Pentium 4 CPU upgraded to Windows 11

Windows 11 was officially released for free by Microsoft on October 5. However, only PCs and laptops equipped with Intel Gen 8 CPUs, AMD Zen 2 CPUs, and some Intel Gen 7 CPUs are supported to upgrade. This made many users extremely angry.

However, when some users check with PC Health Check - check if the computer can install Windows 11, it seems that Microsoft "re-allows" single-core Pentium 4 661 CPUs. and Intel's 3.6Ghz clock released in 2006 was suddenly supported to upgrade to Windows 11 for free.

Pentium 4 CPU upgraded to Windows 11 Picture 1

The reason may be that Microsoft has omitted the Pentium 4 CPU, not adding Intel's decades-old CPU to the list of CPUs that are not supported to upgrade to Windows 11. And so it has accidentally appeared in the list. List of supported CPUs upgrading to Windows 11 in PC Health Check.

Therefore, devices with Pentium 4 CPUs can be fully upgraded to official Windows 11. This shows that Microsoft seems to only check the user's device configuration against the database of the supported CPU list.

Some users after bypassing TPM 2.0 & Secure Boot requirements successfully installed Windows 11 on Pentium 4 661, they even received the latest Build 22000.282 of Windows 11.

Kareem Winters

Update 20 October 2021