Windows 11 Upgrade

Upgrading to Windows 11

As many of you are aware the current Windows operating system (Win10) is highly vulnerable to malware and cyber attacks and Microsoft have been struggling to keep ahead of the hackers and cyber bandits. However, all that is about to change because from the little information that has been released by Microsoft, it looks like Windows 11 is beefing up its security at the hardware level.

A few of our customers have been in touch asking us when Windows 11 will be released and if it will work on their computer,

So here’s what we know so far: Windows 11 is still being tested and is due for release sometime late 2021 early 2022 and Microsoft will be releasing this as a free upgrade.
The upgrade will only work on newer machines that are using “8th Generation” or later Intel Processors, “2nd Generation” or later AMD processors and tablets containing Qualcomm chipsets, which must be “7th Generation” or later, and most importantly, your motherboard must have TPM 2.0 and be UEFI enabled with secure boot. and have TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) enabled. So if your computer is using an older processor or doesn’t have TPM 2.0 installed and enabled then you wont be able to upgrade to Win11.

Getting Ready For Windows 11

Just as we did with Windows 10, we will have to carry out a number of checks to make sure that our computer is compatible with Windows 11. Microsoft did release a “PC Health Check” app to test whether your computer meets the system requirements for Windows 11, but many people reported that it was not giving enough detail as to why their device was not compatible. We decided to test the app on one of our newer machines, but before we ran the test we disabled the TPM in the bios, and sure enough it failed the test but the app never told us why.

After re-activating the TPM we ran the test again and it passed, Microsoft has now removed the tool but hopefully they will have a new one available before Windows 11 is released.

System requirements

These are the basic requirements for installing Windows 11. If your device does not meet these requirements, you may not be able to install Windows 11 and you might want to consider upgrading your hardware or purchasing a new PC.


Processor:	1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC)
RAM:	4 gigabyte (GB)
Storage:	64 GB or larger storage deviceNote: See below under “More information on storage space to keep Windows 11 up-to-date” for more details.
System firmware:	UEFI, Secure Boot capable
TPM:	Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0
Graphics card:	Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver
Display:	High definition (720p) display that is greater than 9” diagonally, 8 bits per colour channel
Internet connection and Microsoft accounts:	Windows 11 Home edition requires internet connectivity and a Microsoft account to complete device setup on first use. Switching a device out of Windows 11 Home in S mode also requires internet connectivity. Learn more about S mode here. For all Windows 11 editions, internet access is required to perform updates and to download and take advantage of some features. A Microsoft account is required for some features.

How to check if your processor is 8th generation

Processors have a unique code built into them that serve as identifiers

Use Win + I to open settings, go to the system folder and click on “About” at the bottom of the menu (or you could do a search for “About My PC“). In the specifications you will see your “Processor” and you can work out the generation from the processor code being displayed.

Here are a couple of our processor codes.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz 2.90 GHz

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7500U CPU @ 2.70GHz 2.90 GHz

So from the codes above we can see that one is a 9th generation processor and the other is a 7th. So one of our computers can be upgraded to Windows 11, but the older one will need a processor upgrade to qualify.

If you are still unsure if your processor will be supported by Windows 11, you can check it against the lists we obtained from Microsoft:

A full list of supported Intel Processors can be found here

A full list of supported AMD Processors can be found here

A full list of supported Qualcomm Processors can be found here

How to check your TPM Version in Device Manager

Open device manager (right click on the windows logo)
search for ‘Security Device’ in the list of all devices. Click to expand it.
Check the Trusted Platform Module version number

How to check if TPM is enabled on your computer

Win+R then run “tpm.msc“

This brings up the TPM management console and it will show your TPM status.

If tpm isn’t found Restart the computer and go to the BIOS/UEFI (tap on delete or F2 until bios screen appears)

Then go to the Peripherals option

If you have an AMD processor on your PC. You need to enable the AMD CPU fTPM option.

If you have an Intel processor. You need to enable the Intel Platform Trusted Technology (PTT) option.

Once you have enabled the TPM restart your PC and check the version number

Both of these hardware issues can be resolved, the CPU can be replaced with an 8th generation one (providing of course that the motherboard will support it) and if the TPM module is not present or up to date, you can buy one and fit it to the motherboard quite easily.

Once you have the correct hardware installed and activated you can run a Windows 11 Compatibility Tool to check for any other issues.