Windows 11 rolled out officially to select PCs on October 5, 2021. More and more PCs are being upgraded in this staged rollout, and Microsoft aims to send the official update to all eligible PCs by mid-2022.
As a progressive business owner or executive, you too would be looking forward to upgrading your workstations and PCs to the latest Windows. But do your business computers meet the stringent system requirements of Windows 11? How will you check if you are eligible for the upgrade? Let's find out.
Windows 11 Requirements Pose a Challenge to Your Business
Security has been a priority for Microsoft when designing Windows 11. Creating the most secure Windows ever (with TPM and virtualization-based security support for everyone) has led to significantly higher minimum system requirements. So much so that PCs with older hardware are deemed unfit to run the new OS.
To offer users a way to check the compatibility of their PCs with Windows 11, Microsoft is auto-installing a PC health check tool on everyone's copy of Windows 10. Moreover, the software giant has also shared a few best practices for organizations planning for Windows 11.
However, for enterprises like yours with thousands of Windows machines, preparing for the Windows 11 upgrade would be a mammoth exercise without automation, especially if your IT inventory is not up-to-date. Manually inspecting machines could lead to huge wastage of time and considerable budget. And there might be machines you miss out on, as they are outdated and you're not aware of them.
So how can you check Windows 11 eligibility across your organization? The answer might lie in the readiness report conducted by the IT asset management firm Lansweeper. But first, it's important to know what the Lansweeper survey has revealed.
Over 50% of PCs Can't Get the Windows 11 Upgrade, Says Lansweeper
Lansweeper conducted a Windows 11 eligibility research based on Microsoft's new system requirements—the CPU, the RAM and the TPM of a PC must meet the requirements to get the automatic upgrade.
What Lansweeper found is surprising. Only 44.4% of the workstations are eligible for the automatic upgrade. This means that over 50% of the CPUs tested cannot get the upgrade!
And this data is from a very large, if not significant sample. The Lansweeper survey is based on an estimated 30 million Windows devices from 60,000 organizations.
While the majority passed the RAM test (91%), only about 50% TPMs tested met the requirements. It's worse for virtual machine workstations. Only 0.23% of all virtual workstations have TPM 2.0 enabled.
Though the Lansweeper survey might not be representative of all business PCs, it sure is a good indication that many more enterprises worldwide will not be eligible for Windows 11, including yours.
How to Check Your Organization's Eligibility
Your IT team could leverage the vast data resources of Lansweeper (fuller and more detailed than the PC Health check tool) to prepare for the Windows 11 rollout.
However, first, you need to check if your business is eligible. And that you can do with the Lansweeper Windows 11 Readiness Audit Report. The report contains a query that can be run against your asset inventory to check for machines that are eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade.
All Windows machines in your network can be identified and relevant data can be accessed effortlessly and quickly. Moreover, you could also identify machines running old software and choose whether to update or retire them.
Prepare for a Smooth and Effective Migration to Windows 11
As Microsoft says, Windows 11 is designed to help your team stay productive with a more intuitive and personalized user experience. This new OS packs a host of benefits and innovative features for efficient multitasking along with robust security for your business assets.
So moving your PCs to Windows 11 would make good business sense. And you can plan the move steadily by 2025 when Windows 10 goes end of life. A quick and cost-effective readiness check can be done with Lansweeper, and you and your IT team can pave the way ahead for an effective migration to Windows 11.