Incompatble PCs & laptops being sold with Win11

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#322906 5-Oct-2025 17:59

I had a friend ask for my opinion on a used laptop on Trademe ,
Listed as Win11 , yet seems to be approx 10 years old and a CPU not listed as Win11 compatible
Elitebook 850 G1 .

I would call this a scam , sold by a company that would know its not compatible
Many home buyers will get caught buying PCs & laptops with Win11 being hacked in .
Many buyers would assume Win11 means its a fairly newish machine , and not 10 years old .

Im not sure what can be done , so many are going to get scammed as they replace their old Win10 machines .

Is their a way to easily see , within Win11 , if its not actually Win11 compatible ?

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#3421793 5-Oct-2025 18:17

G5 and above.

https://support.hp.com/sg-en/document/ish_4890350-4890415-16

You can run the W11 compatibility tool one would presume

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/check-if-a-device-meets-windows-11-system-requirements-after-changing-device-hardware-f3bc0aeb-6884-41a1-ab57-88258df6812b

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#3421807 5-Oct-2025 18:41

The easiest check is the CPU:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-amd-processors

If the CPU passes, then Google whether it has a TPM2.0 (but most likely it does with a supported CPU).

I think it's really bad for places to be selling such old hardware with Windows 11, because we know Microsoft is just going to kill that option (or effectively make it unsupported) at some point, but sellers are taking advantage of the "End of Life Windows 10" advertising to try sell their old junk stock.

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#3421814 5-Oct-2025 19:01

Can likely also be pinged if partners for breaching licencing terms.

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#3421815 5-Oct-2025 19:04

I was very grumpy when I learned in May that a client had purchased refurbished machines from a major retailer that had Windows 11 preinstalled despite the processor being incompatible.

We let the client know. I do not know if they took the retailer to task about this.

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#3421837 5-Oct-2025 20:33

Technically I think that is ok if
(1) The license is legally obtained and
(2) the buyer is warned that the relevant Windows 11 security and features will not work.

I gather that was not the case for #2.

SpartanVXL

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#3421848 5-Oct-2025 21:12

I get the whole ‘not allowed’ position, but it’s not like they will just up and stop working. From what I know windows 11 will keep working with security updates at least until the next major version release.

There is no real compatibility reason for windows 11 not running on those systems.

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#3421849 5-Oct-2025 21:19

SpartanVXL:

I get the whole ‘not allowed’ position, but it’s not like they will just up and stop working. From what I know windows 11 will keep working with security updates at least until the next major version release.

There is no real compatibility reason for windows 11 not running on those systems.

Are you sure? I thought that it each year they release a new big update which does a compatibility check again ?

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#3421868 5-Oct-2025 22:45

SpartanVXL: I get the whole ‘not allowed’ position, but it’s not like they will just up and stop working. From what I know windows 11 will keep working with security updates at least until the next major version release.

Meaning a maximum of two years if you're very lucky?

For example the machines discussed are very likely to be installed with Windows 11 24H2 meaning security updates for only a year until Oct 13, 2026.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-11-home-and-pro

1101

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#3421869 5-Oct-2025 22:47

SpartanVXL:

I get the whole ‘not allowed’ position, but it’s not like they will just up and stop working. From what I know windows 11 will keep working with security updates at least until the next major version release.

Win Xp PC's didnt stop working either :-)
And thats the point really .

When the next build version is released , the incompatible Laptop wont be able to install it via Win Updates.
Ive heard of that happening .
So will eventually have a laptop that cant get any more updates . Sure you could hack it in , but thats beyond what
most home users can do.

People are buying these PCs & Laptops fully expecting Win11 , not a hacked in install that will give major headaches in a years time .

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#3421880 6-Oct-2025 06:05

My "non compatible" laptop happily updated to 25H2 a couple of days ago.

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#3421883 6-Oct-2025 06:50

Have seen plenty of this, its even worse with ex-lease desktops as there are plenty of 2nd through to 7th gen i5/i7 desktops still being sold as "Windows 11 pc's" which are running it without official support. If & when MS break compatibility then the purchasers are going to be out of luck. 24H2 did drop support for some really really old CPUs because of an instruction set requirement.

For people who have bought these devices, 25H2 is minor / "enablement" update for 24H2 users (i.e it uses the same codebase). This means that any device with 24H2 installed should be OK with 25H2 as its effectively already running it (just disabled). This will ensure updates till 2027 by which point Win 12 may even be out. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5054156-feature-update-to-windows-11-version-25h2-by-using-an-enablement-package-4d307e2d-3028-4323-bb46-552cff491643

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#3421975 6-Oct-2025 07:45

I tried Win 11 on an old system over the weekend, set it to bypass the checks. Couldn't get it to install at all. Soon as I selected the installation drive, it just sat there.

Went through same process with 10, installed no issues.

The 11 ISO I used was a fresh download from MS. Wonder if they're doing something else now to check compatibility. Not bothered overall tho, if I feel Win 10 is a danger, I'll just throw Ubuntu on the system in question.

XPD / Gavin

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#3421976 6-Oct-2025 08:03

I recently installed on several old machines using the documented methods. In some cases there were long delays. When I left the machine(s) and returned a few hours later it had moved on.

I see there are a number of guides around failures at select drive if a failure eventually occurs. In my case I used the same dialog to remove all partitions before selecting an install drive.

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#3421986 6-Oct-2025 08:46

You can install 11 on anything if you know how. A potential issue is that the annual update may break, but in most cases, it does not. I am not biffing an excellent PC/laptop because they say the CPU is slightly short on a spec that was not vital in the first place. YMMV, of course.

Would I sell it without stating the above? No. But I have upgraded all mine to 11 and several for Work/Friends with zero issues. All have been told it could break one day in the future, but so far, there have been zero issues.

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#3421988 6-Oct-2025 08:58

So I was basing it on the fact that win11 has been out for a while now with the same checks and people have been happily using it on older hardware for four years by now.

Now MS might change this in the next major version release, but what happened before was that all people had to do was get the next versions iso and do the upgrade with bypass again.

And as said, support for the current major version won’t stop for another few years. You can activate it with a licence and keep getting security updates so MS definitely knows what hardware is being used.

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