Windows 11 Is Now Available: Requirements, How To Upgrade From Windows 10 And How To Clean Install

Windows 11 is now official and available for download. The new and refreshed Windows OS was officially announced for today, October 5. The Windows 11 ISO is now available on Microsoft official Windows page and can as well be downloaded with third-party tools like Windows ISO downloader.

Windows 11 is no doubt the biggest upgrade in the history of Windows OS, the OS bring tons of new features and a UI overhaul. The Windows start menu is now positioned in the centre of the taskbar along with other default apps. The notification panel, settings and many other Windows component has been redesign to give you a better Windows experience.

While a lot of fans would love to get hands on the Windows 11 OS. The new OS comes with higher system requirements than its predecessors. The new requirements has been a buzz in the tech community for quiet a while now. If you have been reading tech news, for weeks now, you probably would have come across a number of articles discussing the new requirements for Windows 11 and what is means for fans.

Windows 11 System Requirements

Considering that Windows 11 has more demanding installation requirements than its predecessor version, it is important to take into consideration the hardware requirements released by Microsoft.

• The processor must be a 64-bit compatible one, of at least 1Ghz power and with two or more cores or failing that a system on chip (SoC).
• A minimum of 4GB of RAM memory which is twice the requirement of its predecessor.
• Keeping the comparison with the previous version of this operating system, which only required 16 GB of base storage for its installation, now Windows 11 requires a disk of at least 64 GB.
• The graphics card must be compatible with the WDDM 2.0 driver and DirectX 12 or a later version. As for the display, it must measure at least 9 inches and offer a minimum resolution of 720p (HD) with support for 8-bit colour graphics.
• A controversial point among the Windows 11 installation requirements is the requirement for a Secure Platform Module 2.0, known by its abbreviation TPM 2.0, which is a chip that the system can use to store encryption keys. To find out if a computer has this chip, Microsoft published a guide to help identify it in Windows 10.

Although all these requirements were later relaxed, allowing Windows 11 to be installed on computers that do not meet the requirements, it is still important to consider them as a reference for installation. Additionally, Microsoft has a tool to verify if a computer is compatible with this update.

How To Upgrade To Windows 11 From Windows 10

Although Microsoft changed the treatment initially applied with the system requirements for the installation of Windows 11, this measure applies only for clean installation of Windows 11.

If you are not sure whether your PC is Windows 11 compatible, you can confirm using the Microsoft Windows 11 compatibility check tool — PC Health Check.

If your computer is eligible to install the OS, then, simply navigate your system settings » update and security and check for new Windows update. If the Windows 11 update is available for your PC immediately, you can download and install. However, if your PC is eligible and you didn’t get the option to download Windows 11 in the system update page, you simply need to wait for it to get your device.

Note that, preference with this update is given to compatible computers that have been recently purchased. Those who have not yet been notified of the upgrade offer will receive an announcement in the coming days or weeks. For the rest of the users, according to what Microsoft pointed out above, this process will be even more gradual and could extend until mid-2022.

An alternative route is the use of the Windows 11 Setup Assistant, a tool that can be downloaded from the Microsoft website to perform an upgrade from Windows 10. To download the installation, a minimum of 9 GB of free storage is required.

How To Clean Install Windows 11 On a Computer

In this scenario, the procedure does not vary much from previous versions of Windows and is performed from a USB drive or DVD.

To create Windows 11 installation media, it is necessary to have the media creation tool that Microsoft made available on its website. This mechanism requires from the beginning to have a license to install Windows 11 or, failing that, to execute the application in a device with Windows 10 compatible with the requirements for the update.

The tool must be run as an administrator. To start this procedure, it is necessary to accept the terms of the license that are presented, indicate the language and edition of Windows 11 that you want to obtain. Subsequently, the application will ask if you want to create a USB drive or burn a DVD, to finally generate a bootable drive to install the system.

Another, more traditional, option is to download an ISO image, which can be obtained from the same site as the previous tool. This file contains all available Windows 11 editions, but unlocks only the version corresponding to the license provided at the time. In addition to being able to be burned to a disk or extracted to a USB, this ISO can also be used in virtual machines.

Once the bootable drive is available, you can proceed to installing Windows 11 from the drive to your computer. To start the installation procedure, you need to boot from the bootable drive either using the boot manager or sheeting boot order in your PC bios. Once the Windows setup screen appears, follows the instructions that are clearly explained on the screen to finish installation.