This is all wonderful, but what about that free Windows 11 upgrade?
It turns out that you will only be able to upgrade your current PC to Windows 11 if it is of recent vintage, three years old or less, perhaps much less. Your old PC must first have a 64Bit multi-core CPU of the type that came out with the Intel Core Processers.
But the CPU must be from the Intel 8th Generation (Coffee Lake?) or AMD 3nd Generation Ryzen (Ryzen 3000) - or later processors. Then, and here's another crusher, it must have a Trusted Platform Module, TPM module Version 2.0. This TPM 2.0 technology was released in October 2014 and shipped beginning in August 2016.
So any PCs shipped earlier than 2017 are definitely out. Even any PCs shipped after that date, but using older components are also definitely out!
However Microsoft's Health Check Setup utility (download link) seems to be very picky about which PCs pass muster and which don't.
Update: The much maligned, Health Check Setup Utility has been pulled according to Microsoft. They say it will reappear later this year before the release of Windows 11.
"Ready or not, Windows 11 is on target to leave stranded hundreds of millions of systems on Windows 10 -- which will still be supported until October of 2025. The sheer amount of bad will created by a software upgrade that essentially doesn't seem like much more than a user interface update is rubbing many Microsoft diehards the wrong way." from ZDNet
For a much more full explanation of this see PC Magazine's articles To Upgrade to Windows 11, Prepare to Dig Into Your PC's BIOS by Michael Kan and Microsoft Doesn't Want You to Upgrade to Windows 11 by Michael Muchmore.
Also see PCWorld's take at Want Windows 11? Your PC better have these specs by Mark Hachman
As it is, I and many other PC users will not see Windows 11 until and unless we buy a new PC with Windows 11 preinstalled! It is apparent that Microsoft is covering their collective butts by offering free upgrades to PC users it knows will never be able to upgrade. Only those PCs sold this year, likely in the last few months, will be eligible for a free upgrade and they know it!
Come on Microsoft, you should be able to do much better than this!
For more on this see - Windows 11: Microsoft apologizes for compatibility confusion, hints at changes from Ed Bott at ZDNet. We'll see how it all shakes out. In another article Ed attempts to explain which PCs will be able to run Windows 11 - He mostly succeeds.
In the meanwhile, Microsoft has
set the retirement date for Windows 10 Operating System as of October 14, 2025.
So all PC users who want a new PC have plenty of time to buy a new Windows 11 PC before Windows 10 finally fades away in October of 2025.