Dell computers tested for upgrade to Windows 11

The Dell Latitude range is the one I'm most familiar with. It appears the every Latitude with an Intel 8th gen or later processor is on their list.

The OP says 'product xyz will be tested' vs the specific product xyz page that says 'Free upgrade to Windows 11 when available' implicating that product xyz has already been tested (I discovered in fact a number of such products xyz that I am interested in) I chatted with a Dell rep, asking him if Dell provides a guarantee that product xyz can be upgraded to W11. He had no clue, even mistook that the guarantee was about something else entirely. I refrained from explaining things.

Anyway, buyer beware!

Inspiron 3881 i5-10400, first PC I tried on Win11 here, did not require any bios updates and TPM and secure boot was enabled by default in the bios, presumably that's standard for Dell.

clam1952 said:

TPM and secure boot was enabled by default in the bios, presumably that's standard for Dell.

Click to expand...

Not for the older Dell models, before 2018 they shipped with TPM 1.2 and the default may have been 'off'. But many of those can have their firmware updated to TPM 2.0.

Dell systems built between 2015 and 2018 may have shipped from the factory with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) firmware version 1.2.

This article lists the system models that may have shipped with TPM 1.2 so you can upgrade the TPM firmware to version 2.0 if needed.

Click to expand...

The Dell article that Brink links to was published the same day or day after Microsoft first announced the Win 11 requirements. Thus I doubt that any were actually tested with Win 11.

I bought a Dell Inspiron 3501 just to use on Win11 as it was said to be compatible and it is. I added another 8gb of ram making 16 and it flies. I have installed all the Win 11 updates and never had any problems at all. I did have it setup perfectly for Win 10 before the initial Win 11 download. As yet I have not put 11 on my Alienware Area 51m R2, that machine is sooooo fast

I have a "spare" Latitude E6430 that seems to be running Win 11 fine. My old E6410 on the other hand can't get over the hump. My main machine, an Acer Nitro 5 flies with Win 11 tho....

My job has me on a Latitude E7240 and I don't see that one on the list so I wonder what the boss will say when it comes the time.

dbartenstein said:

My job has me on a Latitude E7240 and I don't see that one on the list....

Click to expand...

That one has a 4th gen Intel processor and an un-upgradable TPM 1.2, if I'm not mistaken (I have an E7440). Upgradable firmware TPM came in around E7*70, and 8th gen processors around E7*90.

I successfully installed Win11 no problem on my T7810 Xeon E5 workstation.

My daily workhorse is a T7810, dual Xeon E5-2997 v3 (2x 14 cores, 56 threads) with 64GB ECC ram and RTX 2070. It was on an old bios A13, and I saw it had TPM 1.2 (disabled), SecureBoot (disabled), and using legacy bios settings (not UEFI). Obviously not meeting requirements from the checker app in a booted Win10 environment, but TPM was upgradeable to 2.0 and a very recent (late 2020 bios A34) was available. In theory, if I upgraded the BIOS and TPM2.0, turned on UEFI and reinstalled from UEFI usb key, I had a reasonable chance.

The only problem was the E5-v3 which is not on the supported list. I wasn't sure if I would have to hack my way around the installer like some people did on youtube.

I also have two samsung 970 EVO NVMe (1 TB each) on PCIe adapters, which ideally would be used as a boot drive, but I didn't want to get my hopes up if I did get Win11 installed.

After upgrading the BIOS and TPM, and then burning the latest Beta to USB, reformatting one of my (barely used) Samsung 970 to be used as a boot drive , and then disconnecting all my other drives, I rebooted into BIOS, turned on UEFI, SecureBoot and TPM 2.0 (and changed a few other bios settings) then rebooted from USB. The Win11 installer launched, I got no warning, and it installed without any fuss or complaint to the NVMe (!)

Upon rebooting after the pre-install, everything seemed to be working: Video, Sound, Network. I was able to complete the install process without any problem.

There was a bit of a 'uh-ho' moment when I went to Device Manager and saw a whole list of unrecognized devices (more than 100) but I figured they were the CPUs, performance counters, and SM Bus devices. I went to the Dell web site, downloaded the Win10 chipset drivers (from 2016!!!!) -- they installed no problem, Device Manager recognized all missing devices.

I have been using Win11 since last week. Not a single problem encountered.

I sure hope that the final Win11 won't barf on me and refuse to upgrade on the basis of the unsupported CPUs when it releases in october.

NOTE:

Before you attempt this: After turning on UEFI and all the other things, you need to know that for some reason, getting the system to POST with the Dell Logo takes an AWFULLY long time, like maybe up to 2 minutes. At first I thought I had bricked my computer, but it did eventually post. Also, getting into the bios seems to be more finicky, but it does work if you are gentle with F2 -- I wish I had a better way of saying it.

LMK if you'd like me to post my BIOS settings here.

