Incompatible hardware? Expect permanent watermark soon

pparks1 · Feb 19, 2023

Lance1 said:
OK... Brake free from your delusion. All the OEMs out there when MS has their finger in their pie will make Billions. Make no mistake.

But it's business that makes most of the revenue. This is peanuts.

Winuser · Feb 19, 2023

Edwin said:
Geez!!! We could hash this out til the cows come home!!!

View attachment 53152

If MS thought they could get away with it, I think they would do it.

ThrashZone · Feb 19, 2023

Brink said:
No worries:

Remove "System requirements not met" Watermark on Windows 11 Desktop Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to remove the "System requirements not met" watermark on the desktop for your account in Windows 11. Starting with Windows 11 Insider Beta and Release Preview channels build 22000.588 and Windows Insider Dev channel build 22557, you will see a System requirements...

www.elevenforum.com

Hi,
Yeah I was wondering if this needed an update seeing it's a year old

Try3 · Feb 19, 2023

ThrashZone said:
Yeah I was wondering if this needed an update seeing it's a year old

In addition to his post in this thread yesterday, Brink confirmed its continued validity in the tutorial itself less than a week ago.

All the best,
Denis

MisterEd · Feb 19, 2023

Windows 10 got installed on a lot of incompatible hardware. At some point without warning some of these computers stopped getting major updates. I assume these updates were stopped because Microsoft determined that these new updates would break these Windows installs.

Just like Windows 10, Windows 11 will at some point break some Windows installs. Is it possible that Microsoft is trying this time to give people a warning ahead of time?

In any case if people that have computers with incompatible hardware either stop getting major updates or worse yet have their Windows stop working they can't complain because Microsoft warned them from the start that this might happen.

cereberus · Feb 19, 2023

glasskuter said:
So far the watermark is being seen only on a selected few machines as it seems MS is in some sort of testing phase of rolling out the watermark. I knew that getting rid of the watermark is not a new thing, but what IS new is it is appearing on some 100% compatible systems, some which came directly from the OEM with Windows 11 installed.

Those who have installed 11 on incompatible hardware know they are incompatible. They came to forums such as this and found all the workarounds how to make it work and will also run to forums such as this to find out how to get rid of the watermark. It's Grandpa and Grandma who got 11 through Windows Update or who ran out and bought a new PC with 11 on it that will be be panicked unnecessarily when they receive this watermark unexpectedly and not know what to do about it. Mass chaos will ensue if MS doesn't do something about their scanning of hardware PDQ.

You make a good point - I was going to buy a cheap W11 backup laptop for travelling and a vendor was selling laptops with W11 preinstalled, saying it had TPM 2 etc. I made the purchase and then got wary after the event, and checked out the laptops specs in more detail, and it was a 6th gen CPU. So some dishonest OEM vendors are scamming buyers into thinking they have a 100% W11 compatible device.

I cancelled the purchase, citing UK's 14 day law for distance selling - they tried to bluff me the cpu was compatible as it runs fine - big mistake LOL. I got my money back.

However, majority of vendors are honest of course, but they can make mistakes as not all cpus even in 11th gen onwards are necessarily seen as W11 compatible. MS have list of compatible cpus but there are always some that do not get on the list (error, special version etc).

If you think about it, we only find out a device is incompatible (on a new empty device) at install time, and it is the installer that does the checks.

Replace a W10 install.wim on a W10 installer with a W11 install.wim, it will install fine with no checks.

More crucially install with DISM commands - no checks.

The main vendprs have automated systems that download prefabricated image by the thousands. So unless the vendors implement rigid pre-checking of every device they produce, mistakes will get through.

I bet the big vendors lawyers will panick over this watermark as they are potentially commercially exposed for litigations. It was probably them pushing for it to enhance sales but it could backfire LOL. What's the betting this gets quietly dropped?

Try3 · Feb 19, 2023

MisterEd said:
At some point without warning some of these computers stopped getting major updates

Ed,

There's only been one, Version 22H2.
Incompatible computers did not get it automatically but could use the In-place upgrade procedure to get it.

All the best,
Denis

cereberus · Feb 19, 2023

bobkn said:
I visited your link, just now.

I presume that I can't view the feedback hub, as I am not enrolled in the Insider program.

