When Windows 11 first came out, there was a lot of confusion surrounding its system requirements. People with pretty beefy PCs were being locked out, but as it turns out, the system requirements didn't just take power into account. For instance, if your PC didn't support TPM 2.0, it wasn't compatible with Windows 11 - period.

People found ways to install Windows 11 on incompatible PCs, but it seems that the Redmond giant has decided that enough is enough. Microsoft has patched one of the methods people used to skirt the system requirements, tightening the loopholes people were using to upgrade without abiding by the requirements.

Microsoft begins cracking down on incompatible Windows 11 installations

As spotted by Neowin, Microsoft has begun patching out an exploit that allowed people to dodge the system requirement check. It involved adding "/product server" to the Windows 11 setup executable, which forced it to skip the hardware check when installing it on an incompatible PC.

While this trick has been around for a year now, it seems that Microsoft has finally had enough. As reported by TheBobPony on X, starting with the latest patch on the Canary branch, the "/product server" trick no longer works. It's likely that Microsoft is hunting down and fixing ways people are using to skirt around the system requirements.

It's worth noting that the fix is currently only on the Canary branch, which means the trick should still work on a release version of Windows 11. However, as the Canary patch makes its way through the pipeline, don't expect it to be around for long.

If you're using Windows 11 and not having a great time with it, there are ways to make the experience more pleasant. We've covered 14 tweaks to make Windows 11 better and how to remove Windows 11's junk, which is a good start toward making an OS you enjoy. You can also use Start11 or StartAllBack to replace the Start menu - that is, if you even get value out of it.