question about Intel 7th gen and Windows 11

I’m confused by Microsoft officially supporting some 7th gen Intel chips but not others. My understanding is, they had to do lots of compatibility and reliability testing in order to give those few 7th gen chips the “official support” rubber stamp, but why wouldn’t the rest of the 7th gen Intel chips also be included then? If a few 7th gen chips are officially supported, that should mean all 7th gen chips should be officially supported. Is there anyone that can explain? I am far from an expert as you can see, I’m just curious.

Eager to hear responses 🙂

Conversation 19 comments

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    31 August, 2021 - 1:22 pm

    <p>It runs fine. </p><p><br></p><p>I’ve seen it running as a daily driver on 3rd and 4th gen chips and it runs more smoothly than 10 on all of them. I have it running on a weak little A5 APU powered ThinkPad and it’s perfectly fine there as well. </p>

    • willr

      31 August, 2021 - 3:07 pm

      <p>But why are only a few of the 7th gen chips getting official support? What’s the difference? No one is explaining this</p>

      • moop

        02 September, 2021 - 1:36 am

        <p>There is no technical reason for the CPU cutoff, it’s purely about selling new PCs. They gave away the game when they choose the cutoff at 7th gen chips, because Intel 8th gen and Intel 7th gen are absolutely technically identical except for a slightly improved manufacturing process.</p><p><br></p><p>What Microsoft cares about is that some new computers are still being sold with 8th gen processors, but generally not with 7th gen processors. They want every new computer someone buys to be able to run Windows 11. They would prefer everyone else buys a new PC.</p><p><br></p><p>Again, they gave away the game when it was pointed out that they’re still selling the Surface Studio with a 7th gen chip, at which point they came up with bullshit reasons why it happened to be only 7th gen chip they would support.</p><p><br></p><p>I mean, from a business point of view it makes sense. The only successful consumer business model for Windows is selling licenses with new PCs, so it makes sense that they’d want to encourage that. And things like TPM 2.0 and eliminating 32-bit support do make sense, but wouldn’t do enough to encourage new PC sales. So for their choice of CPU cutoffs, don’t go looking for technical reasons that simply don’t exist.</p>

  • Sprtfan

    31 August, 2021 - 1:39 pm

    <p>Latest news says that Microsoft might supply updates for systems that don’t meet the requirements though. I’d be fine running it on a 7th gen chip as long as I know I’d still get updates. It seems really strange not to give updates but the last statement from Microsoft was that they would not I believe</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      31 August, 2021 - 1:50 pm

      <p>The statement is they may not. Which to me means they will at the start, but if something comes up in the future they can cut it off.</p>

      • epguy40

        06 September, 2021 - 2:04 pm

        <p>we’ll see if that holds true when Windows 11 is publicly released on October 5</p>

  • ringofvoid

    31 August, 2021 - 2:42 pm

    <p>The "logic" they’re using is apparently based off which chips have which SPECTRE/Meltdown mitigations. It doesn’t seem to be consistent. The idea seems to be around drawing a line in the sand for security support purposes not for any kind of CPU performance.</p>

    • epguy40

      31 August, 2021 - 2:46 pm

      <p>that’s right. It is NOT about CPU performance, it’s about CPU SECURITY…at least from MS’s point of view</p>

      • willr

        31 August, 2021 - 3:03 pm

        <p>Ok but aren’t all the 7th gen intel chips the same in terms of security? If some of the 7th gen chips are getting official support, why would the rest not? I’m pretty sure the 7th gen chips that are getting official support do not have security that is superior to the rest of the 7th gen family. I’m confused</p>

        • ringofvoid

          31 August, 2021 - 4:47 pm

          <p>Microsoft’s messaging has been all over the place. They have the desire to rip the band-aid off and drop support for older less secure CPUs but they lack the willpower to follow through. It’s a mess &amp; the nearly year long release process is going to be a mess. Stay on Win10 till it drops off support in 2025, then buy a new system with a 15th gen Intel CPU or equivalent AMD. They’ll have Win11 figured out by then</p>

