Windows 11 is coming – Here’s everything we know about the new Windows

After what seemed like ages of waiting, Microsoft has finally announced what it’s calling “the next generation of Windows”. Windows 11 is a major, major change. It’s representative of a big shift in how Microsoft delivers Windows, but it’s also a big UX overhaul as well. On top of that, it’s getting new Android app support, a new Store, and much more. Here’s what we know so far!

Navigate this page:

• When is Windows 11 coming out?
• But wasn’t Windows 10 the last version of Windows?
• Is Windows 10X dead?
• Can my PC run Windows 11? Is it a free update?
• Is Microsoft going to force me to upgrade to Windows 11?
• What’s new in Windows 11? Is this the Sun Valley update?
  • Android apps
  • A big visual overhaul, with rounded corners
  • Gaming improvements
  • A new Microsoft Store
  • Teams integration
  • Snap Layouts
  • Virtual Desktop wallpaper
  • Widgets
  • x64 emulation for Windows on ARM

When is Windows 11 coming out?

Windows 11 is coming out this holiday season. The timeline is just very different from a normal Windows feature update.

Normally, new features arrive in the Dev channel of the Windows Insider Program over the course of six months to a year. Insiders test them out, they give feedback, and things evolve. Once the Windows 10 feature update RTMs, it goes to the Beta channel. It sits there for servicing for a few months, and then it goes to the Release Preview channel shortly before release.

This is different because Microsoft hasn’t been letting people test this as features have been developed. Windows RTMs in June and December every year now, ever since the schedule lined up with Azure. If you’re familiar with that cycle, this might freak you out a little bit. How can Microsoft announce something on June 24 and have it ready in time to ship this fall?

There are a few answers, one of which is that Windows 10 has been ready for a while and Microsoft hasn’t told you. Windows 10 Insider Previews have continued to ship, but the Redmond firm is stripping out the Windows 11 shell. There are a few parts that won’t be ready in time for Windows Insider testing, such as the new Microsoft Store, Android apps on Windows, and Teams integration.

The preview is going to go out to Windows Insiders next week. It’s scheduled to arrive in the Beta channel later this summer, and that’s also when OEMs are going to start to get it for installing on new laptops and desktops. In October or November, Windows 11 will be available to everyone as a free update.

But wasn’t Windows 10 the last version of Windows?

Back when Windows 10 was announced, it was going to be the last version of Windows. After that, we’d have Windows on a service, and the plan was to let it evolve over time. In fact, I’m sure Terry Myerson knew that there would have to be a big design overhaul at some point, and he thought that would be a Windows 10 update.

Also, to be clear, a developer evangelist named Jerry Nixon was the only one that actually said that Windows 10 was the last version. Microsoft just sort of didn’t correct it, seemingly confirming Nixon’s remarks. Still, this was absolutely Microsoft’s internal mindset at the time.

Here’s the big issue though. Everyone that said Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows doesn’t work there anymore. Panos Panay is in charge of Windows now, and he’s something of a showman.

A good way to think of this is a rebrand, but a rebrand that’s coming at a time where there’s a big UX overhaul. Under the hood, this is the same Windows 10 that we’ve known for years, and it could have shipped as a Windows 10 update. The new brand is about creating excitement around the idea that this is brand-new.

This is not what Windows 10X would have been, because that was only going to arrive on new PCs. Windows 10X was never going to be sold as retail licenses either. With Windows 11, there won’t be any technical reason that you can’t go ahead and install it on any PC.

Microsoft will continue on with Windows as a service, so this will be a free upgrade. But also, don’t expect this to be confirmed as the last version of Windows or anything. We’ll probably get Windows 12 in a few more years. We actually asked how version numbers will work with Windows 11, since it’s going to be updated once a year now instead of twice a year. There’s no need for H1 and H2 anymore. Microsoft wouldn’t comment.

Is Windows 10X dead?

Windows 10X was supposed to be the real next generation of Windows. Along with a complete visual overhaul, it had a lot of under-the-hood changes like running all apps in containers. Microsoft recently announced that it’s dead, and a lot of its features are being folded into Windows 11.

Windows 10X Start Menu

While it had been rumored long before that as Windows Lite, Windows 10X was actually unveiled alongside Microsoft’s Surface Neo as a dual-screen OS. It eventually abandoned its dual-screen ambitions, promising to deliver it on single-screen devices, like cheap laptops. Panos Panay actually wrote in a blog post that he wanted to meet customers where they’re at, even though you’d have to buy a new PC to get it.

