Windows 11: Microsoft deletes these Windows 10 features and apps

[RV_]

Excerpt:

"Microsoft giveth, and Microsoft taketh away. A slew of once-hyped Windows 10 features, including Cortana and Timeline, are vanishing or undergoing big changes in Windows 11. The details are buried in the fine print.

With today's Windows 11 announcement, Microsoft focused mainly on the flashy new features it's bringing to the next version of its flagship operating system, like a new Start menu and widgets.

But Microsoft giveth, and Microsoft taketh away. A slew of once-hyped Windows 10 features and a handful of apps will vanish along with the Windows 10 upgrade. The details, in trademark Microsoft fashion, are buried in the fine print -- specifically, in a document misleadingly titled "Windows 11 Specifications."

A few of the changes are simply formal statements of product decisions that have been in the works for a long time.

• The S Mode feature, which restricts administrators and standard users alike from installing apps from outside the Store and blocks many Windows administrative tools, will be available only for Windows 11 Home edition. Good riddance.
• Internet Explorer is gone for good in Windows 11. Enterprise customers who need access to websites and line-of-business apps that were built in the dark ages of the web (including those that use ActiveX controls) will need to use the built-in IE Mode feature in the new Microsoft Edge.
• And shed a tear for Cortana, the one-time rival to Siri and Alexa. That chirpy voice-driven assistant will no longer be a part of the "first boot experience," nor will the icon be pinned to the Taskbar. Given Cortana's reworking as an enterprise-only feature, that makes sense.

More surprising is the removal of the Timeline feature, which was once the star of Windows 10 demos. According to a support note on Microsoft's developer documentation for the feature, Windows 10 users who sign in with a Microsoft Account will no longer be able to upload new activity in Timeline as of July 2021. But the feature will be deprecated completely with the Windows 11 upgrade.

The changes to the Start menu and Taskbar make for a great Windows 11 demo, but as with any magic trick it pays to watch closely. Live Tiles are deprecated, to be replaced, Microsoft hopes, by more capable widgets. With the new Start, you won't able to create named groups and folders of apps. As for the taskbar, Microsoft is taking away the People icon and also removing the ability of developers to build taskbar customizations into apps. And if you're accustomed to moving the taskbar anywhere to the top of the display or either side, I have some bad news for you: Those options won't be available with the new dock-style user experience.

Are you accustomed to seeing your desktop wallpaper roam between devices when you sign in with a Microsoft account? That feature will vanish in Windows 11.

In Windows 10, apps can display Quick Status on the lock screen; in Windows 11, that feature and its associated settings are removed.

Tablet Mode, a feature that dates back nearly two decades, will finally disappear in Windows 11. For devices like the Surface Pro that have detachable keyboards, Microsoft says it will add new functionality for "keyboard attach and detach postures."

Lots more and related hot links in Ed Bott's article here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-11-microsoft-deletes-these-windows-10-features-and-apps/?ftag=CAD2e14604

[Bill Joyce]

Windows 11 also doubles down on using the "cloud" to use lots of bandwidth doing stuff Microsoft deems important, like news feeds and syncing Office, but not all of us want.  

Anyway I tried the upgrade checker on both of my main laptops and this one, a fairly old 15", is not compatible with Windows 11, while my 4-year old 13" one I take to coffee shops and hotel trips is compatible.  

[durangodon]

My eleven year old laptop won't qualify because it is not "secure boot" capable.  This was a high end machine which runs Win10 very well and is still very fast.

 

[RV_]

Well my top line Dell 2720 won't run 11, here's a screen shot of the compatibility app result

Edited June 25, 2021 by RV_

[RV_]

The results said I would continue to get Windows 10 updates! Unti:

"Yes! Windows 10 continues to be a great version of Windows. We have committed to supporting Windows 10 through October 14, 2025."

So now Apple and Microsoft will be requiring new hardware FOR ALL AT SOME POINT! My new Dell 27" AIO and Surface systems will likely be fine. But we'll see.

This system is a 2014 design and by 2025 it will be nine years old and I would have replaced it anyway.

However I won't be wheeling and dealing used computers or shopping new until all this is finalized at the end of the year.

[RV_]

Minimum specs and FAQs are here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11

[RV_]

Will your PC run Windows 11? Even Microsoft can't say for sure

Does your PC have the right hardware to run Microsoft's next Windows version? The answer depends on where you look. And don't count on the compatibility checker for much help.

