Windows 11 on Intel VM requirements

[wywh]

Before purchasing Window 11 I tried to verify that my old Intel Mac mini 2018 (Sequoia 15.7.1) can run it via VMware Fusion 25H2.

Windows 10 install claims otherwise after all these hoops:

I updated (a copy of) old Windows 10 VM (16 GB RAM seems to be required by Windows 11) by increasing VM storage from 60 GB to 128 GB (Windows 11 seems to require at least 64 GB), deleted Windows Recovery Partition (so I could extend Windows C disk to 128 GB -- moving GPT EFI partition proved to be much more difficult...), converted MBR to GPT (obviously GPT is a must), changed VM Legacy BIOS to UEFI and enabled UEFI Secure Boot, enabled VM encryption (Only the files needed to support a TPM as recommended here), added VM Trusted platform module TPM and booted to Windows.

But Windows 10 Update & Security panel still claims "Your PC doesn't currently meet the minimum system requirements to run Windows 11".

So doesn't that oldish Intel Mac support Windows 11 or is there some setting that still needs tweaking?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-11-specifications#primaryR3

- Matti

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[Technogeezer]

The specs you've given for your Windows 10 VM should allow the VM to meet Windows 11 minimums.

Can you run PC Health Check ihttps://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/how-to-use-the-pc-health-check-app-9c8abd9b-03ba-4e67-81ef-36f37caa7844 n the VM. If something is blocking the upgrade, PC Health Check can usually tell you what the issue is.

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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
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[wywh]

Thanks for the quick reply!

PC Health Check says "This PC meets Windows 11 requirements"

...while at the same time (after boot):

Settings > Update & Security says "Your PC doesn't currently meet the minimum system requirements to run Windows 11"

...so which one is correct?

BTW it seems sites like stacksocial dot com has Windows 11 for sale as low as $14 which seems too good to be true. Is it really supported by Microsoft or are there any gotchas?

- Matti

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[Technogeezer]

According to this posting on Microsoft's site https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5587419/pc-health-check-says-im-ready-to-go-to-windows-11 the Windows Update compatibility check you're seeing in Security & Update is based on a scheduled task that will take time to show the actual result. The PC Health Check app provides information in real-time.

The posting recommends using the Windows 11 installation assistant (instructions linked to in the posting) to upgrade to Windows 11 manually.

Make sure you have a complete backup of your VM while it's shut down before you start the upgrade. That way you can always revert back to something that you know works in case something goes wrong.

There are sites out there that sell low-priced Windows licenses. Buyer beware on those - I've heard of buyers having issues with activation of those licenses from time to time. Make sure your vendor can be contacted to address any issues about activation should they happen. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
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[wywh]

Thanks for the info! So it seems my oldish Intel Mac mini 2018 can run Windows 11 via VMware Fusion. I have also planned to get a new M series Mac now that Sequoia is the last version the old Mac supports.

In the screenshot above PC Health Check advertises that "Windows 11 is free" but is that really true for such old Windows 10 install?

- Matti

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[Technogeezer]

I know in the past Microsoft allowed Windows 10 licenses to activate Windows 11 - essentially making the upgrade free. I have a Windows 11 ARM VM that's activated using a Windows 10 retail license I purchased for a physical Intel PC.  I don't know for sure if Microsoft is still honoring that use of Windows 10 licenses but I'm sure you could find the answer to that on the web. 

if you're considering a move to an M-series Mac, note that none of the VM's you're running on that Intel Mac will work on the new hardware. You'll have to rebuild them with ARM architecture versions of guest operating systems (e.g. Windows 11 ARM). Then you'll need to reinstall your apps and migrate your data from the old VMs. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
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[wywh]

PC Health Check was very useful. I wish had stumbled on it earlier so I'd avoided struggling with extending the old 59GB C drive (60GB in VM prefs minus 2 x 500MB for System Reserved and Recovery Partition). PC Health Check is happy with that old storage reporting "System storage and System disk as 64GB or larger" anyway.

But on the other hand fiddling with Windows Disk Management, partitions, Recovery, Winre.wim, reagentc, diskpart, MBR vs GPT, encryption, EFI etc was good practice.

BTW the video below (at 7:47) recommends copying GPT Recovery Partition id and attributes from the old setup. But it seems they are always the same as below. Correct? I guess it a good practice to re-create Recovery so possible troubleshooting is easier.

set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
gpt attributes=0X8000000000000001

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGn7YGwmS1Y

- Matti

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[Technogeezer]

It's actually quite easy to move the recovery partition. I recommend having a recovery partition available and not simply deleting it because it is so easy to move if you resize the virtual disk. (IMO it's harder to rebuild the recovery partition after you've deleted it than to properly perform the steps to move it. Simply deleting the recovery partition with diskpart doesn't automatically save its contents away for re-creation).

The YT video seems to cover the topic of moving the recovery partition the "correct" way. The steps found in Daniel Keer's blog article Moving Windows Recovery Partition Correctly are my go-to resource for this process. I prefer it because:

• It's in text format. I personally like having a textual reference to processes as I find that videos are harder to navigate as you're actually performing the procedure. Plus, there's always cut/paste for commands available which aren't possible with a video. 
• Daniel's procedure is more generalized. It has steps for disks with either MBR or GPT partition formats.

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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
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[wywh]

OK, I purchased Windows 11 Pro and could successfully install it on Intel Mac mini 2018.