Things pretty much fell apart from there. There were some Windows 10X emulators that came out when Microsoft has big plans, but when the single-screen build leaked, it couldn’t even run Win32 apps anymore. Instead, we’re getting Windows 11, which will have the UX elements from Windows 10X.

Can my PC run Windows 11? Is it a free update?

Windows 11 will be a free update for Windows 10 users this holiday season. Unfortunately, the system requirements are higher for Windows 11. There’s no more 32-bit support, and older single-core CPUs won’t be supported. You also need at least 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. The biggest roadblock for many seems to be the requirement of TPM 2.0.

Here’s the list:

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 device Note: 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 color 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.

Microsoft also changed the CPU requirements. Seventh-gen and older Intel CPUs are out, as are some older AMD Ryzen chips, but we’ll have to wait and see if that actually restricts people from installing Windows 11.

Is Microsoft going to force me to upgrade to Windows 11?

The short answer is no, Microsoft isn’t going to force anyone to upgrade to Windows 11. Starting with Windows 10 version 1903, the Redmond firm stopped forcing people to install feature updates. This came after a disastrous Windows 10 version 1809 that actually deleted some users’ files.

It uses its newer ‘seeker’ method. When you check for updates in Windows Update, it simply tells you that a feature update is available if you want it, and you can opt into taking it. The only time Microsoft forces a Windows 10 feature update is if the one you’re on is nearing the end of support, but that’s not even going to happen with Windows 11.

Windows 11 is going to be offered as a free update to seekers this holiday season. If you don’t want it, there’s actually going to be a new Windows 10 update as well, called version 21H2. Microsoft wouldn’t commit to whether or not version 21H2 will be the last Windows 10 update, but it’s definitely going to support the OS until 2025, so if you don’t want Windows 11, you’re good to go for a while.

What’s new in Windows 11? Is this the Sun Valley update?

You might have heard the term Sun Valley tossed around for the last few months. That’s the codename for the big UX overhaul that’s coming with Windows 11. It’s not the codename for the OS as a whole though, just the new UX. It’s meant to make the OS more touch-friendly, something that Windows 10 has struggled with.

Here’s everything that we know is coming:

Android apps

The rumors of Project Latte were true. You’re going to be able to run Android apps in Windows 11. You’ll be able to get them through the Microsoft Store too, but notably, Microsoft has partnered up with Amazon to bring the Amazon Appstore to the Microsoft Store. That means that yes, there will finally be a touch-friendly Kindle app coming to Windows.

The company mentioned that Amazon was the company that it partnered with, but the Appstore isn’t the only place you’ll be able to get Android apps from. In fact, Microsoft said it wants to be able to run all Android apps one day, including those that require Google services. Note that it’s just a goal to support all Android apps, not a commitment.

A big visual overhaul, with rounded corners

Windows 11 is going to be visually different from Windows 10. Because as Windows 10 has had some subtle changes to the design over the years, it hasn’t gotten a whole new look, like the kind of new look we typically get from a new version of Windows.

And yes, there will be rounded corners. Windows has been focused on sharp corners ever since Windows 8, and those squared-off tiles made their way into Windows 10 as well. Windows 11 will follow suit with more modern operating systems like iOS and Android now.

There’s a brand-new Start Menu, which is centered and floating. In fact, it’s just like Windows 10X was. The taskbar is centered as well.

There are also new, more colorful icons throughout the operating system. You’ll find these in the more modern File Explorer, Device Manager, and pretty much anywhere else. These are available in Windows 10 previews, and they make for a pretty big visual change on their own.

It’s not just about a new look though. The way you interact with the UI will be different as well. A big focus here is making Windows better for touch, something that Windows 10 has struggled with. Indeed, while Windows 8 was all-in on touch, Windows 10 felt like it scaled back a bit too much. Windows 11 will support more swipe gestures and such, but more importantly, it should be more consistent with what happens when you tap on something.

Microsoft said that the touch gestures are going to be the same as when you’re using a Precision touchpad. That way, you’ll be using gestures that you’re already familiar with.

Gaming improvements

Microsoft is laser-focused on gaming, and why shouldn’t it be? It has the only viable PC gaming platform, a console play, and a cloud back end that’s second to none. And as we know, if there’s an Azure play to be made, Microsoft is going to make it.

Windows 11 has a bunch of gaming improvements. One of them is Auto HDR, a feature first included in Xbox Series X|S consoles, and now coming to Windows. It automatically adds HDR to older games, as you can probably guess from the name.

