Microsoft raises a surprise requirement for future Windows 11 PCs: they either have SSDs, or nothing
A report by the consultancy Trendfocus has revealed in a report how equipment manufacturers could be preparing for a requirement from Microsoft in the future. The requirement: future Windows 11 PCs and laptops must use SSDsnot conventional hard drives.
The measure, which seems could come into force in 2023It is curious if we take into account that today the requirement is to have a storage unit greater than 64 GB, without more. Here Microsoft seems to want to make an interesting but compromised leap: there are still modest computers that use hard drives as storage units.
Windows 11 wants to be only on SSDs
When Microsoft released Windows 11, it did so with some highly criticized requirements. The TPM chip needed It left many older teams theoretically without options, although later the company itself ended up relaxing the terms.
Microsoft’s goal was to some extent logical: not be stuck in the past and for example make these computers more secure thanks to the advantages of the aforementioned TPM chip.
Now that Trendfocus report wants to make a similar move and put traditional hard drives in the background to focus entirely on solid state drives (SSDs).
The current requirements of Windows 11 indicate that you need, for example, 4 GB of RAM and at least 64 GB or more of available storagebut there is no mention that the drive must be an SSD.
The SSD drive is a necessary requirement, however for two OS options: one is DirectStorage, the other the Windows Subsystem for Android that allows running Android applications under Windows 11.
It is true that SSD drives offer transfer rates that are clearly higher than those of a hard drive and their impact on the performance of the operating system is clear. It is also the case that fortunately the market has been making the transition to these units for a long time, and it is increasingly rare to see laptops based on a HDD and not on an SSD.
However, for more modest computers, the use of SSD drives is more complicated due to the price of these drives: the cost per gigabyte is still higher that of hard drives, and that makes hard drives a better option for tight budgets. And those computers may not have official access to Windows 11 in the future.
That’s at least what the Trendforce report suggests, which indicates that transition could take place in the second half of 2023. John Chen, vice president of Trendfocus, indicated in Tom’s Hardware that OEMs are trying to negotiate to further delay that requirement and that it is not mandatory until 2024 and even then only for desktop PCs.
Microsoft has not commented on this option, so it remains to be seen whether or not the company ends up confirming a decision that is of interest. Especially considering that the adoption of SSD drives is increasing and that standards such as PCIe 4.0, PCIe 5.0 and even PCIe 6.0 they will gain more and more strength and offering better features in PCs and laptops in the coming years.
