WhyNotWin11 – a more detailed compatibility checker

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WhyNotWin11 is a free open source tool to check Windows 11 compatibility. It gives more detail than the Microsoft PC Health check tool. It is portable too. Get it from GitHub – rcmaehl/WhyNotWin11: Detection Script to help identify why your PC isn’t Windows 11 ready

--Joe

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Rick Corbett, Sueska, RetiredGeek, woody, wavy, PFC

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Note you have to click through smart screen to get it downloaded.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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PFC

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Not on my Win10 21H1 and Chrome.

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You don’t use Windows Defender, do you?

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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To run, not to download, at least for me, and only for the first run.

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Note you have to click through smart screen to get it downloaded.

I had to, on 20H2 x64 Pro. FF 89.0.2
It said I only have TPM 1.2 (red) and my cpu I7 4770 (yellow)

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My three-year-old XPS 15 — my last remaining Windows machine — ain’t good enough.

Sniff.

I guess an i7-7700HQ doesn’t pass muster. Just like the three-year-old Surfaces.

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wavy

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Same chip I have in one of my Macs
Nope! No good.

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woody

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woody wrote:

I guess an i7-7700HQ doesn’t pass muster. Just like the three-year-old Surfaces.

what TPM version is on it? If it’s 1.2 then that likely is the no-go reason.

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Everything else is OK, including TPM 2 (I was surprised to see).

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From what I saw looking through the published list of allowable hardware, you need an 8th generation iCore or higher.

There’s a link to the MS page with said info in one of the posts in another Win 11 topic but since none of my machines qualify (and even if they did, not I’m touching Win11 with a 10 foot pole), I’ve since disregarded it.

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I’m trying to determine specifically why 7th Gen Kaby Lake CPUs aren’t supported. The i7-7700HQ was launched at CES Q1’17. It has TPM 2.0 and 4 cores and the XPS 15 BIOS is UEFI and has Secure Boot. It’s plenty fast enough. According to Intel Ark, it doesn’t support Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). Is this the reason?

Intel i7-7700HQ Specs

I was following a thread where someone with an XPS 15 like yours questioned one of the MS developers of the PC Health Check App why this was the case, but he didn’t respond.

Download MS PC Health Check Win 11 Compatibility Checker

I’d be livid if I spent that much on a laptop just a few years ago only to find out that it won’t run Windows 11. And why aren’t Tiger Lake H45 (11800H, 11900H, 11980HK) CPUs released Q2’21 on the compatibility list? Seriously? These are 11th Gen CPUs!

Intel i7-11800H Specs

List of Windows 11 compatible Intel processors

And boo on Microsoft for not having all their ducks in a row before making the Win 11 announcement. Took < 24 hours for them to change requirements from TPM 1.2 to 2.0. They caused mass hysteria because many people didn’t release they had to enable Intel PTT or AMD fTPM in the BIOS.

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Unless proven otherwise, I assume it’s all just marketing. MS wants to sell more copies of Windows, on more PCs.

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I submitted the “WhyNotWin11” app (v2.2.0 from yesterday) to Hybrid Analysis which flagged it as malicious.

Hybrid Analysis Malware Report

There are a few issues that have made me leery, e.g. the need for a large number of writes to the registry, process injection, poking around with services. It is an unsigned, compiled autoit3 script (VS 2008/2013) that uses PowerShell and dxDiag. Version 2.2.0 did not phone home. The app is being updated quickly with 7 or 8 contributors, so I don’t know how closely it’s being vetted. Virus total gave 3/69, one of which was a simple PUA, so OK.

I haven’t had time to review the source code, but the fact that it’s doing more than simple queries caused me pause. Anyone here check the source?

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The Microsoft PC Health tool only alerted me to the fact that I did not have secure boot enabled. I guess if I would have fixed that issue, and reran the PC Health Tool, it would come up with the next issue. The WhyNotWin11 tool alerted me to 5 different issues. In addition to being alerted to all issues at once, I also appreciated that the WhyNotWin11 tool was portable. Thanks

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I built a PC with Ryzen 7 3700x and ASUS Prime X570-Pro.  I ran the PC Health Check to check for Windows 11 compatibility.  It came back and said I need TPM 2.0.

I went into BIOS and AMD fTPM is set to Discreet TPM. It seems that I need to change the setting to Firmware TPM.

Is it safe to change the setting?  What does changing from Discreet TPM to Firmware TPM do?  I do not use BitLocker and am concerned about encryption.

 

Not sure what to do.

 

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I your case, there are 2 possibilities for TPM:

1) Discrete (hardware module that plugs into mobo)
2) Firmware (supported by your 3700x through AMD fTPM)

By selecting “Firmware”, you’ll enable the feature in your CPU, thereby eliminating the need to purchase a module. The 3700x is TPM 2.0 compliant (I have a 3800x).

