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Most PCs from the past 15 years can run Windows 11, even if they fail checks.
PCs sold with Windows 10 can usually upgrade after a simple registry edit.
On older or unusually configured PCs, a third-party utility gets the job done.
Are you the PC expert in your family? If you're traveling home for the holidays, your relatives will inevitably ask you for help with that computer they're absolutely unwilling to replace, because it still works just fine. Assuming it's less than 10 years old and has sufficient memory and storage, then it probably is worth keeping.
But if it's a Windows PC, one of the first things you should check is which version it's running. Does the System > About page say Windows 10? Then they really need your help.
On Oct. 14, 2025, Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 10. That old PC will no longer receive security updates unless you enroll it in the Extended Security Updates program. For anyone still running Windows 10, they've already missed an important batch of updates that were delivered on November 11 -- the first Patch Tuesday following the end-of-support deadline.
If you try to upgrade to Windows 11 on a PC that's more than five or six years old, you'll probably encounter an error message telling you -- in no uncertain terms -- that that old PC doesn't qualify because its CPU isn't on the official list of compatible processors. You will also hit roadblocks if the PC doesn't have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0, or if the TPM is not enabled.
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