Forum Discussion
When Windows 11 will support 7gen i7-7500U intel processcor
The answer is going to be maybe but officially no in the long term look at how they are going to end Windows 10 support in 2025 that give you a clue to where manufactures and Microsoft is heading.
Microsoft is wanting to end users to upgrade to new systems so they can unlock the features of chipset on the motherboards for their operating systems.
This is why they have hard requirement for TPM feature as well for security and support of new hardware that coming.
Also they are moving away from the old 32 bit support if you look at what they are preparing for the future is going to be 64 bit and possible home user will eventfully be on Operating system that only supports 128 bit operating systems while business will move to 256 bit operating system for security, speed and reliability.
Older Cpu though they support 64 bit they still relie upon the old 32 bit system i suspect future motherboard designs will only use the UEFI and will only support 64 bit and up as so they can ensure security and unlock the potentials of computing.
So i would suggest saving your money and do not waste your time on putting windows 11 on your current system buy new one use the older one for your older software,
eventfully we will all need to buy new motherboards and chipsets that coming.
Also they are moving away from the old 32 bit support if you look at what they are preparing for the future is going to be 64 bit and possible home user will eventfully be on Operating system that only supports 128 bit operating systems while business will move to 256 bit operating system for security, speed and reliability.
I work with C++ at the CPU level, multi-threading, memory management, etc. I can definitely tell you that there is not going to be a 128-bit CPU for general computing in our lifetime. I suggest you take a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2ke0o5/comment/clkf8sd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 or https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/bbxynw/comment/eksqof5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 answer on Reddit, it explains it quite nicely. There are sometimes need to do computations in 128-bit (highly accurate scientific calculations) but there are special hardware and software built for that and they use 64-bit instruction set to emulate 128-bit instruction set.
Also, 8th and newer gen Intel processors, which are supported by Microsoft for update to Windows 11, is similar in architecture as 7th gen Intel processors. Both use 64-bit instruction set and both can easily emulate 32-bit instruction set. So, if Windows 11 can be supported on an 8th gen Intel processor for the foreseeable future then it can also be supported on 7th gen Intel processor.
The main change between 7th gen and 8th gen Intel processors is that in 7th gen most of the i5 and i7 processors had only 2 cores while in 8th gen they had 4 cores. This definitely affects performance big time, I used to use 7th gen i5 for work for a few years now and it was a pain in the a**. I think it's because of this reason that Microsoft might exclude 7th gen processors (except for a few which are in Surface Studio 2). But this also doesn't make much of a sense when you look deeper, since processors like https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/213357/intel-pentium-gold-6500y-processor-4m-cache-up-to-3-40-ghz.html and https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/213356/intel-core-i310100y-processor-4m-cache-up-to-3-90-ghz.html are 2 core processors and have much lower TDP than 7th gen U series processors but they are still supported for Windows 11. I guess Microsoft is going the Apply way and taking seemingly unjustified decisions just to force consumers to buy new products.
ChaitanyaJha I am also unhappy to see the 7th gen processors unsupported. I have a i5-7260U and will be unhappy to depart the Windows world when support ends but it looks like this NUC will become a Linux desktop if MS doesn't grandfather this machine into Windows 11.
