Preparing for the worst with Windows 11...how do I use sysprep and restore client data?

[River Valley Computer]

I don't disagree with you, at all. But even if I'm not and cannot, Microsoft is not throwing anyone with hardware that can't run Windows 11 (under the current specs) under the bus.

Windows 11 is just no big deal. It's marketing puffery and a newly redesigned UI for certain hardware. Rock my world! NOT.

What I can't understand is WHY would MS be trying to push hardware sales during a time when chips are not being produced and costs for systems, motherboards and video cards are sky high.
.

 

[nlinecomputers]

What I can't understand is WHY would MS be trying to push hardware sales during a time when chips are not being produced and costs for systems, motherboards and video cards are sky high.
.

Because for manufacturing reasons you need months of lead time and who really knows what the market is going to be like next winter when this actually hits the shelves. Most Christmas PCs are likely to ship with Windows 10 and “Ready for Windows 11” stickers.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What I can't understand is WHY would MS be trying to push hardware sales during a time when chips are not being produced and costs for systems, motherboards and video cards are sky high.
.

Windows 11 has been under development for some time, not just the past year. They're on their normal upgrade schedule. Covid was unexpected.
By end of this year things will be ramping up again.

 

[Porthos]

Win 11 seems to be 21h2 for release in October.

 

[britechguy]

MS be trying to push hardware sales

I honestly don't think that this is the main motivation. In working with other software in other settings, backward compatibility breaking releases are a normal part of the process. One good example of that has been the NVDA screen reader, written in Python, which, as Python has undergone major changes, so has NVDA and it simply will not work with older versions of its add-ons, and OSes. There was an XP-backward-compatibility-breaking release several years ago so that it could keep up with both hardware and software changes.

Given how fundamental OSes are, I think it's really unrealistic to believe that there should not be times when backward compatibility breaking releases will occur.

And, I'll say it again: Windows 10, a full and modern OS, has almost 4 years of additional support on the books right now. And that could easily be extended.

Microsoft is not throwing the existing user base under the bus but is looking forward at the same time. To me, both of those aspects are good things. I think the timing is a bit stupid, but I have thought that many things Microsoft has done over the years were a bit stupid, to put it mildly. But I know that going with the flow is my one and only choice.

 

[britechguy]

They're not legitimate if the userbase simply ignores it.

And the user base simply ignored it because Microsoft made that possible. They don't have to.

If MS releases installers that enforce their hard floor hardware requirements, anyone who would attempt to circumvent that is just asking for trouble from the point of view of support. There will, of course, be certain "super geeks" who will as a "badge of honor" type thing. But I doubt that most Windows 10 users will leave Windows 10 and the transition to Windows 11 over the coming four years through attrition will occur "just because."

 

[Computer Bloke]

Unless something changes with 11, most (95%) of my clients are on 5th gen processors and older and using MBR boot not UEFI so I have to be concerned.

You might have to be a bit concerned in four years when support for Windows 10 runs out, but in the near future the worst that might happen is that you get to sell new computers to some of your clients if they want to run Windows 11. Nobody's going to force them to upgrade, not even Microsoft, and over time the problem will just naturally sort itself out.

It's really not a big deal.

 

[sapphirescales]

Unless something changes with 11, most (95%) of my clients are on 5th gen processors and older and using MBR boot not UEFI so I have to be concerned.

Nah. Don't tell me you didn't have most business clients on Windows 7 all the way up until Windows 10 was released, and even years afterward. It's okay to skip a version if the hardware and/or the budget won't allow it. Besides, I'm sure older processors will be supported so long as the computer has at least TPM 1.2 so you don't have anything to worry about other than learning Windows 11.

 

[Porthos]

Don't tell me you didn't have most business clients

All home users. Most on 2nd to 4th gen, some e8400 CPUs. All MBR. Some business class and many on consumer-grade.
Just converted my I7 4770 machine to UEFI. If they do not lower the CPU requirement I am screwed into getting a new computer.

 

[Porthos]

 

[sapphirescales]

If they do not lower the CPU requirement I am screwed into getting a new computer.

Yeah...in 4 years. By then the computer will be 13 years old.

All home users. Most on 2nd to 4th gen, some e8400 CPUs.

I've got a ton of home users on older hardware too. Still, Windows 10 is still supported for another 4 years so those computers will be 13-15 years old by then.

All MBR.

