[German]Microsoft has revised the list of supported CPUs – some AMD processors have been added, but Intel CPUs have fallen out of support. And there is a report or speculation that Microsoft might block the so-called "bypass solution" to install Windows 11 on systems that are not compatible in the future.
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Updated CPU support
Since the release of the operating system, Microsoft does keep lists of supported processors (see Windows 11: Hardware requirements). Systems that do not have any of the supported processors are excluded from the official upgrade to Windows 11 or from an installation. This has been known since the release of Windows 11. I have included below the links to these lists, which are as of July 25, 2023:
- Windows 11 Supported AMD Processors
- Windows 11 Supported Intel Processors
- Windows 11 Supported Qualcomm Processors
Personally, I don't follow the changes as I don't have a system with a compatible CPU. However, I came across this article at neowin.net over the weekend that addresses the issue of CPU support for Windows 11. The short version of the article content:
- Microsoft recently tweaked the CPU requirements that apply to Android apps running in Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA).
- Es wurden einige Intel CPU von der Liste der unterstützten Prozessoren entfernt. Dagegen habe Microsoft weitere AMD Ryzen-CPUs (einige sind bei AMD nicht mal erwähnt) in die Liste der unterstützten Prozessoren aufgenommen.
If you are interested in the details and want to know which Intel processors have fallen out of support, you can check neowin.net.
Will the ByPass mode be dropped in the future?
Windows 11 includes a check in Setup to determine if the target system is hardware compatible. Systems that do not meet the minimum hardware compatibility requirements are then denied installation or upgrade from older Windows systems.
The ByPass trick revealed by Microsoft
Users who still want to install Windows 11 on such hardware can, however, use the so-called ByPass trick and force the installation via certain registry entries. The colleagues from German site deskmodder.de, for example, have dedicated this article in detail to the possibilities of installing Windows 11 on incompatible hardware.
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In the meantime, there are tools like Rufus or Ventoy that can create a USB stick as installation media and immediately integrate the instructions for bypassing the hardware compatibility check. Installation media created with these tools should thus allow Windows 11 installation on non-compatible hardware.
This ByPass approach was even spread under the table by Microsoft at the launch of Windows 11 21H2 (see the blog post Windows 11: Microsoft specifies hardware requirements, no blocking on incompatible devices).
Basis for this information is the article Microsoft won't stop you installing Windows 11 on older PCs from The Verge. They must have had a special briefing by Microsoft, where the information was given that Windows 11 can also be installed on systems with older CPUs, which are not officially supported. It could only be in the future that such systems would no longer get updates, it was said in 2021.
Will the ByPass approach be dropped in the future?
It is only speculation at the moment, but Microsoft might force the use of compatible hardware for Windows 11 in the future. Indications can probably be found in the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25905, which is currently distributed in the Canary Channel. Microsoft has switched to the Gallium development branch for the operating system's substructure.
The colleagues from deskmodder.de were contacted by a user who still uses a Core 2 Duo T6500 as processor and could not install the new Windows Insider Preview despite the bypass trick. An AMD Turion II P650 was also rejected during the installation attempt. The folks at deskmodder.de describe in this post how they took the install.wim from the Canary Insider build and then integrated it into an install build from the Developer Channel (is still on the old Windows 11 development branch). After that, this version could be installed on the user's non-compatible systems either.
Specifically, this means that Microsoft (at least in the Canary builds of the Insider Previews) has started to block certain CPUs for installation. The ByPass solutions mentioned above no longer work there. We can take note of this and move on to business as usual.
At neowin.net, however, they have thought this thought further and come to the conclusion in this article that Microsoft could soon start blocking Windows 11 installation (e.g. in the 23H2 expected at the end of the year) on certain CPU types. I assume that at the latest in October 2025, when support for Windows 10 ends, this blockade will come on a broad front.
Similar articles:
Windows 11: Hardware requirements
Windows 11: Microsoft specifies hardware requirements, no blocking on incompatible devices
recently MS revised the supported intel processors list for win11 again as reported by neowin:
https://www.neowin.net/news/windows-11s-supported-cpu-list-restores-some-of-the-previously-removed-intel-processors/