Want to upgrade to Windows 11? Just buy a new PC, says Microsoft

When Windows 11 was released, it set an ultimatum for people wanting to upgrade; have a CPU that supports TPM 2.0, or don’t upgrade at all. Since then, the company has seen Windows 10 users holding onto their systems and people finding ways to dodge Windows 11’s system requirements and run it on unsupported hardware. And with Windows 10’s end-of-support date in a year’s time, the Redmond giant would really prefer you chuck out all that perfectly good hardware and just purchase a new PC already.

Microsoft urges people to purchase a new PC for Windows 11

As spotted by Neowin, a new entry on the Microsoft Support article about unsupported devices has appeared. In the FAQ section, under the question “What options do I have for staying supported on Windows?,” Microsoft’s first port of call is pretty frank:

Recommended: New PC with Windows 11
– Windows 11 is the most current version of Windows. If you have an older PC, we recommend you move to Windows 11 by buying a new PC. Hardware and software have improved a lot, and today’s computers are faster, more powerful, and more secure.

While Microsoft does admit that someone can still get a year’s worth of Windows 10 support, its message is pretty clear that it’d much prefer you to just buy a new PC.

The electronics landfill grows larger

The idea of buying a new PC to support a new operating system may sound fine, but as we’ve seen plenty of times before, there are some Windows 10 machines that are perfectly capable of running Windows 11. In fact, someone with a 10-year-old CPU noticed an improvement in performance with Windows 11 24H2.

With Microsoft’s big push to get people to purchase a new PC, it’s sending a signal that it wants people to get rid of perfectly good hardware that’s still totally usable today. And given how the tech scene already has an issue with people throwing away perfectly good tech, this will only worsen the problem. Fortunately, if you do grab a new PC, there are some really cool things to do with your old one instead of letting perfectly good hardware go to waste.