Another feature being borrowed from the firm’s latest consoles is DirectStorage. You’ll need a “DirectStorage Optimized” PC for this one, as you’ll need the kind of SSD that was engineered as part of the Xbox Velocity Architecture, but it’s going to allow for super-fast loading times and better performance.

Finally, Xbox Cloud Gaming is going to be built-in. It’s going to be part of the Xbox app on Windows 11, although to be clear, there’s no reason that that app update shouldn’t come to Windows 10 as well. We’ll have to wait and see if Windows 10 users get the feature.

A new Microsoft Store

One thing that Satya Nadella said at the Build keynote is that the new OS will “unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators”. That leads us to a new Microsoft Store. Make no mistake; this is a big part of the update.

Desktop apps still haven’t made it to the Store in the same way that Microsoft would have liked. With Windows 11, there are some big changes. Developers will be able to submit their apps without packaging them, and they can also host them on their own CDN, meaning that they won’t actually have to be distributed by Microsoft, just through the Microsoft storefront.

This is opening up the Microsoft Store in a big way. Previously, big-time apps like Google Chrome were left out because of Microsoft’s own rules. Now, it’s a whole lot easier to put your app in the Store.

The big point is that Microsoft doesn’t care what kind of app you made. It can be Win32, .NET, UWP, Xamarin, Election, React Native, Java, a PWA, or something else, and Microsoft wants it in the store.

Microsoft announced that Adobe Creative Cloud, Disney+, TikTok, and Zoom are all coming to the Store. Moreover, it’s bringing Microsoft Teams and even Visual Studio to its virtual storefront. That’s a big deal, especially Visual Studio.

The company also just wants to make a better store. It’s adding collections to help you to find more apps, and there’s a “pop-up store” that will manage installations when you try to install apps that come from the web.

Not only that, but developers can use their own commerce platforms. That means that your app can use the platform that earns you the most money, and your app can still be in the Store.

Teams integration

Microsoft is integrating Teams into the OS. You’ll now find Teams chat right in the taskbar, so you can easily talk to friends. It’s also going to work with SMS, just in case those friends haven’t downloaded Teams yet. The company specifically referred to it as “two-way SMS”, so don’t expect MMS group texts to work.

There’s also a mute/unmute button that’s going to show up in the taskbar, along with an option to start presenting.

Snap Layouts

Windows 10 brought us Snap Assist, and Windows 11 is bringing us Snap Layouts. This is a cool one. In Windows 11, you can hover over the maximize button, and you’ll be presented with layout options.

You can select one of the tiles in the layouts, and your app will snap to that position on the screen. Snap Assist will help you fill in the rest.

While this is useful for everyone, it should be particularly useful for those that use ultra-wide monitors. Microsoft has never supported three apps side-by-side before.

Virtual Desktop wallpaper

This is a pretty small change, but if you’re a virtual desktop user, it’s probably a big one. You can set the wallpaper on each of your virtual desktops now, helping you to define the look of each one that might have its own purpose.

Widgets

Microsoft is adding a widgets panel, which will slide in from the left. The company seems to like to compare it to a pane of glass sliding out. As it stands right now, it’s pretty much News and interests but in a new form. At some point, it will likely open up to third-party developers.

x64 emulation for Windows on ARM

You remember Windows on ARM, right? Windows 10 devices with ARM processors have struggled with a lack of apps, since they’ve only supported 32-bit emulation. With Windows 11, those devices will finally get support for 64-bit app emulation. This is something that’s been in testing with Insiders for a while.

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NFC smartphones enabled researchers to hack point of sale systems and ATMs

Despite being one of the only ways to get money out from your bank account on the go, ATMs have notoriously had a litany of security issues over the years. Even now, there’s not a whole lot stopping a hacker from placing a card skimmer on an ATM, as most people will never notice that it’s there. There have, of course, also been a number of other attacks over the years that are more complex than that, but by and large, you should always be careful when using an ATM. Now there’s a new way to hack an ATM, and all it requires is a smartphone with NFC.

As Wired reports, Josep Rodriguez is a researcher and consultant at IOActive, a security firm based in Seattle, Washington, and he has spent the last year finding vulnerabilities in NFC readers used in ATMs and point-of-sale systems. Many ATMs around the world allow you to tap your debit or credit card to then enter your PIN and withdraw cash, rather than requiring you to insert it into the ATM itself. While it’s more convenient, it also gets around the problem of a physical card skimmer being present over the card reader. Contactless payments on point of sales systems are also ubiquitous at this point.

