Being an iteration that included radical changes, Microsoft announced that Windows 11 will not bring joy to the older PCs. Among the CPUs that were cut off the list are the 6th gen and 7th gen Intel processors. AMD processors were in no good shape either. But that didn’t stop enthusiasts from getting their hands on the next-gen Windows, and they went for it anyway. Previously, Microsoft allowed these older PCs to at least test out the new Windows version. But as we move closer to the stable release date, the process of kicking out unsupported PCs has begun.

Windows 11 dark mode

Earlier, users who were already in the Dev and Beta channels with unsupported hardware were allowed to stay in the program till the stable version was out. Upon its arrival, they’d have to be turned back to Windows 10 21H2 build. But now, Microsoft has already begun to filter out ineligible devices and prompting them to go back to Windows 10 to keep the update cycle running.

Microsoft continued to air pre-release builds on unsupported CPUs, namely 20H2, 21H1, and 21H2 which eventually became the stepping stones to the big upgrade, apparently letting a big chunk of ineligible devices be part of the Windows 11 program. This explains why the company allowed Insiders and Dev channels to sneak into the new version. With the older PCs testing out the earlier builds, Microsoft used that data to formulate a conclusion that eligible PCs had negligible crashes, at around 0.2%, while ineligible PCs had 52% more crash incidents.

So now, it’s time to move back to where your older PCs belong. For the systems that are being deported back to Windows 10, you may still have a chance to run Windows 11 by installing it via ISO.

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