Different users reported seer a Windows 11 watermark on unsupported PCs. According to some, this started after the Windows 11 February 2023 Updates.
February Last year, Microsoft began testing watermarks in the Settings menu, then placed them on the desktops of unsupported devices. The Redmond company continued this work in Build 22000.588which was released on the Beta and Release Preview channels a month later.
While this was removed in the final version of the Windows 11 2022 update, it appears that Microsoft is now rolling it out this year for different users. This month, numerous users using Windows 11 on unsupported devices shared seeing the watermark that reads: System requirements are not met. Go to Settings for more information.. Like last year’s tests, watermarks are found in the Settings menu and on device desktops.
Starting with build 22557, as of February 10, 2022, Windows 11 (2021) displays a permanent watermark on the desktop of PCs that do not meet the minimum system requirements: “System requirements not met. Please go to Settings for more information.” The message is also displayed in the Settings app. ?? pic.twitter.com/G0I8hSS911
—Windows on Windows (@wowstartsnow) March 11, 2023
This is confirmed through the changelog of the KB5017130 An optional update that Microsoft released on February 15 that instructs administrators on how to manage the “System requirements not met” message in their organization.
“Users in your organization may notice that the following message (watermark) is displayed on the desktop or in Settings: System requirements are not met. Go to Settings for more information,”says the post. “This problem occurs when the device hardware does not meet Minimum system requirements. As an administrator, you may want to disable the “System requirements not met” message… To do this, use the Group Policy editor or a device management solution.”
Interestingly, other reports claim that the watermark also appears even on devices that meet the minimum requirements for the Windows 11 update. However, different independent advisors from the Microsoft community explained that it could be the result of other issues, while that others said could be a bug.
“It could just be a caching issue or something, if some setting was changed in the BIOS,” one adviser saying.
On a positive note, those affected can remove the presence of the watermark from the Settings menu and desktop via a registry hack. These are the steps to follow:
- To get started, open Registry Editor using the taskbar search bar and click ‘Yes’ on the User Account Control prompt to open Registry Editor with administrator rights.
- Gonna: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\UnsupportedHardwareNotificationCache.
- Right click on SV2 DWORD in the right pane and select modify.
- Set the value data to zero (0).
- Click OK and reboot the device.
