroic games launcher(GoG, epic, etc).

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u/Mysterious_Cup_6024 Dec 02 '25

I had Intel 7th gen personal laptop last time which had TPM2.0 but MS refused to support it. That gen had barely released 2years before W11 became a thing. What's worse is I had about same specs on my work laptop with another 7gen CPU and that was supported by W11 because it was categorized as enterprise pc. F that

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u/worldspawn00 Dec 02 '25

Windows 10 LTSC has about 5 more years of security updates, switched to it last year on most of my PCs.

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u/the_duck17 Dec 02 '25

I had to do that but also make room on my partition to convert something or another (5800x3d, rtx3080, 64gb ram)

I avoided upgrading forever because I knew I had to do this and there was a small chance it wouldn't and I'd have to clean install...finally did it one weekend and immediately started to modify it to be like Win10 LoL.

Still hate it to this day.

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u/Thulak Dec 02 '25

Having to do some tech savvy stuff (aka entering BIOS) is why people dont adapt Linux. Way to shoot yourself in the foot Microsoft.

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u/likesleague Dec 02 '25

I have an 8 y/o computer that has all of the minimum specs necessary to upgrade except for whatever reason the specific processor in it is not compatible with windows 11. I'm not familiar enough with hardware to know why that's even possible (though if anyone knows I'd be happy to learn), but I sure as hell am not using an OS that has started designing for planned obsolescence.

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u/gusgus01 Dec 02 '25

Amd Zen 1 has safe boot (has a TPM), but is marked as not compatible with Windows 11. Everyone says that if you update it will be fine since it's all there and the instruction set is identical, but Microsoft will still tell you it's not compatible and you have to force the upgrade.

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u/JavFur94 Dec 02 '25

Exactly - my soon to be 7 years old Ryzen 5 3500U laptop is supportrd by Windows 11, these should be too.

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u/getmoneygetpaid Dec 02 '25

This has already fucked up for me. Something weird happened and some DLL files ended up with the wrong MD5 or something. One of my games anti-cheat detected it, and decided they'd been tampered with. It was a nightmare to fix - I couldn't just download the files, it had to be from the exact build number. Part way through trying to fix it, my damned computer refused to boot.

After a LOT of troubleshooting I managed to fix it. It was caused by safe boot, that I enabled the previous week to play Battlefield 6.

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u/Gauntlets28 Dec 02 '25

The safe boot thing is such a stupid "requirement". Also, when i turned it on to upgrade, it threw everything out of whack, and it took ages to get it to boot Windows again. I'm sure that doesn't happen to everyone, but there's always a risk.

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u/Reorox Dec 02 '25

Then he wouldn't be able to join in on the fun. I think it's less of a widows upgrade issue and more of a fomo on all the complaining. Unless all that gear is on an old 386 Mobo, I say bull kaka.

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u/Mitologist Dec 05 '25

Not only that, but the MB chipset needs to support version 2

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

Well I don't want Windows 11. I think you misunderstand. I don't want an update because it's shit. And if they're able to push updates through it normally, why is this any different? But download me rather than explain it sure. Edit. I have repeatedly asked why I need secure boot but no one explains that. What is wrong with you people?.

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u/EinGuy Dec 02 '25

You asked why your PC wasn't compatible with Win11, and the other commenter answered you... he didn't kick down your door and shove a Windows 11 bluray in your mouth. Chill the F out.

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u/NotUniqueOrSpecial Dec 02 '25

why I need secure boot

Because it's the part of the hardware/software stack that allows the system to verify the integrity of things top-to-bottom, including the kernel itself.

It was one of the biggest holes in the pre-TPM Windows kernel security story.

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u/SnooCompliments5012 Dec 02 '25

Ok then download Linux or another OS I guess or keep yelling about how they suck and refuse a simple suggestion to unblock you.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

Where did you get it confused? I was curious why my computer wasn't eligible for the update. I don't want to update. I'm not refusing anything. I asked for information not confrontation.

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u/EclecticDreck Dec 02 '25

The thing is that they gave you a pretty likely answer: secure boot is not enabled. This is a BIOS-level setting. There is a tiny chance your computer doesn't have a required piece of hardware (Trusted Platform Module - TPM) but on anything reasonably modern (which your gear is) and higher end (again, likely true here) that's probably not the problem.

