Windows 11 will show watermark if system requirements are not met

Microsoft has started showing a watermark in Windows 11 on devices that do not support the official system requirements. This happens, for example, if the devices do not have Trusted Platform Module 2.0.

Several Windows 11 testers noticed the change. It appears in a preview build of the operating system, specifically version 22000.588. That’s the preview that precedes the official update of the OS. So it is no longer a test function or an experiment. Microsoft started such a test a month earlier, but then it only happened in Insider Builds and by no means all the features that appear there make it to the final release.

In the notification the text is ‘System requirements not met. Go to Settings to learn more’. This was discovered by users who had installed the operating system on devices or VMs that do not meet the prescribed system requirements. Those requirements are strict and have been controversial since their introduction. For example, systems with CPUs before Intel’s eighth-generation Coffee Lakes or AMD’s Zen+ and Zen 2 architectures are not enough. Users must also have at least a TPM 2.0, but that is not the case in all PCs.

Initially, it didn’t seem possible to install Windows 11 on devices without those requirements at all. Later, however, there were ways to do so. It is not known whether the watermark can be turned off in the new update or whether there will be further restrictions on the OS.