You might think it's a simple, straightforward task to find out whether your current PC will run Windows 11. Think again. Even Microsoft can't quite get its story straight.

For starters, two pieces of core documentation disagree with one another. The official Windows 11 System Requirements page has one set of specs, while the Compatibility for Windows 11 documentation that the Windows engineering team prepared for Microsoft partners as part of the Compatibility Cookbook for Windows tells a different story. And in both cases the details are incomplete.

To cap things off, the official compatibility checker (included in the new PC Health Check app) delivers results without details. If the compatibility checker says your PC will run Windows 11, you're good to go. But if you run the compatibility check and get results like this on a system that appears to meet every specification with ease, read on to learn how to track down the problem.

The basic hurdles are easy enough to clear. You need a 64-bit Intel or AMD processor running at a speed of at least 1 GHz with 2 or more cores, or, on Arm-based PCs, a compatible System on a Chip (SoC). The biggest change from Windows 10 specs is that 32-bit (x86) CPUs are no longer supported. You also need at least 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. Most PCs built in the last 10 years will meet those specs.

The device also can't be running in S Mode.

The two biggest stumbling blocks for PCs involve support for an essential security feature called a Trusted Platform Module, or TPM, and support for a minimum CPU generation.

TPM support

The system requirements page says you'll need a TPM version 2.0 to run Windows 11. The Compatibility Cookbook says you'll need a TPM version of 1.2 or greater. Specifically, the TPM 1.2 requirement (with a Secure Boot capable PC) is part of a so-called Hard Floor, while the TPM 2.0 spec is part of the Soft Floor.

 

According to the docs, "Devices that do not meet the hard floor cannot be upgraded to Windows 11, and devices that meet the soft floor will receive a notification that upgrade is not advised."

That's not a trivial detail, because millions of older PCs are equipped with TPM 1.2 in hardware and can't be upgraded.

To make things even more confusing, the compatibility checker might tell you your PC can't be upgraded to Windows 11 if the device has a TPM but that feature is disabled in firmware.

You can check for the presence of a TPM by looking in Device Manager (Devmgmt.msc) under the Security Devices heading, as shown here.

Use Device Manager to check the TPM version

You can also run the TPM Management snap-in (Tpm.msc). That tool will tell you the name of the TPM manufacturer as well as the version information. Be sure to close the snap-in without making any changes.

If you're certain your PC has a TPM but you don't see it listed in Device Manager, you'll need to go into firmware settings and enable it. On a UEFI-based Windows 10 PC, the easiest way to do that is to follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.
2. Under the Advanced Startup heading, click Restart Now.
3. After restarting, click Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings.

Look for a setting labeled TPM or PTT (short for Intel Platform Trust Technology) or, on AMD systems, fTPM (short for Firmware Trusted Platform Module). You might need the PC's manual to find the exact setting. And while you're in the firmware setting, make sure Secure Boot is enabled.

That should resolve any TPM issues.

CPU Generation

If the compatibility checker still insists that you can't run Windows 11, and you've confirmed that the TPM isn't the sticking point, the problem might be an older CPU.

Yes, there's also a Soft Floor requirement for CPU. Frustratingly, the documentation simply says this is defined by "CPU Generation," without going into any additional details.

It appears that any device running on an Intel 7th Generation (Skylake) CPU or earlier will also trigger that compatibility check. That was the case on a Dell desktop PC I checked. Frustratingly, the PC Health Check app doesn't appear to generate any log files that would make the sleuthing easier.

Instead, I turned to an open source tool called Win11SysCheck, which is available on GitHub as source code and a precompiled binary. (You'll get a SmartScreen error if you try to download this tool and run it, because Windows flags it as "not commonly downloaded.")

That tool confirmed that the i7-6700 CPU on my desktop PC was the culprit.

That's a 2015-era CPU, which makes it about six years old. The good news is that Windows 11 should run on it, although it's not recommended.

Another Microsoft engineering document, prepared for hardware manufacturers, includes a full list of supported Windows 11 CPUs from AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm. Of course, those specs should only apply to PC makers, but apparently that's the "soft floor" that Windows 11 will use for upgraders as well.

Hopefully, this will all be sorted out by the time Windows 11 is ready for its first general release, but don't count on it."

