Windows 11 CPU Support Adjustment

Windows 11

5 Jul 21

The system checker tool from Microsoft has been a bit of a clustermess since it was first launched.

For those of you who haven’t been following along there was a tool released by Microsoft that ran in Windows 10 and told you if your system would be compatible with the forthcoming Windows 11 upgrade. Almost immediately problems arose where it didn’t tell you why exactly you were failing the test, but that you did. This was pulled an an update released that informed you as to which component was triggering the fail and many people discovered that it was their processor. Currently pre 8th gen Intel processors and Zen 1 chips aren’t suitable to upgrade. Specifically “To meet the principle, all Windows 11 supported CPUs have an embedded TPM, support secure boot, and support VBS”.

Since then Microsoft have released the following statement :

…we are confident that devices running on Intel 8th generation processors and AMD Zen 2 as well as Qualcomm 7 and 8 Series will meet our principles around security and reliability and minimum system requirements for Windows 11. As we release to Windows Insiders and partner with our OEMs, we will test to identify devices running on Intel 7th generation and AMD Zen 1 that may meet our principles. We’re committed to sharing updates with you on the results of our testing over time, as well as sharing additional technical blogs.

Hopefully this means that older CPUs, which aren’t really old in the grand scheme of things, will allow you to run Windows 11 when it appears. Whether you want a version of Windows that looks identical to the Mac OS and is heavily geared towards giving you Windows 8 style tiles of meaningless information is up to you.

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