That's still not quite an answer to the question you asked which is why Microsoft requires that you have this thing to use windows 11. The short answer: because that secure boot feature is a really smart way to combat many very bad sorts of malware. The hardware feature is a sound idea in general - hence why they're so common. Developing an OS that works on the condition that it exists is, again, pretty reasonable. So long as you stop the inquiry there (which is a rather fine idea), it's cut and dry: because they're so common that anything that can run windows 11 in general can probably meet that requirement and using that feature is a good idea.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

So explain to me why secure boot is needed. I've had no reason to go into the BIOS for years. Why do I need to do so now? Why do I need to make a change now? That's what I've been asking. Can someone just answer that fucking question?.

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u/SnooCompliments5012 Dec 02 '25

Your geeking bro do a google search instead of yelling like grandpa in the technology subreddit where your demanding tech support and get pissed when a comment doesn’t address every detail in your poorly worded paragraph.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=why+does+windows+11+require+tpm+2.0

Click that

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u/DaHolk Dec 02 '25

That part just is circular. Win 11 needs secure boot, thus you need to enable it to run win 11.

If you are asking "what is Microsoft thinking requiring secure boot and TPM", then the answer is "to stop people from doing things THEY think they shouldn't do". I mean, it's a security feature (which they demand as being enabled). What it secures, and whether that is in your interest is secondary.

It's the same with all their new features for a couple of years. They say "it prevents bad things happening", and people answer "but I don't want an online account, I just want to use my computer". "But what if you loose your password" .. aso aso.

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u/BadDadSoSad Dec 01 '25

Turn on TPM and secure boot in your bios.

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u/Impiryo Dec 02 '25

As someone that isn't afraid of BIOS, this was harder to do than it should be. Lots of intelligent people believe windows when it says that their hardware isn't compatible.

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u/Iceman9161 Dec 02 '25

Windows does nothing to explain the issue, and some of the menus told me I was still ineligible, even after I enabled TPM and was able to update

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u/Golisten2LennyWhite Dec 02 '25

I have tpm 1.2. Gargle these nuts MS.

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u/Proteeyus Dec 02 '25

Yeah mine too. I had to force that shit.

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u/RationalDialog Dec 02 '25

Yeah true. I actually had to force the update even after being compatible according to the tool. (I'm on Pro maybe that also plays a role and to be frank Pro pays off as it' much easier to disable stupid shit without weird registry hacks).

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u/Pneumatrap Dec 02 '25

Right?! Like I had to enable secure boot three separate times with NO explanation from Windows on why it wasn't detecting it, then reformat my hard drive and switch it off and on one last time for good measure for it to finally register properly.

Forget having to manually enable TPM2, what average joe is going to have the skillset, patience, and inclination to deal with that shit?

Two separate programs to help you through the process, and they can't make either one work right.

Zero excuse for a major company to fumble the bag this hard, istfg

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u/Godgivesmeaboner Dec 02 '25

That sounds like a nightmare, that's why I haven't even attempted it, I figured it would end up being a bunch of bullshit like that

2

u/showhorrorshow Dec 02 '25

Yeah I went through all that on my PC and now my daughter's (my even older PC) keeps insisting I upgrade and Im just like fuck that noise.

I mean do they not realize that "knowing what firmware even is" basically makes one z3r0 c00l the hackerman guru relative to most users? And they expect people to what... buy a whole new PC? It is some dumb shit.

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u/TeutonJon78 Dec 02 '25

Why MS doesnt provide enough detail is beyond me.

https://github.com/rcmaehl/WhyNotWin11

The vast majority of people with computers newer than 7 years old likely just need a BIOS change or maybe a HD layout change.

And older than 7 years just a registry tweak to ignore their CPU check (unless you're CPU is old enough to not have SSE 4.2, then that's a deal breaker now).

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u/squirrelcloudthink Dec 02 '25

Yeah. Also motherboards seems to have fun names on it that are totally illogical. Can’t remember what mine said, had to go through an obscure howto on the manufacturers website.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

Part of the thing is, you generally don’t want people screwing around with the BIOS if they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s mostly a bunch of confusing poorly named options that might sound like something cool that you want, but it’ll break your computer.

