Last month, Microsoft tested the watermark on machines running Windows 11 but did not meet the configuration requirements, now, the company is planning to actually roll out this watermark to everyone.
According to The Verge, the Releash Preview channel of Windows 11 (which is a test channel aimed at commercial users, with builds almost identical to the official version) has displayed a watermark. “System requirements not met. Go to Settings to learn more” for machines whose configuration does not meet the requirements of Windows 11.
Although Microsoft requires quite a high configuration, there is still a way for users to pass and install Windows 11 freely, even Microsoft itself shows how to “break through” the TPM 2.0 requirement to install Windows 11 .
Windows 11’s controversial hardware requirements include only officially supporting Intel 8th Gen Coffee Lake or Zen+ and Zen 2 CPUs and above, leaving millions of PCs behind.
Now, anyone who has used the “hitch-breaking” solution will start seeing this warning in Windows 11.
In the past, Microsoft has used a similar warning for unactivated versions of Windows and will restrict features like dark mode, personalization settings, and themes until the system is activated. Microsoft does not seem to restrict any features to devices that do not meet the Windows 11 configuration requirements. These watermarks can be disabled through editing the registry.
Reference: TheVerge