Source: Google

Hacking NFC readers

Rodriquez has built an Android app that gives his phone the power to mimic credit card communications and exploit flaws in the NFC systems’ firmware. Waving his phone over the NFC reader, he can chain together multiple exploits to crash point-of-sales devices, hack them to collect and transmit card data, change the value of transactions, and even lock the devices with a ransomware message.

Furthermore, Rodriguez says that he can even force at least one unnamed brand of ATM to dispense cash, though it only works in combination with bugs he found in the ATM’s software. This is called “jackpotting“, for which there are many ways criminals have tried over the years to gain access to an ATM in order to steal cash. He declined to specify the brand or the methods due to nondisclosure agreements with the ATM vendors.

“You can modify the firmware and change the price to one dollar, for instance, even when the screen shows that you’re paying 50 dollars. You can make the device useless, or install a kind of ransomware. There are a lot of possibilities here,” says Rodriguez of the point-of-sale attacks he discovered. “If you chain the attack and also send a special payload to an ATM’s computer, you can jackpot the ATM — like cash out, just by tapping your phone.”

Source: Josep Rodriguez

Affected vendors include ID Tech, Ingenico, Verifone, Crane Payment Innovations, BBPOS, Nexgo, and an unnamed ATM vendor, and all of them were alerted between 7 months and a year ago. However, most point-of-sale systems don’t receive software updates or do rarely, and it’s likely that many of them require physical access to do so. Therefore, it’s likely that many of them remain vulnerable. “Patching so many hundreds of thousands of ATMs physically, it’s something that would require a lot of time,” Rodriguez says.

To demonstrate the vulnerabilities, Rodriguez shared a video with Wired showing him waving a smartphone over the NFC reader of an ATM in Madrid, causing the machine to display an error message. He didn’t show the jackpotting attack, as he could only legally test it on machines obtained as part of IOActive’s security consulting, which would then violate their nondisclosure agreement. Rodriguez asked Wired not to publish the video for fear of legal liability.

The findings are “excellent research into the vulnerability of software running on embedded devices,” says Karsten Nohl, the founder of security firm SRLabs and firmware-hacker, who reviewed Rodriguez’s work. Nohl also mentioned that there are a few drawbacks for real-world thieves, including that a hacked NFC reader would only allow an attacker to steal mag stripe credit card data, not the PIN or data from EMV chips. The ATM jackpot attack also requires a vulnerability in the ATM firmware, which is a large barrier.

Even still, gaining access to execute code on these machines is a major security flaw in itself, and is often the first entry-point in any system even if it’s no more than user-level access. Once you get past the outside layer of security, often it’s the case that the internal software systems are nowhere near as secure.

Red Balloon CEO and chief scientist Ang Cui, was impressed by the findings. “I think it’s very plausible that once you have code execution on any of these devices, you should be able to get right to the main controller, because that thing is full of vulnerabilities that haven’t been fixed for over a decade,” Cui says. “From there,” he adds, “you can absolutely control the cassette dispenser” that holds and releases cash to users.

Custom code execution

The ability to execute custom code on any machine is a major vulnerability and gives an attacker the ability to probe underlying systems in a machine to find more vulnerabilities. The Nintendo 3DS is a prime example of this: a game called Cubic Ninja was famously one of the earliest ways to exploit the 3DS and execute homebrew. The exploit, dubbed “Ninjhax”, caused a buffer overflow which triggered the execution of custom code. While the game itself only had user-level access to the system, Ninjhax became the base of further exploits for running custom firmware on the 3DS.

Source: Cloudflare

To simplify: a buffer overflow is triggered when the volume of data sent exceeds the allocated storage for that data, meaning that the excess data is then stored in adjacent memory regions. If an adjacent memory region can execute code, then an attacker can abuse this to fill the buffer with garbage data, and then append executable code to the end of it, where it will be read into adjacent memory. Not all buffer overflow attacks can execute code, and many will simply just crash a program or cause unexpected behavior. For example, if a field can only take 8 bytes of data and an attacker forced input of 10 bytes, then the additional 2 bytes at the end would overflow into another region of memory.

Read more: “PSA: If your PC runs Linux, you should update Sudo now”

Rodriguez notes that buffer overflow attacks on NFC readers and point-of-sale devices are possible, as he bought many of these from eBay over the last year. He pointed out that many of them suffered from the same security flaw: they didn’t validate the size of the data sent via NFC from a credit card. Making an app that sent data hundreds of times larger than the reader expects, it was possible to trigger a buffer overflow attack.

