Find Windows 11 Compatible Devices

The purpose of this guide is to provide a method of identifying device hardware compatibility with Windows 11 using PDQ Connect.

Overview

We will be creating a group that contains Windows 11 compatible devices and another with incompatible devices. We will accomplish this by performing the following steps:

1. Create a custom package that runs a modified version of the Hardware Readiness PowerShell script available from Microsoft Blog here. The script we will be using has been modified to output the results to registry entries for use in a later step.
2. Create a recurring automation that targets Windows 10 devices and runs the script on an interval.
3. Create a custom Registry Scanner that reads the results of the script for use by PDQ Connect. 
4. Finally, create groups that use the results found from the registry scanner to sort devices by compatibility. 

Download the Script

The Windows Compatibility script may be downloaded from the link below. 

Windows 11 Compatibility Script

To summarize, this script checks a device's hardware and outputs True or False based on whether it meets the Windows 11 requirements. If the result is False, it will also list the items that were found to be incompatible.

Lines 490-529 have been added to the original script to make the results available to PDQ Connect. This addition creates two registry values in HKLM:\SOFTWARE\PDQ\PDQConnect\CustomScanners to store the script output. These values will only be created if the machine is running Windows 10, as it is the only direct upgrade path to Windows 11. If the keys are created on a Windows 10 device that is later upgraded to Windows 11, they will be removed when the OS is updated and the script is rerun.

Create the package

After you have downloaded the script, create a new custom package to deploy it. 

1. Go to Packages > Create package. 
2. Click the drop-down arrow and then select "Add script step."
3. Click "Import .ps1" then upload the script downloaded from the link below. 
4. Give the package a name under Properties and then save the package. 

Setup an Automation

This step is optional, as you can run the script on demand to achieve the same result. However, creating an automation that runs at regular intervals ensures that the script will execute if any new Windows 10 devices are added to your PDQ Connect organization in the future. Additionally, it will clean up the registry keys after the machine is updated to Windows 11.

Go to Automations > Create automation. Search for and select the package you created above.  Select "Recurring" for the trigger type and configure the desired schedule. In most cases, this will not need to be ran often, and a frequency of every 2 weeks or longer will be fine.   Select the group that you wish the script to run on. It is recommended to target all Windows workstations. The reason is that the registry keys will only be created when the detected OS is Windows 10, and they will be cleaned up after they are updated to Windows 11. If you want to keep the keys on the Windows 11 systems, you could alternatively only target Windows 10 computers.  Give the Automation a name and click save.  Back on the Automations tab, click the kebab menu to the right of the automation and select "Run now." This will immediately run the script and create the registry keys used in the next step.

Configure the Registry Scanner

Now that you have ran these scripts on your Windows 10 devices, the next step is to create a Custom Registry Scanner that can pull those values and store them in Connect. 

Go to Scanners > Create scanner. Give the scanner a name and select "Registry" as the Type.  Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE as the Hive.  Enter the following in the Path field: SOFTWARE\PDQ\PDQConnect\CustomScanners Check the box next to "Value" and make sure the Match type is set to "All." Save the scanner to begin an automatic scan.

After a few moments, the machines will have completed the scan and the results should be available in PDQ Connect. If you would like to verify this, click on a Windows 10 device and then go to the Registry tab. If the script was ran previously and the Registry scanner was configured correctly, you should see two registry entries similar to those shown below. 

Create the Groups

Now the only step left is to create groups based on the data collected from the registry. We're going to create two groups: one to show devices that are Windows 11 Compatible, and another to show devices that are not. It's recommended to place these together in a folder for ease of viewing. 

• Go to Devices > Create Group.
• Give the group a name. In this example, I've named the two groups "Windows 11 Compatible" and "Windows 11 Incompatible." 
• Select "Dynamic" for the type. 
• Select "Windows" as the OS. 
• Configure the filters as shown below. They are identical with the exception of the bottom filter using a value of True or False. 
  
  Note: The registry filters are CASE SENSITIVE and should be typed exactly as shown. 

Below is a screenshot of the two groups placed together in a folder. 

This organization has 3 Windows 10 devices, 2 of which do not meet the hardware requirements of Windows 11 (these are Virtual machines without a TPM assigned) and one that does meet the requirements. These can now be easily identified by their group membership. If additional Windows 10 devices are added in the future, these will also be sorted into groups once the automation runs on schedule.