Microsoft has announced the next version of the Windows operating system. Windows 11, the successor to the popular Windows 10, will generally be available in the last quarter of this year.
Windows 11 will get a new Start, centered taskbar icons, redesigned Settings, revamped File Explorer, new icons, news themes, native support for Android apps, a better action center, a built-in Chat app powered by Microsoft Teams, widgets, new wallpapers, and sound schemes among other things.
Now that Windows 11 has been announced and the new version of Windows has new minimum hardware requirements, PC users wonder if their PC can run Windows 11.
The easiest way to check if your Windows 10 computer can run Windows 11 is to download and run the official PC Health Check app on your Windows 10 PC. You can refer to our how-to check if your PC can run Windows 11 guide for step-by-step directions.
For users who want to check the minimum specifications, Microsoft has provided the following minimum system requirements to run Windows 11.
Windows 11 minimum hardware requirements
Processor: 1 GHz or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC)
RAM: 4 GB or more
Storage: at least 64 GB
Firmware: UEFI, Secure Boot
TPM: TPM version 2.0
The need for TPM version 2.0 can easily make millions of PCs not upgradeable to Windows 11. If you are not sure if your PC has TPM and want to check its version, read our how-to check the TPM version number on your Windows computer guide.
Display: 720p display that is greater than 9″ diagonally, 8 bits per color channel
Graphics card: DirectX 12 compatible graphics card with WDDM 2.0 driver
In addition to these hardware requirements, Windows 11 Home edition users will need a Microsoft account to set up the device for the first time. This requirement does not apply to users running other editions of Windows 11.
You can visit supported AMD processors, supported Intel processors, and supported Qualcomm processors pages to check if your PC’s processor is compatible with Windows 11.
As said earlier, you can download the official PC Health Check app to check if your PC’s hardware support Windows 11.
Windows 11 system requirements vs. Windows 10
Windows 11 requires a dual-core 64-bit processor, which was not a requirement for Windows 10 (Windows 11 does not support 32-bit processors). Besides that, Windows 11 requires at least 4 GB of RAM, whereas we could run 32-bit Windows 10 even on a PC with just 1 GB of RAM. Storage space requirement has changed with Windows 11 as a minimum of 64 GB space is required. Graphics and display requirements have also changed. DirectX 12 compatible graphics is now a minimum requirement.
Last but not least, Windows 10 does not need TPM to run. Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0 or later.
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