When Wired reached out to the affected companies for comment, ID Tech, BBPOS, and Nexgo did not respond to requests for comment. The ATM Industry Association also declined to comment. Ingenico responded in a statement that security mitigations meant that Rodriguez’s buffer overflow could only crash devices, not gain custom code execution. Rodriguez is doubtful that they would have actually prevented code execution but hasn’t created a proof of concept to demonstrate. Ingenico said that “considering the inconvenience and impact for our customers”, it was issuing a fix anyway.

Verifone said it had found and fixed the point-of-sale vulnerabilities in 2018 before they were reported, though this only shows how these devices are never updated. Rodriguez says that he tested his NFC attacks on a Verifone device at a restaurant last year, finding that it still remained vulnerable.

“These vulnerabilities have been present in firmware for years, and we’re using these devices daily to handle our credit cards, our money,” Rodriguez says. “They need to be secured.” Rodriguez plans to share technical details of these vulnerabilities in a webinar in the coming weeks.

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Microsoft is giving Paint and Notepad much-needed UI redesigns in Windows 11

Following weeks of leaks and rumors, Windows 11 was officially unveiled yesterday. Windows 11 adopts Microsoft’s new Fluent design language. It swaps the sharp corners with rounded corners, giving the system a softer look. It also brings along new icons and typography, new animations, translucent windows, updated dark and light modes, and more. The new Fluent redesign is visible across all major system apps, including Microsoft Office apps. And it appears, two of the most iconic Windows apps, Notepad and Paint, are also getting a fresh coat of paint.

Microsoft showed off the new look of Notepad and Paint during its developer event. With the updated design, both apps look cleaner and consistent with the rest of the operating system — instead of sticking out like a sore thumb as they do on Windows 10.

As you can see in the screenshot above, icons and typography have been updated in the Paint app. Overall it looks much cleaner and easier on the eyes. We can also see that the save and undo/redo buttons no longer appear in the header and have been relocated to the front raw alongside “File” and “View.” Notepad’s icon has also been revamped, and it now features rounded corners as part of the new Fluent design.

Based on this screenshot, it doesn’t look like there are any new functionality changes — it’s mostly just a fresh coat of paint with everything the same as before. However, we’ll only know for sure once we get our hands on the first Windows 11 build.

Apart from these apps, Microsoft has also teased a revamped File Explorer app and a radically different Settings app with colorful icons and a transparent window.

The first build of Windows 11 will be made available to Windows Insiders early next week. However, all of these changes might not be included in the initial build. To check if your PC or laptop meets the system requirements for running Windows 11, go here.

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Microsoft Office is getting a Fluent design makeover on Windows 11

On Thursday, Microsoft finally took the curtains off Windows 11, the biggest update in years to the most popular PC operating system. The new update brings substantial changes across the board, including new snap layouts and groups for better multi-tasking, revamped Microsoft Store, support for Android apps, a universal mute button, and much more.

The most exciting and immediately noticeable change is the refreshed UI which looks much modern than Windows 10. This is in large part thanks to the new Fluent design, which Microsoft has been working on since 2017. Microsoft has slowly been transitioning elements of Windows 10 with the new design language. With Windows 11, we’re seeing broader adoption of the new Fluent design across the system interface and primary applications. Microsoft Office suite is one of the areas where this new redesign is quite apparent.

Microsoft detailed in a blog post some of the UI changes coming to Microsoft Office apps. As you can see in the images below, the classic ribbon interface is gone and has been replaced by a collapsible ribbon menu. Corners are also more rounded, and Office now syncs with the default system theme, including dark mode. Microsoft teased these UI changes last year, and they’re finally going live in Windows 11.

Elsewhere, Windows 11 also introduces a new centered  Start menu which looks a lot like Chrome OS’s app launcher, better support for external monitors, a new widgets pane, and so on.

The first build of Windows 11 will be made available to Windows Insiders next week, with the public rollout set to happen by the end of 2021. It will be a free upgrade for Windows 1o users, and you can check out the system requirements and whether or not your PC is eligible for the update here. Meanwhile, you can check out the list of compatible CPUs for Windows 11 here.