Since 2013, Intel and AMD added firmware TPM technology to many of their CPUs that perform the same functionality as a TPM 2.0 processor without the need of a dedicated TPM module.

After you enable it in your BIOS and reboot, you can check the TPM revision by:

1) Pressing the Windows key + R
2) Typing “tpm.msc” in the text box
3) Clicking “OK”

At the bottom, you’ll see manufacturer information and the TPM revision.

Windows 10 will not encrypt your desktop with BitLocker without your say-so. This is only a concern for “ConnectedStandby” systems – machines that support Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) mode (e.g. portable devices).

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redknight

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Well, this is what Steve Dispensa (Microsoft) said regarding a 7700K …

“Yeah, Windows 11 is only supported on the CPU list I posted above. There are more requirements than just TPM 2.0 support (and all supported chipsets should have TPM 2.0, so that’s not generally a blocking requirement).”

According to Win 11 specs, processors must support:
1) PAE, NX and SSE4.1
2) CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, and PrefetchW

I don’t believe this is the issue. Microsoft needs to be more specific to satisfy my need to know.

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woody

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How to skip Windows 11 compatibly checks and install on any Mac/Windows PC/Linux. #2373946

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Lenovo Y530 (2018) Windows 11 check.

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2nd att. is readable, 1st one NOT

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PKCano wrote:

Same chip I have in one of my Macs
Nope! No good.

See #2373946

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There has been no official/legal public (even Insider) ISO issued yet for Win11.
I’m not touching pirated copies.
The listed method can change, become ineffective, before release.

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You may download from here

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See this thread.

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Latest version of WhyNotWin11 is 2.3.0.5

Changed display format, moved CPU GPU to the bottom.

List of all Windows 11 supported CPUs

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Please stop calling that list on Tom’s Hardware the list of all Windows 11 supported CPU’s, because by the article’s own admission it isn’t. They mis-labeled the headline of it.

Case in point a quote directly from the article:

Microsoft has a full list of all supported Intel processors, including chips from the Atom, Celeron, Pentium, Xeon and Core series. The folks over at PC World scrubbed the list and pulled the most popular consumer-level CPUs. We agree with their assessment.

For AMD, it’s much the same:

Microsoft also has a full AMD list including chips from AMDs Athlon, EPYC, Ryzen and Ryzen Threadripper series. Below is a list of the more common consumer-level CPUs. And as PC World noted, chips like the 3300X, 3700, 4600HS and 5900H are missing, even though all are all very recent.

I added bolding above for emphasis.

The article then shows the exact list mentioned in the PC World article. The full article from PC World can be found here:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3623192/what-cpus-can-run-windows-11.html

By PC World’s own admission, their list is not exhaustive for the Intel processors

…Microsoft has the full rundown on its site, which includes Pentium, Celeron, and Xeon chips. For ease of scanning, we’ve culled that list to a handful of the common mainstream consumer processors from each generation. …

nor is it complete for the AMD processors either

…Microsoft has the full list on its site, which includes Athlon and Epyc chips, but for ease of scanning, we’ve culled it down to the most common mainstream consumer processors from each generation. …

The full list of Intel processors that can currently work with Windows 11 per Microsoft is here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors

The full list of AMD processors that can currently work with Windows 11 per Microsoft is here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-amd-processors

As noted by PC World’s article referenced above, Microsoft’s lists are quite lengthy, so scroll carefully through them if you’re looking for a particular chip. Better yet, use your browser’s built-in “Find in Page…” function to search for the numeric portion of your processor’s name such as 5300 or 8100. That may save you some time looking through the lists. Per a small note at the top of the lists, by Microsoft’s estimation it should take someone 9 minutes to read through the Intel list and 3 minutes to read through the AMD list. YMMV.

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[Bob99]

Well, despite the author’s decent intentions, the file itself just keeps getting flagged as malware by more and more security apps/suites. The latest big name suite or app to flag it is McAfee, in addition to the other big names that have already flagged it such as Sophos, AVG/Avast and Palo Alto.

The latest score on Virustotal is 11 of 68 flagging it as malware.  🙁   :

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/a57b8547f88fe362c51660815b052296049f38663b2f7c4e7aeee258a079d022/detection

This is on a sample of 2.3.0.5 that I just obtained from the author’s own page on Github!

Some folks may think that all the author has to do is to get the file digitally signed, but I’m not 100% sure that doing so will help alleviate the situation by itself.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by Bob99.

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I am downloading the file using Chrome which sends the files to VirusTotal for verification and the file pass and download.

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