How to Check Windows 11 Compatibility Using PowerShell

Before upgrading to Windows 11, you can use PowerShell to check your computer’s hardware and firmware against Microsoft’s minimum system requirements. This guide walks through each requirement with the command to run and how to read the results.

This guide is useful for administrator to check PC compatibility with Windows 11 without installing the PC Health Check app on each workstation. Once done successfully, getting to find the compatibility will take less than a minute on any PC.

And, you could combine all these commands take a powershell script to get the compatibility on local or remote computers without any installation.

Before you begin: Open PowerShell as an administrator. Right-click the Start button and select Terminal (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin).

Quick Reference: Windows 11 Minimum Requirements

Component	Requirement
Processor	64-bit, 2+ cores, 1 GHz or faster, on Microsoft’s supported list
Memory	4 GB RAM
Storage	64 GB or larger
TPM	Version 2.0
Firmware	UEFI with Secure Boot capability
Graphics	DirectX 12 compatible, WDDM 2.0 driver
Display	Larger than 9″ diagonal, 720p or higher
Windows 10 version	2004 or later (for upgrades)

1. Processor

Get-CimInstance Win32_Processor |
    Select-Object Name, NumberOfCores, MaxClockSpeed, AddressWidth

Windows 11 requires a compatible 64-bit processor with at least two cores and a clock speed of 1 GHz or faster. The processor model must also be on Microsoft’s list of supported processors.

2. Memory

Get-CimInstance Win32_ComputerSystem |
    Select-Object @{Name='RAM (GB)'; Expression={[math]::Round($_.TotalPhysicalMemory / 1GB, 2)}}

The minimum requirement is 4 GB of RAM. The amount reported may be slightly lower than what is installed, because some memory is reserved for hardware.

3. Storage

Get-Disk | Select-Object Number, FriendlyName,
    @{Name='Capacity (GB)'; Expression={[math]::Round($_.Size / 1GB, 2)}}

Get-Volume | Where-Object DriveLetter | Select-Object DriveLetter,
    @{Name='Free (GB)'; Expression={[math]::Round($_.SizeRemaining / 1GB, 2)}}

Windows 11 requires a storage device of at least 64 GB, plus additional free space for installation and updates. Windows may display a capacity lower than the manufacturer’s advertised figure, because manufacturers use decimal gigabytes.

4. Trusted Platform Module (TPM)

Get-Tpm | Select-Object TpmPresent, TpmReady, TpmEnabled, TpmActivated

Get-CimInstance -Namespace root/CIMV2/Security/MicrosoftTpm `
    -ClassName Win32_Tpm | Select-Object SpecVersion

Windows 11 requires TPM version 2.0. If no TPM is detected, check whether it is disabled in your computer’s firmware (BIOS/UEFI) settings.

5. Secure Boot

Confirm-SecureBootUEFI

• True: Secure Boot is enabled.
• False: Secure Boot is disabled, though the device may still support it.
• Error: This may indicate legacy BIOS mode, an unsupported platform, or insufficient privileges.

Windows 11 requires UEFI firmware with Secure Boot capability.

6. Graphics and Display

Get-CimInstance Win32_VideoController |
    Select-Object Name, DriverVersion, CurrentHorizontalResolution,
                  CurrentVerticalResolution

Start-Process dxdiag

The second command opens the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, where you can review graphics and driver information. Windows 11 requires DirectX 12-compatible graphics with a WDDM 2.0 driver, and a display larger than 9 inches diagonally with at least 720p resolution.

Note: PowerShell output alone cannot confirm every graphics and display requirement.

7. Current Windows Version

Get-ComputerInfo | Select-Object WindowsProductName, WindowsVersion, OsBuildNumber

For an upgrade from Windows 10, Microsoft specifies version 2004 or later.

Final Thoughts

The commands above give you useful details about your hardware, but they are not a complete compatibility check. For an overall eligibility assessment, run Microsoft’s PC Health Check app.