 

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EE is introducing roaming charges following Brexit

Following Brexit, UK mobile operator EE will be charging customers extra to use their mobile plans in Europe starting from January 2022. It’s the first mobile operator in the UK to introduce normal roaming charges following Brexit, having previously said that it was not going to reintroduce roaming charges in Europe. Vodafone previously introduced European roaming for “heavy” users, referring to those users as customers who use their phone in an EU country for more than 60 days in a four-month period.

Citizens in the EU bloc can “roam-like-at-home” with their mobile plans, meaning that carriers cannot institute roaming charges for customers that travel within the EU. While there were fair usage limits on that agreement (for example, I can’t buy a mobile data plan in another EU country and then use it all the time in Ireland), the idea was that your mobile contract worked the same way in every EU country.

While citizens in the UK previously did not need to pay roaming charges, following Brexit, mobile network operators can now begin setting roaming charges again in EU countries. The report by the BBC outlines how the UK’s trade deal says that both sides will encourage operators to have “transparent and reasonable rates” for roaming, but did not entirely ban charges.

EE is the first network to reintroduce full roaming charges, after they, O2, Three, and Vodafone all previously pledged not to. Both O2 and Three are modifying their fair use caps for mobile data usage, though they stopped short of introducing outright roaming charges. O2 is introducing a cap of 25GB a month, and Three is lowering its fair use limit from 20GB a month to 12GB a month. According to RTÉ, EE will, however, not be instituting those roaming charges for customers traveling to Ireland, in particular as customers living in Northern Ireland may at times end up locked to towers operating in the Republic of Ireland.

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Windows 11’s universal mute button makes it easier to turn your microphone off

Windows 11 is officially here, and it’s a pretty massive upgrade. While we had already gotten a close look at some of the major changes through a leaked Windows 11 build, there were plenty of things that Microsoft managed to keep under the covers, such as support for Android apps, a revamped File Explorer, brand-new Windows Store, and much more. Besides these major changes, Windows 11 also has several nifty features aimed at improving your video conferencing experience. One such useful feature is a universal mute button.

Muting and unmuting our microphones is a common scenario of virtual meetings. Most video conferencing apps make sure that toggles to turn on and off your microphone and camera are easily accessible. However, if you’re working on multiple apps while attending a call, it can be cumbersome to access these toggles. To address this, Windows 11 has a new universal mute button that cuts off microphone access across all apps with a single click. This button will reside in the bottom right corner in the system tray alongside Wi-Fi, sound, and battery indicators. With the universal mute button, you can mute or unmute yourself from any screen without having to open the video conferencing app.

Windows 11 also integrates Microsoft Teams directly into the taskbar, replacing Skype as the flagship video conferencing app. It will also make it easier to share your desktop or an app during a meeting directly from the taskbar.

Here are the CPUs that are compatible with Windows 11

Windows 11 will be available to try out to Windows Insiders starting next week. It will start rolling out to the masses this holiday and will be a free upgrade for Windows 1o users. In case you’re wondering whether your PC or laptop can run Windows 11, here are the system requirements that you need to meet.

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Microsoft is mandating all Windows 11 laptops to have a precision touchpad

Earlier today, Microsoft announced Windows 11, and after it published system requirements, it turned out that this was the first time since Windows 7 that the barrier to entry was raised. One thing that’s changed is that apparently, you’re going to need a Precision touchpad on Windows 11.

This is going to be an issue for some. Most modern laptops have been using Precision touchpads for years, but one of the last holdouts was HP. You could have a two-year-old premium HP laptop that might not have a Precision touchpad. According to Microsoft’s documentation, that PC won’t be able to upgrade to Windows 11.

This comes from Microsoft’s Windows minimum hardware requirements page. It says that a computer must meet the listed requirements in order to do the following:

• Boot and run Windows
• Update and service Windows
• Provide a baseline user experience that is comparable with similar devices and computers

There are tons of other things that are changing. 32-bit CPU support is totally gone, while it was gone for new PCs with Windows 10 for a little while now. CPUs also need to have two or more cores. RAM and storage requirements have went up to 4GB and 64GB, respectively.

Another thing that’s a roadblock for many is that Windows 11 will require TPM 2.0, although it might be possible to use TPM 1.2. Another key thing you’ll need support for is DirectX 12. In 2023, webcams are going to be a requirement too, but only on new laptops.

The issue with Precision touchpads is something that could change between now and this holiday season when Windows 11 is released. In fact, anything is subject to change between now and then.

But to be clear, it’s been a really long time since Microsoft raised the minimum requirements for Windows in any meaningful way. Windows 10 was released six years ago, and even then, it didn’t raise requirements because it was meant to be a free upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

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