Windows 11 is dropping everything older than Intel 8th gen (Coffee Lake)

…or Ryzen 2000.

 

See supported CPU list:

Intel: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors

AMD: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-amd-processors

 

So basically any computer more than four years old is out of luck… and a lot of newer PCs are going to be out of luck too. Much worse support than macOS 12. Seems very arbitrary since Coffee Lake is essentially the same as Kaby Lake and Skylake. (Hardware protection against Spectre etc wasn’t introduced until 9th-gen Coffee Lake-S.)

 

Surprised this isn’t getting more attention, it seems like a much bigger deal than the TPM thing. Gotta think that Microsoft is eventually going to compromise on this one.

Conversation 19 comments

  • navarac

    16 September, 2021 - 3:04 am

    <p>Sorry, I’m trying to polite, but if you are surprised that this is not getting much attention, your attention must have been elsewhere. Paul and everyone else has been saying this for months now.</p>

    • tdemerse

      16 September, 2021 - 5:07 pm

      <p>Right? This was big news the day Windows 11 was announced.</p>

      • vivienm

        18 September, 2021 - 2:44 pm

        <p>Technically, it was big news the WEEK after Windows 11 was announced. The big news the day of the announcement had to do with unclear TPM requirements; it was only a day or two later that people clued into this idea that there might be a hard processor age floor.</p>

  • sevenheaven

    16 September, 2021 - 6:25 am

    <p>Moop said:- &gt; <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">So basically any computer more than four years old is out of luck &lt;</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Or ‘in luck’ more like, giving Microsoft’s previous history of chaos in Windows 8 and Windows 10.</span></p>

  • kshsystems

    Premium Member
    16 September, 2021 - 8:33 am

    <p>Microsoft has spent so many years stuck in the "Backward compatibility" lane that they have been completely unable to move the platform forward. There has been more than enough time to migrate past WOW32. Or how about mixing up the disk partitioning scheme to include a system partition and user partition to protect the system integrity?</p><p> </p><p>Think of the number of different platforms and the size of the testing pool Microsoft must need. if this in some small way advances the platform, then i think it is worth a sort term inconvenience.</p>

    • Hifihedgehog2

      16 September, 2021 - 10:43 am

      <p>How does dropping support for some processors while inexplicably backpedaling for others have any relation to WOW32, disk partitioning and so on? Realize that the insanity regarding the support cutoff is not a logical straight line in the sand but a squiggly mess of a techie preschooler. Microsoft obviously didn’t think their support list through because they were already forced to backpedal on not offering 7th Gen Intel processor support which would have left their precious Surface Studio 2 out in the cold. So they ended up adding support for a select handful of 7th Gen processors but–get this–while leaving the other 7th Gen processors out for absolutely no logical technical reason whatsoever. Clearly, these squiggles drawn in the sand are arbitrary without rhyme or reason when they say no to most and yes to some in processors in the same family sharing the identical features and capabilities. If you think this is for support convenience, you are sadly mistaken. They are clearly in bed with the hardware manufacturers who want guaranteed PC sales by forcing people owning older hardware to upgrade to newer hardware when there is no rational reason to restrict the hardware from upgrading.</p>

  • sherlockholmes

    Premium Member
    16 September, 2021 - 10:55 am

    <p>Im using a Mac Mini since yesterday ……..</p>

    • navarac

      16 September, 2021 - 12:13 pm

      <p>Not an Apple fan myself, but enjoy to non-W11 experience !!</p>

      • sherlockholmes

        Premium Member
        16 September, 2021 - 12:42 pm

        <p>So far so good. Its a big change. But Windows 11 is worse then Windows 10 ever was. </p>

    • sentinel6671

      Premium Member
      16 September, 2021 - 10:37 pm

      <p>Good for you.</p>

    • usman

      Premium Member
      17 September, 2021 - 8:59 am

      <p>Look forward to it not receiving support in 5-7 years ?. You’ve basically walked into the same problem you tried to avoid.</p>

  • polloloco51

    16 September, 2021 - 1:16 pm

    <p>I guess it can be safely said, <em>WINDOWS 11 IS THE FIRST VERSION OF WINDOWS, MICROSOFT DOESN’T WANT YOU TO HAVE!</em></p><p><br></p><p>Unless you buy an entirely new PC or have a only a 3 year old one.</p><p><br></p><p>I hope Microsoft allows at least 6th and 7th generation Intel processors (w/TPM &amp; secure boot)! That would be the very least they could do for their loyal users! People like me, who have been using Windows since the 1990s!</p><p><br></p>

    • epguy40

      28 September, 2021 - 11:19 pm

      <p>the only 7th gen Intel CPUs Microsoft are allowing to install &amp; run Win11 are the i7-7800X &amp; i7-7820 series as noted on their Win11 supported Intel processors page:</p><p>docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors</p><p><br></p><p>but THAT alone does not bother me as I can just manually download &amp; install Win11 on older AMD/Intel CPUs by using the newest MediaCreationTool bat script file to create custom Win11 install media that bypasses the CPU &amp; TPM compatibility checks:</p><p><br></p><p>www.ghacks.net/2021/09/27/mediacreationtool-bat-download-windows-11-isos-and-bypass-system-compatibility-checks/</p>

