Microsoft Trims More CPUs From Windows 11 Compatibility List

Microsoft has updated its CPU compatibility list for Windows 11 24H2, excluding pre-11th-generation Intel processors for OEMs building new PCs. The Register reports: Windows 11 24H2 has been available to customers for months, yet Microsoft felt compelled in its February update to confirm that builders, specifically, must use Intel's 11th-generation or later silicon when building brand new PCs to run its most recent OS iteration. "These processors meet the design principles around security, reliability, and the minimum system requirements for Windows 11," Microsoft says.

Intel's 11th-generation chips arrived in 2020 and were discontinued last year. It would be surprising, if not unheard of, for OEMs to build machines with unsupported chips. Intel has already transitioned many pre-11th generation chips to "a legacy software support model," so Microsoft's decision to omit the chips from the OEM list is understandable. However, this could be seen as a creeping problem. Chips made earlier than that were present very recently, in the list of supported Intel processors for Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2.

This new OEM list may add to worries of some users looking at the general hardware compatibility specs for Windows 11 and wondering if the latest information means that even the slightly newer hardware in their org's fleet will soon no longer meet the requirements of Microsoft's flagship operating system. It's a good question, and the answer -- currently -- appears to be that those "old" CPUs are still suitable. Microsoft has a list of hardware compatibility requirements that customers can check, and they have not changed much since the outcry when they were first published.

Probably meltdown related

[ArmoredDragon]

Wouldn't be surprised if this is to enable them to remove the meltdown related crap.

Re:

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

I wonder what changed with these CPUs that they're no longer capable of running Windows 11?

Maybe its AVX2 or AVX-512 Foundation?

[drnb]

I wonder what changed with these CPUs that they're no longer capable of running Windows 11?

Wild speculation follows ...

AVX2 code can have very different performance as you move further back from gen 11 Intel CPUs. Perhaps Microsoft wants to make AVX2 a standard baseline target architecture for Win11?

Or maybe its AVX-512 Foundation that would be the baseline target architecture given Intel gen 11?

Re:

[Luckyo]

I don't think they're removing any actual CPU compatibility. They're changing OEM licensing. OEMs can only pre-install windows on machines that they can get licenses for from microsoft. This is microsoft requiring newer machines.

Everyone else can still install it on all compatible CPUs. That's down to what, gen 7 or gen 8 for intel?

So many gamers are gonna switch to Linux

[Shane A Leslie]

You only NEED Microsoft for work stuff. Nobody making art, music, or gaming absolutely has to use Windows unless the app will only runb on Windows, and there are Linux alternative or workarounds for almost every case. The longer Microsoft goes on with obsolete-ing perfectly functional hardware the more of that hardware will end up running Linux, and the more of the non-corporate--business related apps ( and games ) will just make Linux native versions as their primary compile with whatever extra steps for W

Re:

[Train0987]

If you're really making art you don't need a computer at all.

and the DRM / anit cheat code will move as well?

[Joe_Dragon]

and the DRM / anit cheat code will move as well?

Re:

[Baron_Yam]

If it does, at least it'll be optional and fractured.

I think some will

[rsilvergun]

But I think the majority are still stuck on windows. You still take a hit even running under proton even if it's a small one modern GPUs are crazy expensive right now so people are trying to squeeze every ounce of performance they can.

Also if you game online there's lots and lots of games you just can't play in Linux because the anti-cheat software doesn't work. As far as I know the big two fortnite and call of duty Don't a while Linux users. Although surprisingly marvel rivals is supported.

I'm not

Re:

[Uldis Segliņš]

It has been demonstrated time and time again, that performance in Wine is better than on Windows. Of course, that is not guaranteed, there are many elements at play, just saying that such argument is not realistic. Also opposing the DE argument. You don't go Gnome, yes, that has taken the road to Hell. Cinnamon works nice, hadn't got any worries for years. Not used KDE for some years, but when I used it, the file browser was unrivalled in functionality. Regex to list files so easily usable, that was nice, I

Re:

[markdavis]

>"Also I hate to say it but at the moment the state of Windows desktop environments is pretty dire."