It has been a while since I setup Windows via VMware so I had some minor problems. The setup very quickly Times out and then goes to Boot Manager unless "any key" is pressed to boot from the Windows install .iso "CD/DVD" (which can be accessed also via Boot Manager followed by "any key"). Another hiccup was that I could not type nor paste @ to the Microsoft login setup until I remembered that I had to type it via right-Option-2 on my localized keyboard (left-Option key does not work in Windows). Doh!

...but when the setup was done and logged in, I could not configure my pin code etc settings because the settings stalled and claimed the PC was not connected to the Internet while Edge could open newspaper sites just fine. I then noticed that at the same time Microsoft Azure went down worldwide which explained that...

VMware Windows 11 setup did not default to UEFI Secure Boot. Do you recommend that? Is it about the same as macOS sealed system snapshot that is used for booting?

Updated bundled VMware Tools 13.0.1.0 to 13.0.5.0, upped VM processors to 6 cores, memory to 8192 MB (Mac has 16 GB RAM), enabled shared folders, and Disabled Side Channel Mitigations.

The old Windows 11-ready Windows 10 nor Windows 11 no longer automatically Cleans Up the Virtual Machine and that must be done manually via the General settings. Is that a side effect of those GPT, encryption or EFI updates?

I noticed that my old Windows 10 Settings > Update & Security was yesterday updated to say "Your PC meets the minimum system requirements to run Windows 11. Specific timing for when it will be offered can vary as we get it ready for you". So maybe I can upgrade even that old Windows 10 to 11. AFAIR I initially bought Windows 7 way back when, and could freely upgrade to Windows 10 when it was released. So maybe even Windows 11 is still offered freely.

- Matti

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[Technogeezer]

 The setup very quickly Times out and then goes to Boot Manager unless "any key" is pressed to boot from the Windows install .iso "CD/DVD" (which can be accessed also via Boot Manager followed by "any key")

The "press any key" prompt and the short timeout is standard Windows installer behavior. It has nothing to do with Fusion - you'd see it on a physical PC as well.

VMware Windows 11 setup did not default to UEFI Secure Boot. Do you recommend that? Is it about the same as macOS sealed system snapshot that is used for booting?

It's up to you whether to enable Secure Boot or not. The VM seems to work fine with or without it. Secure Boot is not exactly the same as the macOS Seaked System volume. They are similar in that a signature is checked upon boot - for Windows it's the operating system. For macOS it's a signature of the entire sealed system volume. They are dissimilar in that Windows isn't run from a read-only snapshot like macOS is.

The old Windows 11-ready Windows 10 nor Windows 11 no longer automatically Cleans Up the Virtual Machine and that must be done manually via the General settings. Is that a side effect of those GPT, encryption or EFI updates?

Not sure. It might be due to changes in Fusion in general. It shouldn't be encryption related if you chose partial encryption. Partial encryption doesn't encrypt the virtual disks. Only some other files in the VM bundle that are related to the virtual TPM device are encrypted. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
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[wywh]

OK, after waiting a few days my old Windows 10 Home VM was freely upgraded to Windows 11 Home via Update & Security.

I renamed the VM from "Windows 10" via Virtual Machine > Get Info... (Command-I) > to Name: "Windows 11 Home". And in the same dialog also changed from "Windows 10 x64" OS > Microsoft Windows > to "Windows 11 Home x64".

I then deleted the Windows VM with the old name from Virtual Machine Library and chose "Keep File", and in the Finder renamed also the package to "Windows 11 Home x64.vmwarevm", opened it in VMware Fusion, booted to it and chose "I Moved It".

Following .vmx file lines were then changed to:

displayName = "Windows 11 Home x64"
guestOS = "windows11-64"
guestInfo.detailed.data = "architecture='X86' bitness='64' buildNumber='26200' distroName='Windows' distroVersion='10.0' familyName='Windows' kernelVersion='26200.6899' prettyName='Windows 11 Home, 64-bit (Build 26200.6899)'"

But there are still old Windows 10 remnants like below. I guess those can be ignored?

nvram = "Windows 10 x64.nvram"
extendedConfigFile = "Windows 10 x64.vmxf"
migrate.hostlog = "./Windows 10 x64-d0bc74ac.hlog"
guestOS.detailed.data = "bitness='64' buildNumber='19043' distroName='Windows' distroVersion='10.0' familyName='Windows' kernelVersion='19043.1237' prettyName='Windows 10 Home, 64-bit (Build 19043.1237)'"
vmxstats.filename = "Windows 10 x64.scoreboard"

In VMware Fusion 25H2 the old Windows 10 VM still has Settings... > General > checkbox [x] "Clean up disk after shutting down virtual machine" which does that automatically after shutting down the VM. But in all Windows 11 or Windows 11 -ready Windows 10 versions that item is missing and the user must do it manually via "Clean Up Virtual Machine" button.

- Matti

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[Technogeezer]

 When you changed the name of the VM in the Fusion GUI, the only thing that changed was the displayName attribute in the .vmx file. All of the underlying files that make up the VM did not change names (the .vmx, .vmem and .scoreboard files … plus the VM .vmwarevm bundle itselfj. That's normal and doesn't need to have any action taken.

Not sure why the cleanup item appears in your converted VM and not in the other ones. I'd err on the safe side and assume that I'd have to do a manual cleanup from time to time (not every time the VM  is powered off). Inspecting the VM configuration files among the VMs where it works vs where it doesn't might give a clue as to why this is happening. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
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