The list of supported Intel processors the company provides is not exhaustive, and the most recent changes should have little to no impact on the average Windows 11 user. The 44 processors that are no longer officially supported are all Intel Xeon CPUs from the company’s server range.
But the removal of CPUs from the list of supported hardware is significant, and the change was spotted by Deskmodder.de (and shared by Ghacks).
Back in June, the company updated the list of processors from AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm. Now another update to Windows 11 system requirements means that large numbers of Intel CPUs are no longer supported — 44 models in total.
Though these processors are mostly having to do with the Intel Xeon server range, one can’t escape the fact that a great deal of other Intel processors have been nix’ed in the past. The Intel i7 7700 processor series is a great recent example of this. Microsoft’s lists of non-supported processors might come across as somewhat nonsensical when you stop to consider that the Intel multi-core i7 7700 processor @3.60 GHz (tpm 2.0) isn’t supported while yet the multi-core Intel i5-4300 @2.60 GHz (tpm 1.2) is supported.
Seems to be no rhyme or reason for this. One might think that latest generation Intel processors would make the cut, but according to Microsoft, the latest generation processors don’t necessarily mean that you’ll be running Windows 11 any time soon.
Again, it seems that five year old processors are too insecure for use with Windows 11, but Microsoft still clings to SMBv1, SMBv2, and SMBv3 in Windows 10/11 which was incorporated into DOS for networking 32 years ago. Originally created in the early ’80s for file sharing in DOS. Despite multiple announcements over the past 10+ years that Microsoft would end SMBv1, SMBv2, and SMBv3, these still remain, even in Windows 11.
End of life for Windows 10 is 2025 so you still have time to shop a bit before making the leap to Windows 11. If you’re in the market for (the often times cheaper) Intel, you might want to pay close attention to the processors that Microsoft currently supports. You might also want to note that these lists change like the weather lately so checking for support should come closer to your actual purchase of a new unit.
Here’s the list for the AMD processors that Microsoft currently supports.
When it comes to Microsoft Windows 10 and 11, I’ve had the better luck with AMD. Though Microsoft has it’s own AMD hit list, it isn’t as large as the Intel hit list is.
If you’re tired of the Microsoft Whack-A-Mole game with regard to supported processors, or if you’re tired of the generally clunky operating systems that Microsoft provides, you might do well looking into certain other alternative operating systems like MacOS or Linux.
