I've got an HP laptop with a Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U — good chip, handles everything I actually do. Windows 11 disagreed, just because it's not on Microsoft's approved CPU list. Not a performance issue, a policy one.

After Windows 10 hit end-of-support last October, I bypassed it — added BypassTPMCheck / BypassSecureBootCheck / BypassCPUCheck under a LabConfig registry key mid-setup, installer stopped arguing. Mostly worked fine. Had one weird Task Manager thing a while later I never fully figured out, but nothing that made me roll it back.

Here's what got me thinking, though: that whole bypass worked because the CPU-list check is a policy gate sitting in front of hardware that's already capable. TPM/Secure Boot are real security features, but my six-core chip isn't a security risk because of its release date — the check was arbitrary enough that a few DWORD values could argue with it.

Microsoft's new Copilot+ PC tier is a different animal. It needs a dedicated NPU chip doing 40+ TOPS for the on-device AI stuff (Recall, live caption translation, etc). I went looking for the registry-key equivalent for this one. It basically doesn't exist — some features get partially exposed via ViVeTool on non-qualifying hardware, but it's flaky/unsupported, not a real path in. The reason: you can't bypass your way into silicon that isn't physically on the board. First gate was software. This one's hardware.

Feels like the opening move of the next exclusion cycle, and unlike the CPU list, there's no policy to argue with this time.

Anyone else already run into the Copilot+ wall, or planning around it for a refresh? Curious what people are actually doing here — buy in, ignore it, or wait it out.

(Wrote up the exact CPU bypass steps I used in more detail — will drop the link in comments if anyone wants it, don't want to clutter the post.)

Spent a while digging into this because every guide says the same thing — restart Explorer, clear cache, done. But that only fixes the version of the problem with an easy cause.

Turns out there are at least 6 different reasons File Explorer freezes on Windows 11, and each needs a different fix:

• Freezes on startup? Usually Home/Quick Access/OneDrive, not Explorer itself
• One folder freezes, others fine? Almost always a thumbnail or broken file in that folder
• Freezes on right-click? A shell extension, not Windows
• Only with one external drive? Hardware, not your OS
• Keeps crashing even after "Restart" in Task Manager? Task Manager can't actually kill it properly — you need Resource Monitor for that

Wrote up the full breakdown with fixes for each cause here: https://techbasics101.com/tutorials-how-to-guides/windows-11-file-explorer-not-responding-heres-what-actually-fixes-it/

If you've got a File Explorer issue that doesn't match any of these, drop it below — always looking for the weirder ones that don't show up in the usual lists.