Thinkpads Forum

I installed windows 11 Pro on my ThinkPad L570. 4GB RAM, 1TB M.2 and has an Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7300U CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.70 GHz. Windows 11 Pro build 21H2, OS Build 22000.2538. I installed windows 11 Pro by my windows 11 Pro OEM install disc "Yes Microsoft still has DVDs for OEM" It was a normal install, shows format said partition and then installed windows and then the paper airplane setup your name and activate windows screen. Not once it said this machine can't run this version of windows and did no hack to bypass install. Not sure if it was the OEM DVD or not. But from what I read Intel 8th gen is the lowest windows 11 will fully support. I had windows 11 on this machine for over a year "Don't use it much" and I haven't gotten a message saying this machine isn't supported. So is this cpu supported?

I need to get a copy of that DVD.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285637995926?h ... R6zhq8edYw

Windows 11 will probably be the last OS to come on disc from what I am hearing as new desktop and laptops are shipping without disc drives anymore. Retail you still get USB flash drive.

The installer from the bootable install media won't check the computer's CPU model/generation and if the TPM is version 2.0.
In that case the minimum TPM version required is 1.2. Bypass is still required if a TPM is not present at all.
Microsoft even mentions this in their knowledge base article:

Important: You should verify that your device meets minimum system requirements before you choose to boot from media, because it will allow you to install Windows 11 if you have at least TPM 1.2 (instead of the minimum system requirement of TPM 2.0), and it will not verify that your processor is on the approved CPU list based on family and model of processor.

The only 7th gen laptop CPU "officially" supported by Windows 11 is i7-7820HQ. Several Skylake and Kabylake desktop workstation SKUs also appear on the supported processor list.

I think Microsoft should support 7th gen as all my ThinkPads T570, T470, L570, L470 are the 7th gen CPU and not the 6th gen and the 7th gen supports UEFI, TPM 2.0 and Secure boot. I ran health check on my L570 as it wasn't getting the latest Win11 build, and it shows everything is green but the CPU. "Not Supported" But Microsoft's big thing when W11 came out was you need TPM 2.0, which these machines have. You can bypass to get the latest build of 11 but you have to do the same thing when bypassing a windows 11 install on unsupported hardware. For me I have the OEM Windows 11 Pro disc and it didn't say CPU not supported and installed fine. But I just reinstalled Windows 10 Pro and just left it at that, as I am not sure if security updates will install or not as well being on an old build.

I think when Windows 12 comes out we may get into the smartphone cycle where only Android OS XX can update to this android XX version and then cannot update to latest unless get a newer phone every 3 years.

Merrick1 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 12:43 am

It's interesting how Windows 11's support for 7th gen CPUs is limited to specific models, while some Skylake and Kabylake desktop variants make the cut. Compatibility criteria can be quite nuanced.

There's a very specific reason for this, as mentioned in this Ars Technica article from 2021:

If the decision to support one specific 7th-generation Core i7 laptop processor strikes you as odd, you don't need to look far for an explanation—this just happens to be the CPU included in Microsoft's Surface Studio 2, which Microsoft still sells but has not updated in three years.