Windows 11 System Requirements and How to Check Your PC

Windows 11’s requirements caused more confusion than any Windows release before it. Plenty of perfectly capable PCs got told they weren’t good enough, usually because of a firmware setting that was switched off, not because the hardware was actually too old.

Here are the real requirements, how to check each one yourself, and what to do when a check fails.

The official minimum requirements

Component	Requirement
Processor	1 GHz or faster, 2+ cores, 64-bit, and on Microsoft’s approved CPU list
RAM	4 GB
Storage	64 GB or larger
Firmware	UEFI, Secure Boot capable
TPM	Trusted Platform Module version 2.0
Graphics	DirectX 12 compatible with WDDM 2.0 driver
Display	720p, 9″ or larger, 8 bits per colour channel
Account	Microsoft account and internet needed for Home setup

The RAM and storage numbers are technically true and practically useless — 4 GB and a 64 GB drive will run Windows 11 badly. Aim for 8 GB minimum, 16 GB comfortable, and a 256 GB SSD.

The requirement that actually blocks people

It isn’t RAM or storage. It’s the CPU list.

Microsoft only supports Intel 8th generation (Coffee Lake, 2017) and newer, and AMD Ryzen 2000 series and newer. A 2016 Intel i7-6700K outperforms plenty of supported chips and is still not on the list.

Microsoft’s stated reason is the security features these generations include — mode-based execution control and virtualisation-based security in particular. Whether you find that convincing or not, it’s a hard block in the official installer.

How to check your PC, requirement by requirement

The quick way

Download PC Health Check from Microsoft, install it, click Check now. It tells you pass or fail and, since a 2021 update, which specific requirement failed.

If you want more detail on why, WhyNotWin11 (free, open source, on GitHub) breaks out every check individually and is considerably more informative.

Check TPM 2.0

Press Win + R, type tpm.msc, press Enter

“The TPM is ready for use” with Specification Version 2.0 → pass
Specification Version 1.2 → your motherboard has a TPM but an older one. Some boards accept a TPM 2.0 module; most don’t
“Compatible TPM cannot be found” → it’s almost certainly just disabled in firmware

To enable it: restart into BIOS/UEFI and look for:

Intel: PTT or Platform Trust Technology — under Advanced → PCH-FW Configuration
AMD: fTPM or AMD CPU fTPM — under Advanced → AMD fTPM Configuration

Set it to Enabled, save, restart. It’s firmware-based on virtually all machines from 2016 onward, so you don’t need to buy a physical chip.

Check Secure Boot and UEFI

Press Win + R, type msinfo32, press Enter
Look at BIOS Mode and Secure Boot State

UEFI / On → pass
UEFI / Off → enable Secure Boot in firmware
Legacy / Unsupported → your disk is MBR-partitioned. Convert it first (below), then enable Secure Boot

Converting MBR to GPT without reinstalling:

Back up, then in an administrator Command Prompt:

mbr2gpt /validate /allowFullOS
mbr2gpt /convert /disk:0 /allowFullOS

Then restart into firmware, set boot mode to UEFI, disable CSM, enable Secure Boot.

Check your CPU

Ctrl + Shift + Esc → Performance tab → CPU
Read the model name in the top-right

Then check it against Microsoft’s supported processor lists (they publish separate pages for Intel, AMD and Qualcomm).

Rough guide:

Intel: 8th gen and newer — i3/i5/i7/i9-8xxx and above
AMD: Ryzen 2000 series and newer
Qualcomm: Snapdragon 850 and newer

Check RAM and storage

RAM: Task Manager → Performance → Memory
Storage: File Explorer → This PC — check free space on C:

You need 64 GB total capacity and about 20 GB free for the upgrade itself.

Check graphics

Press Win + R, type dxdiag, press Enter. On the Display tab, look for DirectX 12 and a Driver Model of WDDM 2.0 or higher. Any GPU from 2015 onward passes.

What to do when a check fails

Failure	Fixable?	How
TPM not found	Yes, usually	Enable PTT/fTPM in firmware
Secure Boot off	Yes	Enable in firmware
BIOS Mode: Legacy	Yes	`mbr2gpt`, then switch firmware to UEFI
Secure Boot greyed out	Yes	Set a supervisor password, or restore factory keys
Not enough storage	Yes	Disk Cleanup, or a bigger drive
Not enough RAM	Usually	Add a stick — most desktops and many laptops allow it
CPU not supported	No, officially	See below

About the unsupported-CPU workarounds

You’ll find registry edits and modified installers that bypass the CPU and TPM checks. They do work. Microsoft even documents one registry key for TPM 1.2 systems.

What you should know before using them:

Microsoft states these machines aren’t entitled to updates, and can be cut off at any time
In practice most have continued receiving updates, but 24H2 blocked some older CPUs that lacked the POPCNT and SSE4.2 instructions, and those machines simply stopped upgrading
You get a desktop watermark and a settings notice
If something breaks, official support won’t help you

For a machine that just needs to keep working, this is a reasonable gamble. For anything you depend on, it isn’t.

If your PC genuinely can’t upgrade

Windows 10 lost support on 14 October 2025. Your realistic options:

Extended Security Updates (ESU) — paid, and time-limited
Buy a new PC — anything current passes
Switch to Linux — Linux Mint runs well on hardware Windows 11 rejects, and the interface is familiar to Windows users
Use it offline — fine for a machine that never touches the internet
ChromeOS Flex — Google’s free OS for old hardware, if browser-based work is all you need

Recommended specs, not minimum

The official minimums produce a machine that technically boots. For an experience that doesn’t annoy you:

Component	Minimum	Actually comfortable
CPU	2 cores, 1 GHz	4+ cores, 2.5 GHz+
RAM	4 GB	16 GB
Storage	64 GB	512 GB NVMe SSD
Display	720p	1080p

The SSD matters most. Windows 11 on a hard drive feels broken regardless of how much RAM you have.

Common questions

Why does Windows 11 need TPM 2.0? It underpins BitLocker, Windows Hello and virtualisation-based security. The TPM stores encryption keys in hardware so they can’t be read out by software. Requiring it lets Microsoft turn those protections on by default rather than leaving them optional.

Can I add a TPM chip to my motherboard? Some boards have a TPM header and accept a module for $20–40. But if your CPU is Intel 8th gen or newer, or Ryzen 2000 or newer, you already have firmware TPM, just enable PTT or fTPM instead.

My PC passed PC Health Check but Windows Update still doesn’t offer Windows 11. The rollout is staged and can take months. Use the Installation Assistant to upgrade immediately rather than waiting.

Is 4 GB of RAM really enough? It will boot and run. Open a browser with a few tabs and it starts swapping to disk. Treat 8 GB as the real floor and 16 GB as the sensible target.

Does Windows 11 need a Microsoft account? Home edition asks for one during setup. Pro still allows a local account through Domain join instead. There are also workarounds during setup, though Microsoft closes them periodically.

Before you conclude your PC is too old, check tpm.msc and msinfo32. On a large share of “unsupported” machines the hardware is fine — TPM and Secure Boot are just switched off in the BIOS, and turning them on takes five minutes.