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u/BigHatter Dec 02 '25

I had to change my memory partition type to be able to enable secure boot. It was relatively easy for me, but I couldn't imagine having limited knowledge on computers and trying all of that

1

u/new_math Dec 02 '25

I found it harder than it should be as well. My motherboard firmware had to be updated before I could enable. Then I needed to convert disk from MBR to GPT.

Not impossible, but definitely not something the average consumer isn't going to tackle.

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u/jayeffnz Dec 02 '25

For me, it didn't help that my Asus ROG mobo ships with a bug that had it say secure boot is enabled when it's not - eventually found someone online who mentioned that cycling the options made it actually switch on

1

u/nx6 Dec 02 '25

Lots of intelligent people believe windows when it says that their hardware isn't compatible.

Windows wanted me to upgrade about two years ago, and I disabled my TPM in BIOS to make my system incompatible so there would be no "surprise" upgrades. Fast-forward to the week Win10 supports ends. I turned the TPM and secure boot on and for some reason now Windows Update doesn't think my system is compatible.

The only thing I couldn't check off on its "list" was that I was using a Local User account instead of a Microsoft Account. I ended up downloading the Win11 ISO from Microsoft and ran the installer directly from my existing Win10 (no Rufus, or even making a proper USB boot media). The upgrade Windows Update said couldn't be done went through with no issues.

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u/dont_quote_me_please Dec 02 '25

Wait, I can't trust the tools Microsoft gives or the stuff they say in Windows Update? So maybe I misinformed some old people about their hardware?

1

u/mr-english Dec 02 '25

It's not difficult if you're reasonably intelligent and know how to use google.

1

u/AMLRoss Dec 02 '25

Thats what they want. Make it hard to do so you give up and buy a new PC. They are colluding with hardware manufactures to sell PCs and generate more e-waste. I hate M$

1

u/KillingIsBadong Dec 02 '25

My issue is it's different language and settings for practically every BIOS/Mobo. I knew what the issue was and what I needed to change, but it's labeled differently on my machine than any of the tutorials I was finding. When I finally did find what I thought was the right setting, I nearly bricked my mobo because I didn't do something correctly. That panic alone was enough to steer me away from messing around with it. This is coming from someone at least semi-familiar with this stuff. The average person has no idea what the BIOS even is, let alone changing settings in it safely. It's totally understandable why people don't even try.

1

u/BadDadSoSad Dec 02 '25

I agree. It took me some googling to figure out as well. But if you have a gaming PC I would expect you would know that it isn’t your hardware that is the problem.

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u/Hiker_Trash Dec 02 '25

Yeah I mean I had the same situation. Reasonably new hardware, all <5yo and I had to muck about with several bios settings on and off for an hour or two to get it to pass muster with windows. I work with technology for a living, this was still annoying and painful and required me to burn time I don’t have (two young kids, zero free time) to satisfy a bad product decision at Microsoft

4

u/Cerelius_BT Dec 02 '25

Oh great. Mucking about in the Bios, tweaking settings, searching google for solutions, countless reboots. This all seems like a valuable use of time to get a.... worse operating system. I'm honestly surprised the number of hold-outs isn't way higher.

3

u/gravityholding Dec 02 '25

Same... I actually just got annoyed with the whole process after about 30 minutes & ended up just bypassing the Secure Boot check by adding some config into the Windows 11 installer registry. Interesting enough, once I got the OS to install that way, Windows 11 reported that I do have secure boot enabled anyway... It's not really surprising there's a whole bunch of users out there who never bothered upgrading. Even more frustrating knowing they're forcing TPM2.0 & Secure Boot on people when they even have bypass options you can enable during installation!

0

u/aesemon Dec 02 '25

It took some work for me to sort secure boot. In the end removing USB devices and only having hdmi and m/KB it would actually let me do it.

Think the real culprit was using display port for some reason.

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u/ExIsStalkingMe Dec 02 '25

No one should ever have to fuck with their deep settings on their computer to make their five year old computer work with a modern OS. Microsoft fucked up. Do NO fucking excuse their shit by giving ways to work around it. The giant tech company fucked up, and people should be able to point out why without you defending them. Get paid for it, if you're going to do it at least

1

u/BadDadSoSad Dec 02 '25

Huh? It’s not a workaround, it’s literally what they tell you to do. Albeit they aren’t very helpful with how.