Source with more Links and articles:

The basic hurdles are easy enough to clear. You need a 64-bit Intel or AMD processor running at a speed of at least 1 GHz with 2 or more cores, or, on Arm-based PCs, a compatible System on a Chip (SoC). The biggest change from Windows 10 specs is that 32-bit (x86) CPUs are no longer supported. You also need at least 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. Most PCs built in the last 10 years will meet those specs.

The device also can't be running in S Mode.

The two biggest stumbling blocks for PCs involve support for an essential security feature called a Trusted Platform Module, or TPM, and support for a minimum CPU generation.

TPM support

The system requirements page says you'll need a TPM version 2.0 to run Windows 11. The Compatibility Cookbook says you'll need a TPM version of 1.2 or greater. Specifically, the TPM 1.2 requirement (with a Secure Boot capable PC) is part of a so-called Hard Floor, while the TPM 2.0 spec is part of the Soft Floor.

 

According to the docs, "Devices that do not meet the hard floor cannot be upgraded to Windows 11, and devices that meet the soft floor will receive a notification that upgrade is not advised."

That's not a trivial detail, because millions of older PCs are equipped with TPM 1.2 in hardware and can't be upgraded.

To make things even more confusing, the compatibility checker might tell you your PC can't be upgraded to Windows 11 if the device has a TPM but that feature is disabled in firmware.

You can check for the presence of a TPM by looking in Device Manager (Devmgmt.msc) under the Security Devices heading, as shown here.

Use Device Manager to check the TPM version

You can also run the TPM Management snap-in (Tpm.msc). That tool will tell you the name of the TPM manufacturer as well as the version information. Be sure to close the snap-in without making any changes.

If you're certain your PC has a TPM but you don't see it listed in Device Manager, you'll need to go into firmware settings and enable it. On a UEFI-based Windows 10 PC, the easiest way to do that is to follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.
2. Under the Advanced Startup heading, click Restart Now.
3. After restarting, click Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings.

Look for a setting labeled TPM or PTT (short for Intel Platform Trust Technology) or, on AMD systems, fTPM (short for Firmware Trusted Platform Module). You might need the PC's manual to find the exact setting. And while you're in the firmware setting, make sure Secure Boot is enabled.

That should resolve any TPM issues.

CPU Generation

If the compatibility checker still insists that you can't run Windows 11, and you've confirmed that the TPM isn't the sticking point, the problem might be an older CPU.

Yes, there's also a Soft Floor requirement for CPU. Frustratingly, the documentation simply says this is defined by "CPU Generation," without going into any additional details.

It appears that any device running on an Intel 7th Generation (Skylake) CPU or earlier will also trigger that compatibility check. That was the case on a Dell desktop PC I checked. Frustratingly, the PC Health Check app doesn't appear to generate any log files that would make the sleuthing easier.

Instead, I turned to an open source tool called Win11SysCheck, which is available on GitHub as source code and a precompiled binary. (You'll get a SmartScreen error if you try to download this tool and run it, because Windows flags it as "not commonly downloaded.")

That tool confirmed that the i7-6700 CPU on my desktop PC was the culprit.

That's a 2015-era CPU, which makes it about six years old. The good news is that Windows 11 should run on it, although it's not recommended.

Another Microsoft engineering document, prepared for hardware manufacturers, includes a full list of supported Windows 11 CPUs from AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm. Of course, those specs should only apply to PC makers, but apparently that's the "soft floor" that Windows 11 will use for upgraders as well.

Hopefully, this will all be sorted out by the time Windows 11 is ready for its first general release, but don't count on it.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/will-your-pc-run-windows-11-even-microsoft-cant-say-for-sure/?ftag=CAD2e14604

[Chalkie]

Our laptops will run 11. Thanks the heavens there are some things like Cortana disappearing. I will do more research though before I think about allowing an upgrade, especially the added internet use since we often use our hot spot or hot spot our phones.

 

[RV_]

Wow! I used the checker and while my Surface Pro 7 bought new in December 2019 is compatible, my Surface Go bought new at the same time is NOT compatible! Nor is my Surface Pro4. Worse my much newer Surface Go 2 also won't run Windows 11.

They are going to be pissing off a bunch of their Surface Pro and Go/Go2 customers.

I'll bet MS makes some changes so newer systems get compatibility plugins or software workarounds.

However they stated already that they will continue updates and support for Windows 10 until 2025. I have never, except for my Dell 2720 AIO, kept any computer system more than three years. So six years of use from Dec 2019-2025 is fine by me. I have sold new systems a month or three after buying them too.

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by RV_