Why does Windows 11 need secure boot

What was the question again :)

The question was why Windows 11 need Secure Boot. I say Secure Boot is not essential to the functionality of Windows 11, it doesn't change anything if you don't have it. Microsoft has an agreement with manufacturers to make us upgrade or buy new hardware, that is why the system requirements are too high. Thankfully we can bypass this silly check and install Windows 11 on any computer capable of running Windows 10 64-bit without any issue, no matter what they want us to believe. Sure Secure Boot and TPM add to security, I don't deny that, but these do nothing if the user is not careful and just click yes on any pop-up window to get rid of it and proceed.

spapakons said:

The question was why Windows 11 need Secure Boot. I say Secure Boot is not essential to the functionality of Windows 11, it doesn't change anything if you don't have it. Microsoft has an agreement with manufacturers to make us upgrade or buy new hardware, that is why the system requirements are too high. Thankfully we can bypass this silly check and install Windows 11 on any computer capable of running Windows 10 64-bit without any issue, no matter what they want us to believe. Sure Secure Boot and TPM add to security, I don't deny that, but these do nothing if the user is not careful and just click yes on any pop-up window to get rid of it and proceed.

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OP asked 2 questions

1) why does Windows 11 need secure boot

A- Because MS decided this as it improves security.

The fact you can run it without it is irrelevant. People can do all they want to bypass it but it is at their risk.

Re. collusion with vendors - whilst we all might think that, do we have any hard evidence to support that?

It is just as feasible that MS simply decided to take account of general advice secure boot and TPM improve security, and took advantage of what vendors already supply on modern pcs and vendors did not kick back - why would they?

In the end, the decision to do it is a commercial decision. Apple always push their OS as being more secure. MS have to respond, as reputation damage can harm a company's shares far more than many peopie realise.

2) Is worth it

A - yes as anything that improves security is always worthwhile.

I remind you that Microsoft tried to do the same with Windows Vista when they implied you need a WDDM graphics card to install it. No you don't, on 32-bit version you can install the Windows XP drivers (XPDM). Also Vista was deliberately heavy to make old computers crawl and justify the purchase of new. Many people rushed to buy new graphics card or even new PCs to be Vista compatible. In Windows 7 Microsoft learned their lesson and made it much lighter. A computer running Windows 7 has almost the same performance as if it would run XP.

Today they try to convince us we absolutely need Secure Boot and TPM in order to upgrade our computers. No we don't. History just repeats itself. Unlike the Vista era, today there are forums like this to open our eyes and help us.

The whole Vista debacle was the result of the major hardware manufacturer's component purchase policy, they bulk purchased the components used to build their devices, when Vista was released they already had their stock of components for the Christmas rush, and decided to sell systems as "Vista Compatible" or "Vista Ready" when they nowhere near met Microsoft's. original Minimum specs.

Microsoft was "persuaded" to lower their recommended specs to an unacceptable level to keep their biggest customers, the system manufacturers, happy, but the original specs for systems ran Vista very well, I used vista quite a lot for performance critical systems and specified accordingly and found it to be far better than the Dog that was XP, even when XP was run on the same Hardware.

Secure boot is not a requirement to run Windows 11

barman58 said:

The whole Vista debacle was the result of the major hardware manufacturer's component purchase policy, they bulk purchased the components used to build their devices, when Vista was released they already had their stock of components for the Christmas rush, and decided to sell systems as "Vista Compatible" or "Vista Ready" when they nowhere near met Microsoft's. original Minimum specs.

Microsoft was "persuaded" to lower their recommended specs to an unacceptable level to keep their biggest customers, the system manufacturers, happy, but the original specs for systems ran Vista very well, I used vista quite a lot for performance critical systems and specified accordingly and found it to be far better than the Dog that was XP, even when XP was run on the same Hardware.