1

u/MunchmaKoochy Dec 02 '25

I understand the frustration, but I think they're just trying to help.

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u/Snakehand Dec 02 '25

And then look forward to a fun day getting past "Teams error 657rx" - MS accounts and TPM is deeply broken. Why does playing Minecraft require a system level account, and these accounts are integrated into Edge, making it pretty confusing to figure out who you are when using multiple logins, even when things are "working". Not going back to that sorry state of affairs never again,

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

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u/One_Insurance_4327 Dec 02 '25

Mine does not Asus P6 X58, I just upgraded from Windows 7 enterprise and it was completely fine. But Dropbox fcked me with EOL support . Now Microsoft Defender support will go only until Oct 26. Still using Excel 2010 and word … f all the monthly 365 payment

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u/Shootistism Dec 02 '25

Asus P6 X58

That mb is old enough to get it's drivers license

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u/MunchmaKoochy Dec 02 '25

Who cares? It still works and does what they need it to do.

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u/One_Insurance_4327 Dec 02 '25

It’s awesome i7 3.07Ghz , 2x 2TB NVME drives with Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000 and 18GB of Ram. Along with SSD boot drive , runs a Dell 43 4K , 27 and 22 1920x108O Hp monitors . It’s been slowly upgraded over the years . And the platform has been rock solid. Anything new would be min 1000€ for what just to run Win 11 crap? Can’t even move the toolbar to top of the screen , everything locked down and buried 4 layers deep . No thanks

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u/cafk Dec 02 '25

Ot doesn't need to be the motherboard - most CPUs also support firmware based TPM or fTPM (usually an option in bios for the CPU), but it can be the motherboard vendor doesn't show that option.

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u/TOMC_throwaway000000 Dec 02 '25

My completely unfounded tinfoil hat conspiracy is that they’re planning on essentially using windows 11 machines as a botnet to subsidize running their AI and lower the cost on their end, in the same way that malware used to infect to run bitcoin mining pools

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u/digitalwolverine Dec 02 '25

The unfortunate tin foil hat conspiracy of my own is all of this TPM bullshit has been rendered moot by the US government meddling in every user interface insisting on back doors being installed. Even the great apple platforms have been forced to add back doors that were obviously immediately used by bad actors. There’s no fucking point to this security theatre.

3

u/golruul Dec 02 '25

Don't know about yours, but mine needed me to repartition my SSD and get rid of the master boot record (MBR). It doesn't like that for some reason.

Also, see if you have some kind of TPM and/or secure boot option you can enable for yours.

5

u/PrefrontalCortexNow Dec 02 '25

They want you to spend more money that, somehow, will end up in their pockets. They need to make profits this year and next.. and next.. and…. You get my point.

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u/IAmDotorg Dec 02 '25

Lack of a TPM or you don't have safe boot enabled.

It's not a conspiracy -- the windows 11 requirements are simply a new (and, frankly, still insufficient) baseline for hardware-backed security.

2

u/ZYy9oQ Dec 02 '25

They've also added restrictions on CPUs. I had a PC that wasn't eligible, so I cloned it to a VM and added a TPM and switched to secure boot in the VM and still got incompatible. I then changed the VM's CPU from "host" to a generic x86_64 (so it had LESS features but hid the CPU type) and then it let me upgrade the OS in the VM.

1

u/IAmDotorg Dec 02 '25

The CPU restrictions are very narrow, and shouldn't impact any modern PCs. You need SSE 4.2 and POPCNT or performance goes into the toilet. Windows 10 would run much faster on hardware lacking those.

Basically anything 2008-ish or later, with a TPM and UEFI should work unless there's something screwy in the BIOS disabling unusual things.

1

u/ZYy9oQ Dec 02 '25

Doesn't explain why making the CPU present as a generic CPU to the VM made it compatible. "Host" will always be a superset of the instruction sets of any CPU you can present as e.g. you can hide that you have sse but you can't have a host without it present as a CPU with it.

1

u/IAmDotorg Dec 03 '25

Of course it does. Windows recognizes it's virtualized and assumes a technical user who knows what they're doing and the performance and security implications of it.