But why? If a computer supports UEFI then it should have Windows installed in UEFI mode. Worst case scenario you'll have to do a nuke n' pave on those systems that support TPM 1.2. Systems that don't you'll have to just keep on Windows 10 until end of support. Then it's time to sell them something new.

I wouldn't worry about "officially supported" CPUs if I were you. I'm sure Windows 11 will work on any system with TPM 1.2 regardless whether or not the CPU has been "blessed" by Microsoft.

Look, I've got a 4th gen i7-4790K as my main shop computer (in fact I'm typing on it right now). It looks amazing. They don't even make components that look cool like that anymore and I'll be very sad when it dies. But you've got to be realistic. 13 years old is REALLY old for a computer. Chances are the hardware will fail before you lose software support for it and on the off chance it doesn't, do you really want to run such old (and therefore very likely to fail) hardware?

That being said, requiring 8th gen hardware is ridiculous. Even by the time Windows 10 dies that hardware will only be 7 years old, and by then Windows 12 will probably be released. Microsoft may restrict some features on older devices, but they can't keep this stance when it comes to their 8th gen or newer hardware requirements. Not unless they want another XP/7 scenario where everyone hangs on for dear life to Windows 10 and they're forced to extend support another 5 years.

 

[Porthos]

Of course, clients can stick with 10 for another 4 years. There will be "compatible" refurbs then that are affordable.
I am only really looking forward to running on my computer without using a VM or hacking the OS to make it work.
I really do not want to spend the money on a new system for myself now.

 

[frase]

Current list of supported CPU's

 

[GTP]

I'm running Windows 11 on a Dell 11" Netbook, Celeron N3040, 2GB Ram, 64GB SSD.
It runs Signal Desktop and Boinc.
Processor runs at 100%, ram around 1.1GB, but its not totally unusable either.
Yes it slow and posting messages on signal takes 2 seconds before they post.
Its a little faster if I suspend Boinc while chatting on signal, but it works ok for me.

I could always blow Windows away (pardon the pun), for a minimalist Linux distro like WattOS, Antix, Porteus, etc but I'll see what eventuates with it running Windblows.

 

[frase]

First TPM failed, had to enable it in BIOS.

 

[sapphirescales]

I'm gonna run this tool on every machine I have to make sure Microsoft doesn't just upgrade me to Windows 11 without my permission. The one I'm currently on (Ryzen 5 3600X with a GTX 1060) passed, so I went into the BIOS and completely disabled TPM.

I've downloaded the developer version from scratch (using the ISO, not Windows Update) and the ALT+F4 trick worked to bypass the Microsoft account requirement. I'm going to keep this laptop as a test machine. I've installed Splashtop on it so I can remote into it whenever I want and try to use Windows 11 over the next few days as my main computer. The taskbar on the bottom is so horrible, as is the forced grouped taskbar icons. Multitasking is worse than Windows 95 with these restrictions. I really hope they fix this before final release. The worst thing is, I bet the ONLY reason they did it was so that their stupid "feature" of restoring your pre-arranged windows on an external monitor that you unplug will come back the way they were when you plug it back in again, a feature that basically NO ONE will use. Yeah, a lot of people use external monitors, but how many people are going to be using their stupid "snap layouts" feature? Not many. Split screen is useful, but snap layouts are just a gimmick. Unless you're connecting to some massive 55" display, nobody is going to want to split their screen 3/4 ways.

 

[NviGate Systems]

I'd like to point out that as many of the options, specifications and requirements are "soft" at the moment and could change. So as a general "hey let's not overdo this", I'd recommend against disabling anything, as MS may simply decide "ah, who needs a TPM, we'll just let the CPU handle that" and a system may get upgraded regardless of a missing TPM.

Remember how the upgrade to Windows 10 worked? Yeah.

Preview builds are notorious for having things enabled that help with testing or fixing issues, so the fact you can bypass online account creation may simply be a sign of a debug feature in case they have bad code etc. That could be completely patched in the future. So until a GM Build of Retail hits the stores, I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[GTP]

 

[cypress]

View attachment 12982

I am gonna run that tool today on my test system and see what needs to be enabled or not. I got a feeling it at least has 1.2 TPM and can run Windows 11. It has a Core i7 but I can't recall what Generation it is off hand. I'd like to start testing it out sooner rathern than later lol.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Also odd that my old rig is still running TPM 1.2...and I was able to upgrade. I thought the latest release was supposed to start getting picky on hardware pre reqs.