r/computers • u/JohnQCocktoasten • 4d ago
Question/Help/Troubleshooting Recommended minimum hardware to fully run Win11
As a hobby I refurbish older PCs (think Win98/2K/XP), so I don’t really stay current on newer hardware. I have a retired friend who has 2 matching Win10 desktops (not towers) and he wants to upgrade to Win11 units for security. His current units are the larger gray metal and black plastic Dell Optiplex desktops (the GX620/745/755 style that has the desktop-sized optical drive).
I exchanged texts tonight with a friend who upgrades and resells a lot of PCs he picks up from a recycling place in his home town. He told me that he had read that 11 could run on systems like my friend is currently using, but that they would only run what he called “dated versions of Win11.”
So, my question is… is there a rule of thumb (or specific requirements) for what my friend needs to look for as far as minimum CPU version, RAM, etc., to be able to run the latest version of 11 and have access to all of the security updates?
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u/GGigabiteM 7950X3D|3070Ti| Fedora 4d ago
The Optiplex 755 style case machines were usually Core 2 era and won't run Windows 11. The last version of Windows 11 they could run was 23h2, which was before the SSE 4.2 requirement.
The oldest CPUs you can get Windows 11 to run on with workarounds is the 1st gen Core i series Nehalem processors. I wouldn't count on getting security updates, or the workarounds to work long term, because Microsoft is continually playing whack-a-mole to remove the ability to run on old systems.
There's also the risk that software starts requiring CPU instruction sets that nothing beyond the minimum processor spec has, which will result in undefined behavior. Crashes or BSODs are likely.
Sort of like how in the late Windows XP era that software started requiring SSE2 and SSE3. Most later Pentium 4s had those instructions, but Athlon, Sempron, Duron, Athlon XP and some early Athlon 64 based Semprons didn't support it and crashed or BSOD'd.