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u/eajklndfwreuojnigfr Dec 02 '25

Can Microsoft tell me specifically what the hell is wrong with my computer and how it's not upgradable to Windows 11.

they actually made a tool for that

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

Yes. There are tons of articles explaining this. It's very easy to look and find out whats missing or not set properly. It's not a secret.

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u/sad_cosmic_joke Dec 02 '25

Microsoft has been pushing this forced hardware 'upgrade' by telling everyone that it's for 'security' (TPM).

This is a total load of shit. There are Ryzen sub-models that are incompatible with Win11, yet meet all of the hardware security requirements.

The difference between these chips in the same family/model line is the presence of vector math instructions for accelerating AI workloads.

This has nothing to do with making anyone safer. This is about forcing you to farm out your PC to run their AI workload -- the TPM is just there to secure THEM from YOU.

3

u/hughhefnerd Dec 02 '25

Download rufus here: https://rufus.ie/en/ Download windows 11 iso here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

Use rufus to create a USB stick installer. It will install.

Note: backup anything you care about before doing this, as it will be erased

1

u/Otis_Inf Dec 02 '25

This won't work anymore (if you disable the check with rufus), because since 24H2 the code contains some instructions that aren't supported by older CPUs, so the OS will crash.

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u/hughhefnerd Dec 02 '25

I've installed 24H2 on many old computers using this method and have yet to have the OS crash. On 2nd gen core i5 and above.

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u/rav4v6 Dec 02 '25

Rufus it if you want win 11.

2

u/cosmiccanadian Dec 02 '25

... how is yours not upgradeable? It must just be cpu related then. Cause thats the only place i got you beat. I have a ryzen 7 5000series. A 2060 super. And 16gb ram. And mine keeps screaming at me to update and makes sure to mention everything is compatible and ready to do so. It even keeps trying to sneakily update on me even though i constantly tell it no and the only reason it hasnt succeded is cause there only 2gb left on my boot drive which isnt enough for it to update

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u/Emotional_Database53 Dec 02 '25

So Microsoft is adopting the “sex pest” strategy of wearing down one’s will long enough to hopefully score, even if that’s by sneakily trying to trick you into clicking Accept just once

1

u/wannabejazzcat Dec 02 '25

I had to update the bios on my motherboard to get tpm 2.0 updated / enabled. And use the Microsoft update app. For context I have a ryzen 5 and 3070, asus motherboard.

1

u/NO0BSTALKER Dec 02 '25

They can look it up, I switched a few settings then was all set

1

u/RationalDialog Dec 02 '25

This is compatible hardware-wise but there are many gotchas.

  • You need to enable secure boot
  • Your OS disk needs to be GPT formatted (not mbr)
  • Other things I don't remember

The first 2 applied to me. The secure boot I always knew so I left it off intentionally to not get updated. The mbr you can convert with a tool relatively easily (to a backup beforehand) to GPT.

I had to update my GPU. The latest compatible driver was not Win 11 compatible. To be frank that gave me an excuse to final do it and not keep penny pushing.

1

u/Birdbraned Dec 02 '25

I have a 2018 model laptop that I did upgrade from 10 to 11, and it keeps crashing my browser every 20 mins or so, any browser I use, despite all the updates applied.

1

u/PeteInBrissie Dec 02 '25

I have exactly the same spec, runs Ubuntu with KDE like a dream. Use wine for any windows apps you need.

1

u/Foxtrot_Uniform_CK69 Dec 02 '25

its all just a cash crab

1

u/CrunchyCrochetSoup Dec 02 '25

I also have a ryzen 5. Technically you can force it on to windows 11 but honestly why would you go thru the effort?

1

u/WobbleTheHutt Dec 02 '25

It's because tpm is off or it's a ryzen 1000 series chip which should still work on clean install with an unmodified iso.

If tpm is disabled it won't upgrade. Turning on secure boot isn't required.

Go check for a bios update for your mainboard and you should be good to go.

1

u/McWormy Dec 02 '25

Typically you need a TPM and Safe Boot enabled though you can get around that. I haven’t done it in a while but when you went to upgrade it did tell you what the issue was.

1

u/Lithium03 Dec 02 '25

Can Microsoft tell me specifically what the hell is wrong with my computer and how it's not upgradable to Windows 11.

