Microsoft says it wants as many people on Windows 11 as possible, as long as you have the correct hardware. The company put specific walls around the OS upon release, and it seems Windows 12 will have similar restrictions. Essentially, if you hardware does not pass the grade you will not be able to update.
German site Deskmodder reports that the security requirements for Windows 12 will be the same as on Windows 11. That means a machine must have TPM 2.0 in their processor. Minimum RAM requirement may be harsher, with Microsoft opening Windows 12 to devices with 8GB or more of memory.
Lastly, the report points to Microsoft considering asking for specific processors, although this is apparently undecided within the company.
Last week I reported on Microsoft ramping up Windows 12 preparation by adding Cloud PC switching on Windows 11. The company has previously said that Cloud PC will play a big role in Windows 12 as the company continues to push the OS as a cloud/hybrid platform.
AI
Microsoft has made it clear it wants Windows 12 to lean into AI in a major way. The company is laying that groundwork in Windows 11, including making Bing Chat available in the taskbar. It is reasonable to speculate Microsoft may want its AI integrations in Windows to be a major selling point of Windows 12.
Windows 12 is mostly likely to roll out at the end of 2024. Microsoft will want to get the platform out in the wild to be a part of the mainstreaming of AI we are currently seeing. In recent months, the company has released Microsoft 365 Copilot for Office apps, Azure OpenAI Service for the cloud, GitHub Copilot X for programming, and Bing Chat with Bing Image Creator. Today Microsoft Security Copilot was launched.
Each of these was born through Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI by leveraging ChatGPT and GPT-4.6
Tip of the day: To prevent attackers from capturing your password, Secure Sign-in asks the user to perform a physical action that activates the sign-in screen. In some cases, this is a dedicated “Windows Security” button, but the most common case in Windows is the Ctrl+Alt Del hotkey. In our tutorial, we show you how to activate this feature.
