A new information from OEMs reveals the intention of the Redmond firm to eliminate classic HDD-powered PCs from the market. Instead, new PCs with Windows 11 must use SSDs as the boot device. The deadline for the change is set somewhere in 2023.
The information comes from a recent report by industry analyst firm Trendfocus.
Microsoft didn't comment the situation yet. Officially, Microsoft didn't announce any change in hardware requirements for both consumers and vendors. There is no strict SSD requirement, yet OEMs have pushed back on the deadline.
For the storage device, Windows 11 only has the 64 GB or larger storage device requirement, without mentioning that it must be of the SSD type. However, some of the recent additions to Windows 11, including the Android subsystem, require SSD to be installed and available for use. The same is for DirectStorage.
Actually, the requirement of an SSD drive to store the system partitions makes sense. Windows performance on the classic HDD is just terrible slow. It is like a torture to boot and use it from a spinning drive.
OEMs are aware of the situation, so most modern devices have SSDs installed. Some models have a combined storage with an SSD for Windows, and a larger HDD for the rest. Still, there are cheaper low-end computers that only have a single HDD for everything.
The good thing about HDDs is their price. They are much cheaper, while provide you with a greater value of the storage space. But still they are slow.
Perhaps due to Microsoft's pressure on OEMs, most PCs that offer a hard drive option will become dual-drive devices, with SSD for the OS and HDD as a secondary drive. Obviously, there will be some price increase, but it will be notably in the lower-end machine segment of the market.
via tomshardware
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Your fixes to install the old taskbar on W11 are GREAT !
Could there be another option in the tab “START MENU STYLE” for the START button to function as the W11 START and search.
This would join the old and the new. The W11 START and SEARCH are not so bad.
If you could join your taskbar fix and allow the new W11 , there would be no need to swap and have to and log out each time. Big time savings.
Just hope MS don’t restrict if the hard disk drive will be use only as second storage for storing and backup precious files or even games downloaded from Steam.