In context: Asus recently began rolling out BIOS updates to its motherboards to help users prepare for Windows 11. Those updates are beginning to roll out to older Intel CPU motherboards than any Microsoft currently lists as Windows compatible. 11. This could end. making the already controversial system requirements even more confusing.
Since Microsoft listed its system requirements for Windows 11, there has been some uncertainty surrounding its Trusted Platform Module (TPM) requirement and the need for a relatively recent CPU.
Motherboard manufacturers like Asus have started issuing new BIOS firmware to help users, mainly by automatically enabling TPM. Asus even set up a page list Windows 11 compatibility status for all your motherboards, which continues to update as you test and release more BIOS patches.
Microsoft’s list of officially supported Intel CPUs says Windows 11 requires 8th generation core processors (Coffee Lake) and later. However, Asus shows that it is updating motherboards for Intel 7th (Kaby Lake) and 6th (Skylake) generation processors to add compatibility with Windows 11.
Several Z270 motherboards, which are designed for Kaby Lake and Skylake processors, received a beta BIOS on August 10 for compatibility with Windows 11. The same happened with some H270 and B250 motherboards. These and many others are included in a section of the Asus compatibility list with the message “The following motherboards are compatible with Windows 11 under current testing. [sic] is subject to operating system support or the availability of third-party drivers. “
Microsoft has admitted Some of the confusion, saying that the 8th Gen Core is the oldest series of processors that will surely meet Windows 11 requirements, but they plan to at least test things out with Kaby Lake CPUs.
It appears that Microsoft is still not entirely sure how far it wants to extend support for Windows 11, while meeting its security goals. Hopefully everyone will have a clearer picture by the time the operating system is released to the public later this year.