I've got an XPS One 2720 All-In-One and have installed W11 Pro on it fine. It did botch about no TPM 2.0 initially, but then all of a sudden it said I could upgrade!

It's running REALLY well... I mean I upgraded my Machine to boot form a larger M2 SSD so it was quick anyway, and have 16GB ram, but it's noticeably better than W10 was.

I hear some Dell machines can upgrade the TPM to 2.0 - anyone know if the XPS One 2720 can?

Ta

A follow up here -- apparently, for now microsoft is purposely let people install Win11 on computers that don't meet the minimum requirement -- but this is only for the purpose of installing preview builds.

Once Win11 releases on October 5, any PC not meeting all requirements (including the CPU soft requirement) won't be able to install Win11. Any PC running a preview Win11 will be forced to downgrade to Win10. While running pre-release Win11 might be fine for a few weeks, as time goes by not getting updates is going to be a big problem.

The appropriate text is here (incorrect cpu = yellow group)


While we recommend that all PCs meet the full hardware requirements for Windows 11, we are allowing some limited exceptions as we apply these new restrictions. All Windows Insiders who have already been installing builds from the Dev Channel on their PCs up through June 24, 2021 will be allowed to continue installing Windows 11 Insider Preview builds even if their PC does not meet the minimum hardware requirements. Insiders with PCs already in the Dev Channel have been installing and giving feedback on builds with Windows 11 features since last year. Our way of saying thanks is to go ahead and give them the opportunity to see everything come together.

However, this comes with some important tradeoffs we want to call attention to:

• Because these devices do not meet the new hardware requirements, there may be issues and bugs that impact the experience of Windows 11 on these PCs that may not get fixed.
• If at any point something goes wrong on one of these PCs that requires having to go back to Windows 10, you can use the media creation tool here to go back to the Windows 10. These PCs will not be given another exception and not allowed to upgrade to Windows 11 Insider Preview builds again. They will be treated as a new PC and the minimum hardware requirements will be enforced as highlighted above.
• Once Windows 11 is generally available, these PCs will be opted out of flighting and will not be able to receive future Windows 11 Insider Preview builds. These PCs must clean install back to Windows 10 with the media (ISOs) that we provide and can then join the Release Preview Channel to preview Windows 10 updates.

AdamE said:

I've got an XPS One 2720 All-In-One and have installed W11 Pro on it fine. It did botch about no TPM 2.0 initially, but then all of a sudden it said I could upgrade!

It's running REALLY well... I mean I upgraded my Machine to boot form a larger M2 SSD so it was quick anyway, and have 16GB ram, but it's noticeably better than W10 was.

I hear some Dell machines can upgrade the TPM to 2.0 - anyone know if the XPS One 2720 can?

Ta

Click to expand...

The 2720 is listed by Dell as a "Legacy" model, which means its unlikely to get any updates for Win 11 compatibility.
THIS is the Dell "tested" list for Win 11. It was based on the initial Microsoft's published hardware requirements.

Thanks all... guessing I'll be going back to W10 unless a workaround is found... such a silly situation - no way I will be buying a new pc when this one does everything I want and more (and cost me a fortune at the time!), boots to a usebale desktop in 10 seconds, and has never failed me for a second!

At the moment no workaround is possible, even though we know some machines work perfectly fine.

I know this is annoying even for a 500$ PC (like the 2720) -- my current workstation configuration is worth close to 7,000-8,000$ so I also will be looking for a solution...

drjustice said:

At the moment no workaround is possible, even though we know some machines work perfectly fine.

I know this is annoying for a 500$ PC (like the 2720) -- my current workstation configuration is worth close to 7,000-8,000$ so I also will be looking for a solution...

Click to expand...

Agreed - (although this thing cost me more than that back in the day as it was the 'top' version at the time). Pretty much everything I have been impressed with on W11, except the perceived 'forced' upgrade we will need to do, based upon what MS is saying at present. Talk about forcing tonnes of perfectly good PCs into landfill, right at the time when we are all supposed to be trying to save the environment!

The 'only' problem I have on my Dell XPS is the i7 7 series CPU is not being tested by Dell and is showing as not being compatible even though Win11 is running flawlessly. Conveniently Dell have an upgraded model with a 10 series CPU - the only benefit being (in my eyes) is a UHD rather than a QHD screen.

So I'll be saving my $2,000 for the newer Dell and revert back to 10 which was working perfectly. My Dell will not be going to landfill even if I'm still around in 2025.

But on the other hand I'm not totally impressed with MS trying to force or encourage folks to use Edge, Bing and pushing the Store at every opportunity plus you could be forgiven for thinking the silent hand of hardware manufacturers is lurking around in the background (maybe). No doubt others will disagree but it all depends upon personal needs/wants as to commit to 11 or stay with 10.

Its not a "Dell" (or HP or Acer or whoever) issue. Its Microsoft and what they will ultimately require.