        • darkgrayknight

          Premium Member
          31 August, 2021 - 5:03 pm

          <p>Not all 7th gen chips are the same. So no, their security is different depending on the chip. Why not let all 7th gen chips run? They could, and it would be preferable to many that they would do that. However, the line being drawn is only allowing a narrow set of 7th gen chips that either have improvements to their security or are potentially found on systems with other higher security improvements. This is their basic reason for this — improving hardware security for this new software. How much this actually is true vs any other arbitrary set of reasons is up for debate as well as the general necessity of these particular potential security issues.</p><p><br></p><p>Ultimately, if your PC isn’t up-to-par, then either wait for end-of-life of Windows 10 or buy a new processor (like an 8th gen) or purchase a whole new computer with Windows 11 on it.</p>

          • paradyne

            01 September, 2021 - 5:03 am

            <p>But they will let it run. ‘Support’ from MS literally means you can call their support line etc. and potentially get help or fixes rolled out as a result. It does not mean ‘can be installed and used on’. Typically your 2 years old machine is out of warranty and support anyway, so no real difference!</p><p><br></p><p>They also won’t offer it via Windows Update, but you’re free to manually install and use it (as an update or fresh install).</p>

  • harmjr

    Premium Member
    31 August, 2021 - 4:42 pm

    <p>Why isn’t Windows 10 just as unsecure as Windows 11 on those chips 7th gen and older???</p><p><br></p><p>Why are they not recalling those machines since its not secure? Because they are lying. They just want your money to buy a new device like you do a cell phone. Get the masses to spend $1000+ about every 3-4 years instead of 6-8years. </p><p>Do like they do for Android handsets just don’t let them update to the new version even if it will work on the hardware. 3 years of updates and that it. Throw away the device..</p>

    • ringofvoid

      31 August, 2021 - 4:55 pm

      <p>This is about convenience for Windows developers when working on security. Microsoft can tell them to build on TPM 2.0 because they can guarantee it is present. Microsoft can tell them not to worry about Spectre/meltdown because they can guarantee the hardware fixes are present. Other than potentially making it easier for them to secure Win11, there is no user benefit</p>

      • StagyarZilDoggo

        Premium Member
        02 September, 2021 - 8:47 am

        <p>Spectre/Meltdown HW mitigations are a spectrum, not a yes/no thing. The 8th gen doesn’t have any – these were released in 2017, before Spectre/Meltdown were known. The 9th gen has some HW mitigations; the 10th &amp; 11th gen have some more. It’s not a good reason to for Win11 to support them or not.</p>

      • vivienm

        12 September, 2021 - 12:59 am

        <p>Except TPM 2.0 isn’t guaranteed to be present – they are happily supporting virtual machines with no TPM (or no secure boot for that matter). </p>

  • ctn57

    02 September, 2021 - 11:30 am

    <p>window 10 is great ans scr</p>

  • polloloco51

    10 September, 2021 - 8:17 am

    <p>Windows 11 worked perfectly fine, on my 2017 Lenovo ThinkPad T470. With the exception of some UI bugs, here and there</p><p><br></p><p>I really hope Microsoft fixes Windows 11 before launch. There is no reason, in my view, to shut out especially 7th generation. Especially desktops and laptops, with all of the hardened security requirements (secure boot, TPM 2.0). It really makes zero sense. </p><p><br></p><p>If Windows 11 does run less than optimally. I am sure, Microsoft can send out some updates, to optimize the code and experience. </p><p><br></p><p>Really, if Windows 10 and 11, share the same code base. Windows 10 can run smoothly on Vista era Core 2 Duos. I really cannot see the actual reason, why Windows 11 cannot run on older 2010s processors. Unless, Microsoft cut out, a significant portion of code, that prohibits it from running, or the hard coded security disallows it, some how. </p>

    • vivienm

      12 September, 2021 - 12:58 am

      <p>No code has been cut out – Windows 11 will happily run on an "unsupported" processor, even with BIOS/MBR/no TPM, for as long as it’s in a virtual machine. </p><p><br></p><p>They’ve added a bunch of verifications to the installer, some of which, at least in the betas, can be overridden and some of which cannot. But those verifications are only on bare metal… </p>

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