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Yep.Funny how MS get slated fir reducing spec and now being slated for increasing spec. Can't win LOL.

barman58 said:

The whole Vista debacle was the result of the major hardware manufacturer's component purchase policy, they bulk purchased the components used to build their devices, when Vista was released they already had their stock of components for the Christmas rush, and decided to sell systems as "Vista Compatible" or "Vista Ready" when they nowhere near met Microsoft's. original Minimum specs.

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For me Vista came out just when I was about to do a new build, so I'd already had new hardware for it. I actually like Vista. These were my system specs under Vista (as posted in the Vista forums)...

• CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
• Motherboard - Intel D975XBX2
• Memory - Corsair TWIN2X4096-PC8500 (2x2GHz)
• Graphics Card(s) - ATI Radeon HD 4890 (1GHz)
• Sound Card - X-Fi Titanium - Fatality Pro Series
• Hard Drives - One 750GB, 2x500GB Western Digital Caviar Black Hard Drives (32meg cache)
• PSU - Antec Neo HE 550
• Case - Antec P182
• Cooling - Zalman CNPS9500 AT
• Other Info - Q6600 B3 Revision OC to 3.0GHz

The only issue I had with Visa was with the driver support by mfgs. That sucked but after they caught up everything was fine and just worked.

Dru2 said:

• CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
• Motherboard - Intel D975XBX2
• Memory - Corsair TWIN2X4096-PC8500 (2x2GHz)
• Other Info - Q6600 B3 Revision OC to 3.0GHz

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This was the same for me except it was a Gigabyte MB and Ballistic ram,8800 Gtx video. Vista ran great.

BunnyJ said:

The only issue I had with Visa was with the driver support by mfgs. That sucked but after they caught up everything was fine and just worked.

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Mine were systems with underpowered specs like 1 and 2 gig mem systems and cheap graphics.

BunnyJ said:

The only issue I had with Visa was with the driver support by mfgs. That sucked but after they caught up everything was fine and just worked.

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Never had that issue. Then as I said I built a Vista PC with new hardware (and software).

The point is as we could install Windows Vista back then to computers without a supported graphics card, we can install Windows 11 today on computers without UEFI, TPM or Secure Boot.

Porthos said:

This was the same for me except it was a Gigabyte MB and Ballistic ram,8800 Gtx video. Vista ran great.

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That Intel board was my last non-Gigabyte board. After that I switched to Gigabyte and haven't looked elsewhere. See system specs, two Gigabyte boards

mcp111 said:

will hp have such a bios? And when?

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I have three HP computers (2 desktops and a laptop) that are all Windows 11 compatible. When I bought them, Windows 11 wasn't even a twinkle in the bird's eye.

Then come June 2021, Windows 11 showed up! Then when I used the PC Health Check Tool, all three passed with no messing around in the BIOS.

Sooooooo, I'd say HP was a tad bit ahead of the game. BTW, I have one with an AMD CPU and two with an Intel processor.

mcp111 said:

And it's such a complicated procedure to enable secure boot

Windows 11 and Secure Boot - Microsoft Support

Learn how to change settings to enable Secure Boot if you are not able to upgrade to Windows 11 because your PC is not currently Secure Boot capable.

support.microsoft.com

Is it really worth it?

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This is strictly personal because not everyone will agree.

As a home user, NOPE

Winuser said:

I have to disagree. A user that doesn't even now this forum exist is not going read this forum.

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My students all know this forum exists, but so far, I've failed to convince any of them to join up. They prefer to ask me, rather than look things up for themselves.

I'm trying to figure out ways to "nicely" tell them to "look it up for yourself".

Wynona said:

My students all know this forum exists, but so far, I've failed to convince any of them to join up. They prefer to ask me, rather than look things up for themselves.

I'm trying to figure out ways to "nicely" tell them to "look it up for yourself".

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"Please look it up for yourself."

Create a shortcut to this forums main page and add it to the default desktop on all of their systems, make sure you name it "FREE Windows help" That should work

I think the word FREE has a lot of potential.