The tech giant will brand your PC with a desktop watermark if it finds your PC lacking in the hardware department.
Microsoft has been pretty good at letting people with incompatible PCs run Windows 11, but now it’s beginning to tighten the thumbscrews. Users have noted that a new watermark will now appear on the Windows 11 desktop, declaring that the user’s PC isn’t compatible with the operating system.
Windows 11’s New Watermark
As reported on Windows Latest, Microsoft has begun adding a watermark on PCs that can’t run Windows 11 but are anyway. The watermark tells everyone that the PC’s system does not meet the requirements, and looks similar to the watermark on unactivated copies of Windows.
On top of this, visiting the Settings app will cause a small message to appear under your computer’s name, claiming that “system requirements [are] not met.” It also adds a link to “learn more” about the error, which directs the user to Windows 11’s system requirements.
Fortunately, these warnings only appear on the Desktop and the Settings app, and do not impede the use of the PC. As such, if the watermark doesn’t bother you, you can safely ignore it.
Microsoft’s New Approach to Incompatible Windows 11 PCs
Microsoft has given users a love-hate situation over installing Windows 11 on a PC that doesn’t meet the requirements. On one hand, Windows 11 doesn’t check your hardware during installation, so you can manually install it using an ISO on any PC.
However, Microsoft has also stated that incompatible Windows 11 PCs won’t receive updates via Windows update, as we covered in our piece asking if it’s OK to install Windows 11 on an incompatible PC. And for some, this caveat is too big an issue to justify installing Windows 11 on anything less than the standard.
As such, we may see Microsoft increase its pressure on incompatible PCs in the future as it tries to usher people into a new era. We’ll have to see if its efforts are enough to convince people to upgrade, or if the users will find workarounds for everything the tech giant throws at them.
A Rocky Future for Incompatible Windows 11 PCs
With Microsoft now applying pressure on those with incompatible PCs, getting Windows 11 on older hardware is about to get a lot more annoying. However, whether they’ll be effective at convincing people to upgrade their hardware is yet to be seen.
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