Microsoft has reportedly been testing out a desktop watermark that will pop up on the desktop of users, running the Windows 11 OS on hardware that doesn’t meet its official requirements. The application of the watermark was first discovered in a preview build that was distributed to Windows Insiders.
As seen in the embedded tweet, the watermark can be seen at the bottom-right corner, albeit smaller than the usual “Activate Windows” watermark that users typically see for operating Windows without an official license. In addition, developers say that the watermark also appears on virtual machines.
While the watermark is still being tested, some Windows Insiders have reason to believe that, based on the current beta build and Microsoft’s behaviour of late, it is looking more and more likely that the company from Redmond may be moving forward with the plan to “shame” Windows 11 users into getting their system up to date.
Confirmed: 22000.588 introduces the "System requirements not met" watermark.#WindowsInsider pic.twitter.com/RrizjV2g8i
— Xeno (@XenoPanther) March 15, 2022
Since its launch in October 2021, Microsoft’s stance on the system requirements for Windows 11 has been, for lack of a better way of putting it, relatively wishy-washy. Initially, the base requirements require that a user’s system have a dual-core, 64-bit CPU capable of running at 1.0GHz, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, a 9-inch 720p display, and a GPU that supports DirectX12 and WDDM 2.0. At the core of these requirements, however, was the necessity for all systems to be TPM 2.0 ready.