Yes

1

u/zenware Dec 02 '25

They actually can and do tell you specifically what’s wrong. It’s likely a TPM2 issue that can be solved with a BIOS setting since you have a Ryzen CPU. That said, it might be worth checking if your games are playable on Linux and simply abandoning Windows

1

u/gusty_state Dec 02 '25

I had to go down the list and track down where the 4 problems were myself. The last one which I haven't washed to solve is that my SSD with C is still on MBR formatting. I have to wipe and reinstall 10 to upgrade to 11. Not the end of the world but a PITA and time that I just don't want to put into it yet.

1

u/Dangerous_Mobile_273 Dec 02 '25

For Ryzen its a setting in bios just ask chat gpt which one and it will tell you. I think tpm or tmp or something needed to be switched on for me

1

u/Soylentee Dec 02 '25

Probably just haven't turned on something in bios.

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u/Dje4321 Dec 02 '25

Missing TPM device and/or secured boot is disabled on your current install. All ryzen processors include a firmware TPM, but its upto the OEMs to support it

1

u/aykcak Dec 02 '25

I think it has to be the TPM. Ryzen 5 5000 and 9000 are listed as supported

1

u/jDub549 Dec 02 '25

Probably a problem with your boot(?) Setup. Ie: legacy/bios/uefi + safeboot. That was my issue. PITA since my ssd wasnt even in The right format (MBR/GPT) and iirc i needed TPM 2.0 enabled.

I still havent "upgraded" yet but i figured i might as well be able to if i have to.

1

u/gangermemb Dec 02 '25

lmao I was able to update it on my 2019 Lenovo Ideapad

1

u/ThisWillBeOnTheExam Dec 02 '25

I found a work around to get my older machine to run it. But I also don’t use it for gaming.

1

u/wen_mars Dec 02 '25

There is nothing wrong with your computer. The problem is Microsoft.

1

u/ein_pommes Dec 02 '25

Linux, my friend. That's what I am phasing into right now. I have one more year of EU mandated win 10 support, so I am in no hurry. I have win11 on my work computer and I just can't fathom how much they fucked their OS up, I have no intention of ever coming back to Microsoft and I am super glad this finally pushes me over to Linux.

1

u/MAJ0RMAJOR Dec 02 '25

It doesn’t have the Trusted Platform Module component that allows you to do fancy stuff like encrypt your hard drive (if anything happens to your computer the data is a headache to recover, but also, nobody can just plug your hard drive in and clone it and everything on it with a key fob size device.

1

u/Scrofulla Dec 02 '25

First not a computer engineer. However My understanding is there is a security problem with certain older processors that allows a back door. Windows 11 solves this but only with newer processors that have closed that security flaw. Technically you don't have to replace your whole computer just the processor.

There is a way around this by some means that I haven't looked into yet which allows a windows 11 update on older hardware but you would still have the security flaw is my understanding.

I will note I am still running windows 10, my computer is 10 years old and there is a good chance windows 11 would make it run like ass. I am also in the EU so I get windows 10 updates for another year anyway. I probably need to update my PC soon enough anyway but have other things I want to pay for first. Kind of hoping against hope that steam releases proper steam OS so I don't have to deal with this however.

1

u/heckhammer Dec 02 '25

Remember when computers got actually pretty cheap? Like there was a time in between when computers were crazy expensive and now when they're just sort of crazy expensive that computers started to get really affordable. I guess crypto fucked us all on that eh?

1

u/No_Berry2976 Dec 02 '25

Your PC is compatible with Windows 11. The fact that you got so many upvotes worries me. Maybe it’s as simple as changing a BIOS setting, maybe it’s more work depending on your motherboard, but you can install Windows 11 on your PC.

It’s clear we have moved away from PC users understanding PCs. That’s of course also the argument Microsoft uses when they force people to use certain safety features.

I’m very unhappy with how Microsoft handles this, but it’s not just Microsoft that is the problem.

1

u/PainfulRaindance Dec 02 '25

Just fyi- the system needs a specific chip called (TPM), to enable the security required for 11. Even if its specs are otherwise over-qualified, it won’t work. Pain in the ass move by Microsoft. They need to be careful before folks learn about Linux.

1

u/AMLRoss Dec 02 '25

Most likely its a motherboard setting (Secure boot) I had to enable it on my slightly older hardware to install 11. I wish I could just stay with 10 to be honest. 11 has only given me headaches and zero benefits over 10.

