Forum Discussion
When Windows 11 will support 7gen i7-7500U intel processcor
When installing Windows 11 from ISO image - I got a warning about not meeting requirements but was able to hit Accept and proceed. Said it would make my PC "not supported" and would prevent me from getting updates. This is on a VMWARE virtual machine where the host is Windows 10 and CPU on host is the i7-7500u. I am able to get updates via "check updates" so far but not sure it will keep working. The inability to get security updates automatically if true will make this a no-go for me and I will just stick with Windows 10 until it is no longer supported.
Using vmware workstation 15.5.6 with vTPM device enabled which requires UEFI boot and the VM to be encrypted. With vmware workstation 16 allows vTPM without full encryption. This has many problems like not being able to move the VM to another machine easily but it should be a fair test of any issues due to the CPU.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/installing-windows-11-on-devices-that-don-t-meet-minimum-system-requirements-0b2dc4a2-5933-4ad4-9c09-ef0a331518f1
And this may explain why these 7th gen CPUs are not being supported (was spectre/meltdown fixed in gen 8 or gen 9?). These CPUs have vulnerabilities that allow taking advantage of the Speculative Execution and Branch Prediction features. This required work-arounds in the software that Microsoft does not want to have to live with. Neither does Intel. I am betting Windows 11 does not have work-around for these bugs and that's why its not supporting these CPUs. Windows 10 (v1809) software mitigation is probably not in Windows 11.
https://www.techarp.com/articles/meltdown-spectre-cpu-flaws/