A year or two back, I bought a second hand Microsoft "Go" - a tablet computer with the ability to use a detachable keyboard. It was a nice enough little thing, and very portable. It came with Windows 11 - I think it was version 21H2 - and worked well enough. Its adventures with Linux are beyond this thread.
It slowly dawned on me that updates always seemed very sparse - little more than updated malware definitions for the antivirus, in fact - and that the message, that the device was "lacking important security and performance updates" (or whatever the exact words were) always came back.
A little digging revealed that the tablet's CPU was not one of those supported by Windows 11. (MS maintains an easily findable list).
The seller had, presumably, used one of the popular "hacks" to persuade Windows 11 to install on what was really unsupported hardware. One result of this was that it could not update to more recent versions, and I was, in fact, using an unsupported operating system.
Although there are ways and means of installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, things might go bad later on. Either the gadget will be stuck with an unsupported version or, even worse, some update might rely on something which an unsupported CPU hasn't available - potentially "bricking" the machine.
There are a lot of laptops for sale on eBay (I daresay a lot of desktop PCs, too) which boast Windows 11 but whose hardware is not on the "supported" list. Presumably sellers have used one of the known workarounds to install Windows 11, and it doubtless runs fine - the trouble is that it probably won't update to new versions of Windows 11 and as I said earlier, I always suspect that some routine update could prove incompatible with a computer - effectively disabling it.
Which would be mighty irritating.
If you are looking at a bargain older machine with Windows 11, it might be worth checking at least the CPU against MS's list of supported CPUs - if possible, you might also check that it has the "Trusted Platform Module" which W11 needs.
Don't get me wrong. You could end up with a perfectly good computer. It's just that MS has effectively washed its hands of unsupported software and if things go wrong, you're on your own.
The good news is that anything that can run W!0/W11 will almost certainly run a mainstream version of Linux very happily.
If you enjoy tinkering, you might also have a lot of fun persuading Windows 11 to keep working. If tinkering is not your thing, though, then you might want to think carefully before committing to a purchase.
My little Surface Go?
It's now running W11 24H2. Quite a performance, and it took many hours of internet searching, experimentation and Some Rude Words to achieve that. Whether the next update will be achievable remains to be seen. At least it's dual-booting Ubuntu quite happily, although I cannot for the life of me get the cameras working. Not that I ever use them, but still...
If I might venture a suggestion, then - don't write off any older computer with Windows 11, but be prepared for possible problems and have a plan B to hand. And not one that blames the seller, who has almost certainly done their honest best to sell you a useful machine.
