Hardware Compatibility
Windows 11 on Intel 7th Gen (Kaby Lake): Why It's Not Officially Supported
Install Windows 11 on Intel 7th gen Kaby Lake processors despite lack of official support.
Published: 4/20/20256 min readUpdated: 2/1/2026
Intel 7th generation Kaby Lake processors were controversially excluded from Windows 11 support despite minimal architectural differences from supported 8th gen.
Why Isn't Intel 7th Gen Officially Supported?
Intel 7th gen Kaby Lake isn't officially supported due to Microsoft's arbitrary CPU generation cutoff, not technical limitations. Performance is 95%+ identical to supported 8th gen.
The exclusion of Intel 7th gen from Windows 11 support is controversial. Both 7th and 8th gen are 14nm Skylake derivatives with Intel PTT (firmware TPM) support.
Conclusion
Intel 7th gen Kaby Lake is fully capable of running Windows 11 with excellent performance.
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