WhyNotWin11: A tool that is much better than Microsoft at detailing why a PC is not Windows 11 compatible

Microsoft may have delivered on its promise of publishing the first Windows 11 Insider Preview build, but it has not necessarily been the cleanest of starts for Windows 11. The company's system requirements have caused consternation, not least because it has already changed them a few times. Not only has Microsoft offered conflicting statements on what Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip Windows 11 needs, it has offered strange messaging on what processors will run the OS smoothly. A machine does not need a dedicated TPM 2.0 chip either, as AMD and Intel integrate compatible equivalents within their modern processors.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it had pulled PC Health Check, its app that it promoted people should use to determine if their PC could run Windows 11. As we reported, Microsoft stated that the app did not provide enough detail, and it would replace it with a revised version closer to Windows 11's public release. In truth, the PC Health Check app does not provide any information about why a PC can or cannot run Windows 11. Microsoft has published Windows 11 system requirements, but the PC Health Check app does not compare these against your machine's hardware.

WhyNotWin11, a third-party tool, does all this, in our opinion. Available from GitHub, WhyNotWin11 does not need installing. Instead, you can run the tool by opening the .exe file. Please note that Microsoft Edge and other browsers may attempt to block you from downloading WhyNotWin11, seemingly because of a missing signature. Likewise, User Account Control will check to see if you want to run WhyNotWin11. We have encountered no problems with doing so, though.

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