Windows 11: Insider build 22000.588 shows watermarks on unsupported systems

[German]Another small addendum from last week. Users who install Windows 11 with a trick on hardware that does not support the minimum requirements get a corresponding notice as a watermark on the desktop in Insider build 22000.588. Even those who hid this watermark in previous builds via a registry hack will now see it again.

Windows 11 and the hardware requirements

Microsoft has set very strict minimum hardware requirements for systems suitable for Windows 11 (see Windows 11: Hardware requirements). As a result, only about 40 percent of the currently running devices are listed as compatible for Windows 11. However, the developers have revealed a trick on how to bypass these minimum requirements when installing Windows 11 (see Windows 11: Most hardware don't fulfill the minimum requirements, Microsoft reveals by-passing trick). This has led to a lot of users installing Windows 11 on systems that don't meet the minimum requirements. At some point, this could lead to these machines no longer getting security and feature updates.

Watermarking on non-compatible systems

I had already mentioned on February 26, 2022 in the blog post Windows 11: A/B test shows watermark on unsupported systems that in Insider Preview Build 22000.557 individual testers got to see this watermark. In this build, testers could still hide the watermark on the desktop via registry entry, which I mentioned in the blog post.

As of March 15, 2022, Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider build 22000.588 in the beta channel. In the meantime, the Windows 11 Insider build 22000.588 is available in the Beta and Release Preview channels, and the watermark indicating the lack of compatibility with Windows 11 is permanently located in the lower right corner on the desktop. Twitter user Xeno points this out in this tweet.

Microsoft already wrote in the announcement of Insider Preview build 22000.559 from March 18, 2022, that the watermark would be shown in Insider Preview builds.

The desktop watermark you see at the lower right corner of your desktop is normal for these pre-release builds.

Also, users who used the trick, to hide the watermark mentioned in the blog post Windows 11: A/B test shows watermark on unsupported systems, get this water mark again on the desktop – according to this article from The Verge and MSPU. It looks like Microsoft strongly wants remind people running Windows 11 on incompatible hardware that this is not intended and they should switch to compatible hardware..

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