Microsoft dashes any hope of allowing people to install Windows 11 on older hardware

With Windows 10 leaving support in October 2025, people are looking for ways to upgrade to Windows 11 without destroying perfectly good hardware. However, people have held hope that Microsoft would back off the operating system’s TPM 2.0 requirement, the biggest pain point keeping older hardware from getting official support. It was a long shot, but it was possible. Well, it turns out that Microsoft has thoroughly dashed that hope, signaling that people have to upgrade or get left behind.

Microsoft confirms that the TPM 2.0 requirement is “non-negotiable”

The details were revealed in a blog post on the Windows IT Pro Blog titled “TPM 2.0 – a necessity for a secure and future-proof Windows 11” (and with a title like that, you can probably tell where this is going). The blog post breaks down what TPM is, why Microsoft created the TPM 2.0 requirement for Windows 11, and what it does for the system.

However, near the end is this bit of information, emphasis ours:

By instituting TPM 2.0 as a
non-negotiable standard
for the future of Windows, we elevate the security benchmark. It allows you and us to better align with the growing need for formidable data protection in the modern digital sphere.

As such, it’s clear that Microsoft will never back down from its TPM 2.0 standard; instead, it will put the onus on the consumer to upgrade their hardware. Sure enough, right after this passage is a guide on how to check the TPM of your hardware and what to do if you’re still on 1.0.

If you’re thinking of installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, Microsoft has thought of that too. In fact, a few days before this blog post, the company published a warning to all users using Windows 11 on older hardware.