Windows 11 Preparedness

[tightpurchaser]

My technician and I purchased this notebook, HP EliteBook 850 G3, believing that the processor would accept Windows 11.  It came with Windows 10-Home.  With the tool that scans for Windows 11 readiness, the only disqualifier is the processor, which is Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6600U CPU @ 2.60GH.  There are seven updates awaiting download and installation on the HP Support Assistant.  Would any of them render this computer ready for Windows 11?  One has to do with battery health.  Another is a camera driver.  There is a WLAN driver and a Bluetooth driver.  Perhaps one of the remaining three impact the processor.  There is a chipset utility, a management engine driver and a USB card reader driver.  Regardless of whether they will allow Windows 11, should I install any of these?  Thank you in advance.  I am not looking for a hack, just some means of geting this computer ready, if possible, for Windows 11.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

There is nothing you can do to upgrade your PC's hardware to support W11.

You would need an Elitebook 850 G5 to run W11 as far as the supported hardware is concerned.

Your only option would be to use a hack to upgrade to W11.

If you are interested in upgrading your PC to W11, please see the method I have used to in-place upgrade several HP and Dell notebook and desktop PC's to W11 22H2 that don't meet the hardware requirements.

The hack I use is very simple to do.

Re: Issues upgrading to windows 11 - HP Support Community - 8517912

[tightpurchaser]

Paul, thanks for getting back.  I'll have to run your advice through my technician; however, there may be some opinion out there against doing that hardware check bypass.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The only drawback that I have found on the 13 or so PC's I've upgraded this way is that you will have to use this method every October to get the new release of W11.

For example, W11 23H2 will probably come out in October of 2023 and an unsupported PC will never get an automatic update to the new build from Microsoft.

Other than that problem, all of the PC's I have upgraded to W11 get the same cumulative and security updates my W11-supported PC gets.

I have not yet experienced any driver issues, blue screens, etc., and I have been running W11 on these PC's since September of 2021 when W11 first was released to the public.

The PC's all run a little better on W11 than they did on W10 as well.

The boot up time is faster, and the performance is slightly more responsive.

[tightpurchaser]

Paul, should I go ahead and apply these updates that HP Support Assistant found?  They have been on my screen for several days now.  As far as upgrading goes, my technician stays with Windows 10 and thinks I should too.  Besides the hardware conflicts that first concerned me, there might be others between Windows 11 and programs I might run.  Thanks again.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Yes, I recommend you install the updates that the HP support assistant provided.