  • StevenLayton

    17 September, 2021 - 1:44 am

    <p>Windows 10 is supported until 2025, at which time a 4 year old computer now will then be 8 year old, a more reasonable time to then be looking for a new supported PC that can run Windows 11. </p>

    • matthewitt

      Premium Member
      17 September, 2021 - 10:39 am

      <p>This right here. </p><p><br></p>

    • vivienm

      18 September, 2021 - 2:43 pm

      <p>It’s thanks to people like you that Microsoft is pushing full steam ahead on this.</p><p><br></p><p>Why is it okay that our nice high end destops with 7th-gen Intel processors or first-gen Ryzens are stuck on Windows 10 because you think that by 2025, we’ll want to replace them? Maybe we will, maybe we won’t. </p><p><br></p><p>But… why is it okay for those machines to be in this weird moribund "sure, you can get security updates, but if anybody develops anything that requires Windows 11, you’re not going to be able to run it" state for 4 years? </p><p><br></p><p>I have a mid-2014 MacBook Pro here, it is getting dropped in Monterey but got full Big Sur. So my mid-2014 Mac got the 2020 OS update, six years later. My 2017 i7 7700 is … not getting… the 2021 OS and you think it’s okay because I can still get security updates for four years?!?!?!?</p><p><br></p><p>Also, I have 3 Sandy Bridge laptops, all with 16 gigs of RAM, SSDs, replacement OEM batteries, etc. Those machine were bought in the first half of 2011. They are now 10 years old and will be able to get security updates for a further 4 years, giving them a reasonable-enough 14 year lifecycle. </p><p><br></p><p>My i7 7700 will have… about half that lifespan thanks to this arbitrary, greedy, irrational decision by Microsoft.</p><p><br></p><p>I consider myself an enthusiast. Being told that my expensive, high-quality hardware being obsoleted and can’t run a new OS 4 years after I built it is an insult, especially when total garbage processors like N4050s are supported. The fact that security updates are still available until 2025 might be okay if this was my grandmother’s PC. As an enthusiast, that is NOT acceptable. </p><p><br></p><p>The irony is that when I built this machine in 2017, I thought I might get 10 years of life out of it. (It replaced a system with a motherboard acquired in 2008 that had been lightly upgraded in 2010). Picked parts, e.g. a mobo with a Thunderbolt 3 controller, based on what I thought might be useful for a 10 year lifecycle. Even by your logic, after 8 years, it is a complete brick, unable to be used without huge security risks. And after FOUR years, it is in this moribund state…</p><p><br></p><p>This is the first time in my 26 years of using Windows that they have ever pulled this kind of garbage. Every previous version, if anything, it was the other way around – they allowed running it on processors too slow and half the RAM that any reasonable person thought it needed. (See, e.g. XP, which had minimum RAM requirements of 128 megs IIRC but needed 512-1GB to be happy) So, any half-reasonable hardware, you could try to run the new Windows on, and… if it was slow and RAM-starved, that was your problem. </p><p><br></p><p>Now? Well, the N4050 with 4 gigs of RAM and eMMC storage gets Windows 11 while my i7 7700 (with secure boot/TPM 2.0, etc, not that any of that matters) with 64 gigs, NVMe SSD, 3070 GPU, etc does not.</p><p><br></p><p>And you are telling me that’s okay because I can keep running Windows 10 for 3 years. Thanks.</p>

      • StevenLayton

        19 September, 2021 - 6:08 am

        <p>@vivienm, People like me? Ouch, lol. I suspect any reply I make will simply infuriate you even more, and I’m not sure we’ll reach an agreement as I do think a line in the sand needs to be drawn, no matter if it’s a little painful. But I tell you what, when I’m at the next Microsoft board meeting, helping making these dastardly decisions, I have a word to see if I can’t change their mind. Have a wonderful evening.</p>

  • sevenheaven

    17 September, 2021 - 7:15 am

    <p>Steven said: &gt;….<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">8 year old, a more reasonable time to then be looking for a new supported PC that can run Windows 11&lt;</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Agreed.</span></p><p><br></p><p>As my name implies, I’ve so far managed to avoid the chaos of W8/10 and 11. I’ve been happily running a 32bit Windows 7 Asus Seashell netbook (1.5gh CPU and 2gb Ram 😉 …with a large external screen and keyboard etc attached. I’ve ran this tiny PC every day for 11 years – with Windows updates disabled – and touch wood I’ve never had a single issue with viruses or hacks or PC breakdown issues. This Asus PC boots in 20 seconds, far far quicker than many of the Windows 8 and W10 PC I”ve repaired over the years. </p><p>On the rare occasion that I use online banking I use Linux Mint nowadays since W7 ‘expired’ recently. But before that I used my W7 PC for online banking etc with no problems at all.</p>

  • epguy40

    22 September, 2021 - 1:42 pm

    <p>check out this recent article from The Verge – Windows 11 won’t stop older PCs, but it might make you sign this waiver:</p><p>www.theverge.com/2021/9/21/22686457/windows-11-health-check-compatible-supported-cpu-old-pc-waiver</p>

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