Microsoft’s Windows 11 is the latest version of their operating system, expected in October 2021 with upgrades rolling out in 2022. However, there appear to be some issues with some of its requirements.
- Unlike previous Windows versions, Windows 11 will be available via an online update only, which means creating installers will likely be more difficult, e.g. for troubleshooting or repair purposes. A new machine with Windows 11 will likely have a special troubleshooting mode (like the old Safe Mode) but it remains to be clarified how this will work on upgraded machines and self-built devices.
- Microsoft are forcing Home users to log in a Microsoft account, whereas before this could be avoided with a local account. Whilst this is good for backing up settings and recovering your login, it means that you must have a Microsoft account and Microsoft will get your personal information and data as a matter of course.
- Perhaps the most questionable requirement is that all mobile devices (i.e. laptops but not desktop PCs) will be required to have a forward-facing webcam from 1 January 2023. Furthermore, the webcam should have at least a High-Definition resolution and needs to support auto white-balance and auto exposure. We assume this is for facial recognition for logging in, but making this an unavoidable requirement is concerning for those who don’t wish to use such features.
- Another security requirement is that a TPM (version 2.0) module needs to be enabled on all devices. Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) are dedicated processors for hardware encryption purposes like BitLocker and Windows Hello, which is good for security. However, not all machines come with TPM 2.0 chips installed, and although it is possible to edit firmware settings to enable this isn’t easy to do. Due to this, the price of TPM 2.0 chips has increased substantially, it was noted that these chips have gone from ~£18 to ~£75.
If we ignore the hardware requirements and privacy implications for a moment, Windows 11 does give a higher level of security – it has been shown to reduce malware by 60% on tested devices.
Microsoft has yet to release its PC Health Check application, which will allow users to check the compatibility of their machine for Windows 11.
Microsoft announced that Windows 11 should be ready to ship with new machines and be available for download in October 2021. However, as most existing machines aren’t prepared for all the new requirements, it is likely that upgrades for Windows 10 devices will be rolled out later, e.g. first quarter of 2022.