I think you meant to say state of Linux desktop

>"Default gnome is laughably painful to use and KDE plasma while better still has a lot of annoying UI problems that make something as simple as browsing folders painful. I suspect in a few years in overhaul will get done and clean things up but just right at the moment it's kind of a pain to use Linux on the desktop"

There already has been an overhaul. It

Bottom Feeders Will Bottom Feed

[crunchy_one]

A friend brought by a new laptop he'd purchased from an ebay seller at a bargain price, wondering why it would hang while trying to complete the Windows 11 setup. I did a little investigation and discovered that this was "normal" behavior when attempting to setup Windows 11 on an unsupported CPU. The CPU in the laptop was a low-end Intel chip that was on the list of unsupported CPUs, yet the laptop builder had shipped it with Windows 11 pre-installed. I installed Windows 10 which worked, but at the end of t

Re:

[Train0987]

The "normal" behavior when attempting to install Win11 on an unsupported CPU is to immediately refuse to even begin installing.

Details, please.

[NotEmmanuelGoldstein]

... building brand new PCs ...

50% of Windows computers are running Windows 10: Which Microsoft is forcing people to 'upgrade' at the end of this year. How can Microsoft demand the latest CPU in a machine and allow a 2 year-old machines, to "upgrade"? This seems like an arbitrary demand for more-expensive parts in new equipment. And possibly, a plan for more control of someone's data.

... around security, reliability ...

A little more detail would be nice: What problems are fixed by an 11th-gen. CPU? IIRC, Spectre and Meltdown flaws were discovered after a year of use. There is nothing preventing the latest model CPU suffering the same fate.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

There are no details needed. If you're building a brand new PC and you want to put Windows 11 on it, you need to use an 11th gen CPU or newer.

If you have Windows 10, then you're doing an upgrade to Windows 11 (and this applies if you're going from Windows 11 23H2 to 24H2 as well - it's upgrading) in which case your CPU requirements are lower and you can go all the way back to 6th gen.

It's only if you choose to release a brand new PC for sale at Best Buy or whatever that comes with no OS beforehand do those

Re:

[evanh]

Most are not buying at all. 10 year old hardware is still perfectly adequate hardware.

Re:

[evil_aaronm]

Yep. I have a 27" iMac from 2012, I think, and it works fine with the Ubuntu I put on it for Jetson programming and management. A newer machine would really provide no benefit.

Hmmmm Everything seems fine on Linux

[big-giant-head]

Running Fedora 41 no issues. I'm running Ryzen. Rule 1) no Winblows Rule 2) No intel crap ..... So far it's working out quite well!

What's the backroom deal?

[Required Snark]

The only way this happens is if there is some hidden coordination between Microsoft and the CPU vendors. There's a quid pro quo going on.

Microsoft gets revenue from new licenses, has more lock in to the latest Windows release, and reduces cost by eliminating support for CPU variations. Chip vendors also benefit from forced upgrades and having an excuse to cut their very low end products and move to more expensive chips.

This how cartels extract guaranteed profit by controlling markets. When there's no effe

Re:

[Hecatonchires]

It's ensuring the existence of the TPM so they can really lock it down

Re:

[viperidaenz]

The TPM is on the motherboard and has nothing to do with the CPU. There's already a separate system requirement for a TPM

Re:

[crunchy_one]

Gen 8 or later Intel Core CPUs have TPM embedded in the processor. It's called Intel PTT and has all of the capabilities of TPM 2.0.

MS must force upgrades to make money

[renuk007]

In my opinion, the best OS MS ever made was Win7. It had an absolutely beautiful UI, and every "improvement" was shitty. It's possible to fix underlying problems without breaking everything else, but MS knows that if they don't break things, they can't then pretend to fix things and charge money for it. Windows 11 is absolute crap, and has 100% more unwanted bloat and bullshit than ever before. This affects the reputation of all the (formerly) great software engineers at MS, because very clearly it's the MB

Re:

[hyades1]

I know people who swear by Windows 7 in a virtual machine, in concert with other security measures to deal with bad actors.

Truth!

[tenplus1]

It has been known for some time that Microsoft doesn't care about it's user base, using any excuse to force them into buying newer systems that really aren't needed to run Windows at all apart from the built-in list of incompatibilities. At this point sticking to Windows 10 and bullet-proofing the system, or moving to a good Linux distribution would be the best option, rather than giving in to their ever increasing demands and abanoning your old hardware for a newer and shittier Windows 11 setup.