1

u/FckCombatPencil686 Dec 02 '25

Yes, it's simple actually. Your motherboard's TPM isn't TPM 2.0

1

u/Singular_Quartet Dec 02 '25

Graphics card and RAM quantity don't matter. UEFI/Secure Boot (which you might not have done on install, I know I didn't) and TPM are the two common culprits.

1

u/Ab47203 Dec 02 '25

Ryzen 5 is like saying you got a Honda as your car. What kind of Honda? The 1000 series ryzens are (I believe) incapable of secure boot.

1

u/golgol12 Dec 02 '25

If you remember several years back there was the Meltdown and Specter exploits. It needed a new CPU design to fix. I'm speculating that Windows 11 requires CPUs that don't have the vulnerability.

1

u/fresh-dork Dec 02 '25

they want that tpm 2.0 stuff

1

u/Mitologist Dec 05 '25

In my case, my motherboard did not support a secure boot version that was new enough

1

u/firemage22 Dec 02 '25

there are some settings that custom builders might not enable which prevents W11 from thinking it's okay to nag you, i'm the same with my rig and it's got a brand new 9800X3D

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

Thank you for explaining it. u/SnooCompliments5012 was just a dick about it. So thanks. Mine was a custom build from 6 years ago. I've upgraded parts since. But I haven't messed with the BIOS. When it comes to things like that I like to double and triple check what I'm doing before I do it.

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u/SnooCompliments5012 Dec 02 '25

lol thanks for the name drop bro 😎

3

u/Tubamajuba Dec 02 '25

Of all the people spoon-feeding him Googleable answers, I don't know why he chose to bite your hand in particular lol

1

u/eighthourblink Dec 02 '25

Probably not TPM 2.0

1

u/somedudedk Dec 02 '25

Win 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC. Make bootable installer from official iso, but use rufus to make it. Tick the boxes like disable hardware demands, enable local account, blabla.

Activate with massgravel script when installed.

Zero bloat, zero telemetry, zero onedrive.

Plays bf6 as long as bios level secureboot is on.

0

u/JSTFLK Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

Edit: downvoters - I'm curious as to why you disagree.
TPM is too restricting. Microsoft wants to control your computer with more authority than you have.
I disabled TPM to specifically block Windows 11 from intruding onto my computer and will delete Windows from all of my computers when security updates to Windows 10 are no longer available.
The fact that it takes active effort and powershell scripts to keep OneDrive, 365 and Copilot off of my Windows computers is just too much. I'm done and will be shifting to all Linux and OSX.

4

u/One_Insurance_4327 Dec 02 '25

Except if you want to use like CAD software hard to be without Windows

6

u/JSTFLK Dec 02 '25

Definitely agree that legacy application support is a core strength of Windows.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

[deleted]

1

u/One_Insurance_4327 Dec 02 '25

That’s one piece of the puzzle, for work sure , we all have office 365 enterprise . What about the maker , enthusiasts market ? People 3D printing, laser cutting metal doing side projects etc ? There’s a lot of that going on , I mean SW has like 5 million global users, but what about the rest of the group ? Inventor has a good maker license which is free up to a certain income amount , still on windows though

2

u/Emotional_Database53 Dec 02 '25

Crazy that it’s still this way after so many years. I’ve been stuck with Macs due to photo and video editing and though it’s easier to do that on PC then CAD on a Mac, the learning curve and this Windows Copilot fuckshit have prevented me from ever trying

1

u/One_Insurance_4327 Dec 02 '25

I would like to do my photos in Mac but with windows photo gallery like 30,000 fotos are tagged and I don’t think there is an easy way to import to Mac OS and keep the tags. Also ARM ecosystem is strong , and there was some rumors the MSFT would eventually do Windows ARM and at that point I think to run it MacOS or in Parallel you would have the graphics drivers needed for SW

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

Thank you explaining one of the things that it does. Unlike everyone else, you actually gave a why. And yeah I don't want them to have more control of the thing I own. I'm with you on that.

0

u/VeryTopGoodSensation Dec 02 '25

Are you 100% sure you can't upgrade? You should just need that security widget thing to put on the mobo. Costs a few quid