Microsoft may soon warn you that your PC has ‘wrong’ hardware

Tech giant Microsoft is currently experimenting with two new ways to warn Windows 11 users that they have installed the operating system on unsupported hardware. According to the report, in the new test build of Windows 11, a new watermark has appeared on the desktop wallpaper.

If the test build is running on unsupported hardware, the desktop watermark simply states “system requirements not met”, and appears along with the build number which is shown only on evaluation or pre release versions of Windows.

If you have not activated the OS, it is similar to the semi transparent watermark seen in Windows, but less prominent. However, it is not clear whether Microsoft wants to enable this desktop wallpaper warning widely.

The software maker recently revealed that it will be testing the new version in Windows 11. Still, these new warnings are a sign that Microsoft wants to modify how Windows 11 appears on unsupported hardware.

The report noted that Microsoft’s new hardware requirements for Windows 11 have been controversial, especially as the OS only officially supports Intel 8th Gen Coffee Lake or Gen+ and Gen 2 CPUs.

The move left millions of PCs behind, but there’s an easy way to bypass that restriction and install Windows 11. Now anyone who has used that workaround can start seeing these warnings in the upcoming update of Windows 11.