I hope that the issue isn't something silly like the people having disabled the TPM after installing 11.

Anybody can use Feedback Hub - you do not have to be an Insider. It has been this way for many years now.

glasskuter · Feb 19, 2023

@bobkn the feedback hub is in your start menu

MisterEd · Feb 19, 2023

Try3 said:
Ed,

There's only been one, Version 22H2.
Incompatible computers did not get it automatically but could use the In-place upgrade procedure to get it.

All the best,
Denis

Don't forget about Windows 10 1909. It seemed there were posts on tenforum where some people with old hardware couldn't get past that.

You have to be careful about trying to force updates until you find out why the updates failed. In any case a person should have backups in case the forced update causes Windows to stop working.

I even had Windows 7 updates start failing on an old computer. It got updates fine until about 2019. It turned out Windows 7 updates started assuming the CPU support for SSE2. The problem was my CPU didn't support SSE2. Microsoft knew about the problem but did nothing about it.

bobkn · Feb 19, 2023

glasskuter said:
@bobkn the feedback hub is in your start menu

I've seen it, but have never used it. Not even once.

I must have misinterpreted it as requiring a login. (From an MS account, it does not.)

Edwin · Feb 19, 2023

So anyway..., why a watermark?
Just curious.

Lance1 · Feb 19, 2023

Edwin said:
So anyway..., why a watermark?
Just curious.

To make the unwary and inexperienced think their computer is not compatible. Therefore prodding them to go out and purchase a new system. Just my take.

Bree · Feb 19, 2023

bobkn said:
I presume that I can't view the feedback hub, as I am not enrolled in the Insider program.

cereberus said:
Anybody can use Feedback Hub - you do not have to be an Insider. It has been this way for many years now.

While that is true, the feedback hub links in the article from post #1 point to 'Insider-only' content.

bobkn · Feb 19, 2023

Bree said:
While that is true, the feedback hub links in the article from post #1 point to 'Insider-only' content.

(snip)

Now that you mention it, I now recall that I encountered the same. I just reverified that.

I don't think I'll join the Insider program just so that I can read those posts.

Call me a mostly gruntled Windows 11 user.

Haydon · Feb 19, 2023

Edwin said:
So anyway..., why a watermark?
Just curious.

In the dark ages, offenders got a brandmark on their foreheads, but we have become more civilized, I am happy to report

bobkn · Feb 19, 2023

Edwin said:
So anyway..., why a watermark?
Just curious.

You'd prefer that MS denied updates to unblessed systems?

I recall dark hints that they may do that, eventually. Seems absurd: possibly making somewhat insecure installations into more seriously insecure installations.

I suppose that MS could send code to every Internet connected, but unsupported, PC to prevent Windows from running at all, but I'd be very surprised if they ever did that.

Haydon · Feb 19, 2023

bobkn said:
You'd prefer that MS denied updates to unblessed systems?

That's the way the entire MS ecosystem will go. W11 (the blessed ones) were available since October 2021 and W10 (the old ones) are still available until October 2025.

4 years is pretty reasonable notice, IMHO.

Haydon · Feb 19, 2023

I did a quickie search on PC and SmartPhone global shipments in 4Q22: 65K PCs and 304K SmartPhones.

If the trend continues, then you don't buy a new PC in October 2025, you buy a new SmartPhone!

pparks1 · Feb 20, 2023

Edwin said:
So anyway..., why a watermark?
Just curious.

Yeah, I don't think many who are less savvy are going to figure out how to bypass the system requirements. And for those who have the skills to work around the issue, well we obviously know that we are running on unsupported hardware and are taking our chances.

There are some fundamental security protections resulting in the need for the certain processor levels and up. I can only imagine that additional security things are being tested and may ultimately roll out to the platform and there is a potential that systems without the required hardware could perform less efficiently, or crash. Only somebody at MS would know these answers for sure.

Some reading on why the CPU requirements are what they are can be found here.

Microsoft Exec: Windows 11 CPU Requirements Allow Key Security Features To Run ‘By Default’ | CRN

A Microsoft security executive told CRN that the Windows 11 CPU requirements, including for Intel eighth-gen chips and up, ensure security features such as virtualization-based security (VBS) can run with optimal performance.

www.crn.com