Windows 11 Will Support 7th Generation of Intel Processors, But Not First AMD Zen Generation

The strict system requirements for Windows 11, which Microsoft has compiled with a focus on security, have undergone some changes: the OS will still support for some Intel processors of 7th Generation, but not the first generation of AMD Zen.

Let me remind you that the system requirements for Windows 11 in the summer trigger a flurry of criticism, and, among other things, the case was in the published lists of supported processors: Intel, AMD and Qualcomm. The problem was that 7th Gen Intel Core and 1st Gen AMD Ryzen processors were not on those lists. Microsoft has decided to stick with 8th Gen Intel, AMD Zen 2 and Qualcomm 7 and 8 series processors.

Now Microsoft has said that it has reconsidered this decision, but only partially. So, some Intel Core processors of 7th Generation were still added to the list, but the matter was limited to only this. The list was supplemented by:

1. X-series processors based on Skylake-X and Kaby Lake architectures, such as the Core i5-7640X and Core i7-7800X;
2. Xeon processors of the W series;
3. Core i7-7820HQ, with the caveat that systems with this processor must use DCH drivers.

It has to be said that Microsoft is using Intel’s Core i7-7820HQ processors in their $ 3,500 Surface Studio 2 devices, so it’s no surprise that this processor made it onto the compatibility list.

Unfortunately, this is where the changes end, as there is still no support for the first generation of AMD Zen, and most processors supported by Windows 11 were not released until late 2017 or early 2018.

However, there is some good news. It became known that it will be possible to manually install Windows 11 from an ISO image on an old computer (with officially unsupported hardware). That is, Windows 10 users running on non-compliant systems won’t be offered Windows 11 through Windows Update, but they can still upgrade or clean install if they download the ISO file themselves.

Let me also remind you that we wrote that Nvidia prompts users to cancel fresh Windows 10 updates due to graphics card issues, as well as that Vulnerability in Windows 10 damages HD after viewing a file.