XMRig on Windows 11: What Is Different

Windows 11 runs the same XMRig build as Windows 10, but three of its security defaults change what you see on the first launch. Here is what each one does and how to deal with it.

Memory integrity and the MSR driver

Core isolation with memory integrity enabled blocks the helper driver XMRig uses to apply MSR tuning on Ryzen and recent Intel processors. The miner still runs; the log simply reports that MSR could not be applied, and you lose part of the achievable RandomX hashrate. You can either accept that, or turn memory integrity off in Windows Security — a real reduction in the protection Windows offers, so treat it as a deliberate trade-off on a dedicated mining machine rather than something to switch off on your everyday laptop.

Smart App Control

On clean Windows 11 installs, Smart App Control may refuse to start unsigned executables outright. XMRig is not signed with a commercial certificate, so it falls into that category. If the executable vanishes or silently refuses to start on a fresh system, check whether Smart App Control is in enforcement mode.

Large pages

The privilege model has not changed, but Windows 11 is stricter about when it takes effect. Run the miner as administrator; if the log still shows large pages unavailable, sign out and back in so the policy change applies, then relaunch. The startup block prints whether it succeeded — read it rather than assuming.

Power and scheduler behaviour

Windows 11 parks and moves threads more aggressively, and on hybrid Intel CPUs the scheduler may place mining threads on efficiency cores. Pinning threads with CPU affinity avoids this, and setting the power plan to a high-performance profile stops the machine from downclocking during long runs.

Checklist for a Windows 11 desktop

Extract the archive to a stable folder you own.
Unblock the archive if Windows marked it as downloaded.
Launch as administrator and read the memory block in the startup log.
If MSR fails, decide consciously about memory integrity.
Pin threads if the CPU has performance and efficiency cores.
Set a power plan that does not throttle sustained load.

General Windows setup lives on the Windows page; wider problems are covered in troubleshooting.