Many of the security features on Windows 11 that require these hardware changes, are already available on Windows 10 as optional.
The reasoning is that they shouldn't be turned off, and this is a way to force OEMs to actually provide the hardware on their motherboards.
What it isn't said is that PC sales have been down for a while and Covid was kind of the exception due to the way everyone needed to work from home.
Both Intel and AMD CPUs have fTPMs (ie. inside the CPU) since 2020 at the latest. There's no additional hardware that's needed from OEMs.
As workarounds for TPM requirement, one can either:
- open a Command Prompt window during the Windows installer and run regedit (various Youtube vids cover it)
- use Rufus to create a boot USB from a Windows ISO that bypasses TPM (which does the same regedit hack behind-the-scenes by conveniently embedding it in an install script "\sources\$OEM$\$$\Panther\unattend.xml")
That's how I got Windows 11 installed on a very old 2009 computer. I had to upgrade a friend's computer to Win 11 because the upcoming TurboTax 2025 requires it and there's no need to buy a new computer just to satisfy Microsoft.
>And that may break with any update.
Yes, and that's an acceptable risk calculation to avoid prematurely buying a new computer because:
"Windows 11 TPM hack _might_ be broken in the future but _maybe_never_ " -- better than -- "Windows 10 _absolutely_will_ be broken"
> Yes, and that's an acceptable risk calculation to avoid prematurely buying a new computer because: ...
- there are 3 year esm updates - Linux based os that are nowadays more stable than windows
Aside from lack of security updates and slowly declining application support is there any other type of "broken" that we should be worried about? They seem like a lower risk than a Windows update taking out the entire system.
Just use the ISO and Rufus.
Make me lose respect even more for Microsoft, to think of all the wasted resources and money people thought they needed to because of “requirements”
One of the things I loved about being on macOS was how boring it was to upgrade - at least until you waited for the .1 update.
Windows upgrades feel less like upgrades and more like full migrations.
I'm thinking I'll probably repave it with Bazzite or something like it. But so far I keep procrastinating that as it stopped being my daily workhorse. It's funny that when I bought that desktop Microsoft was still in the "Windows 10 will last the lifetime of your device" marketing pitch. Such a fascinating broken promise that they could have kept in multiple ways. It sounds like they may let the market talk them into the awful Windows XP life support version of it where they may be offering extended security support for years to come.
Unless you are personally prepared to go round to the homes of people who have had their computer for a decade, don't understand command lines, and just use their long-running PC to surf the net and edit the occasional document, it doesn't actually solve anything.
But they still work and honestly, I don't see much downside to running them without any updates for a while.
Eventually I'll replace them and maybe they will get win 11 or 12. Or Linux as that's what everything else is already running.
I'm aware of zero DRMs that use TPM, despite being a DRM boogeyman for over a decade. Meanwhile there are plenty of actual DRMs that use HDCP and SGX and there's not a peep about those technologies. Moreover the war on DRM is basically over, for both sides. Smart TVs and streaming boxes (eg. fire TV stick) are ubiquitous enough that basically everyone uses those devices for playback, rather than bothering with the hassle of plugging in their laptop and dealing with the fickle DRM experience on PCs. For the tiny minority that wants to watch on their PCs, 4K rips are ubiquitous enough that nobody bothers watching the official DRM encumbered version.
I honestly thought Microsoft would blink on this but I guess their leadership believes everyone is going to run out and buy an entirely new computer just to run Windows 11. My older parents (for example) aren't going to throw away their perfectly functional desktops/laptops and will instead continue to use Windows 10 with the attendant security risks (they won't pay $30 for security updates) unless I convince them to switch to Linux.
However it is possible for the more technically minded without too much effort with an adapted "unattend.xml" file during setup. This skips TPM requirements account setup and a number of other annoyances.
See: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/
If you take the effort to do this subsequent installations will be a walk in the park.