Here’s what you’ll need to upgrade to Windows 11

Since Microsoft's announcement of Windows 11 yesterday, one concern has reverberated around the web—what's this about a Trusted Platform Module requirement?

Windows 11 is the first Windows version to require a TPM, and most self-built PCs (and cheaper, home-targeted OEM PCs) don't have a TPM module on board. Although this requirement is a bit of a mess, it's not as onerous as millions of people have assumed. We'll walk you through all of Windows 11's announced requirements, including TPM—and make sure to note when all this is likely to be a problem.

Although Windows 11 does bump general hardware requirements up some from Windows 10's extremely lenient minimums, it will still be challenging to find a PC that doesn't meet most of these specifications. Here's the list:

•     CPU—1 GHz or faster, two or more cores, x86_64 or ARM64 only
•     RAM—4GiB or more
•     Storage—64GB minimum for installation... but we'd recommend at least 128GB for a vaguely normal system
•     Graphics—Compatible with DX12 or later, with WDDM 2.0 driver
•     Firmware—UEFI, Secure Boot capable
•     TPM—Trusted Platform Module 2.0 is listed as a minimum requirement; TPM 1.2 may or may not be "good enough"—but read on before throwing your hands up in despair!
•     Display—720p minimum resolution, nine-inch minimum diagonal measurement, 8 bits per color channel or higher