Why is my Surface Laptop i7 not compatible with Windows 11

Vijaya Vasudevan 71

I am retired and just bought the top of the range Surface Laptop i7 three years ago. Now Windows 11 is being touted by Microsoft and when I run the PC Health Check, it says my laptop is not compatible? With 16GB memory and Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7660U CPU @ 2.50GHz how come it is not compatible. Does that mean my investment is just a waste?

Mike Patnode 41 Reputation points

2021-07-13T06:40:59.333+00:00

Because spending $2,699.00 only gets you 3 years. You need to send Microsoft more money now.
Mike Patnode 41 Reputation points

2021-07-13T06:46:44.26+00:00

That said, I strongly suspect the i7 Surface machines will be supported by the time the final release comes out. You can install it now if your in the Windows Insider program at the "dev" level.
Vijaya Vasudevan 1 Reputation point

2021-07-13T08:49:52.99+00:00

I hope you are right. As you pointed out Dev level is downloading Preview release
Tony 21 Reputation points

2021-10-13T07:51:20.913+00:00

I have the same problem. After 7 years with my old MacBook air I changed to a surface laptop. Went through 3 different OS Upgrades on the Mac and now MS tell me that I can’t upgrade one version on a 3 year old Microsoft device.

How does that encourage existing owners to want to purchase the Surface products again.
Jay Glasgow 1 Reputation point

2021-10-27T22:27:17.493+00:00

Here's a link to Microsoft's own support page! Where they list ALL of these models as being good for upgrade. Anyone from Microsoft answered why the Surface Pro 6 is stating it's NOT compatible when their support site says it IS compatible? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/which-surface-devices-can-be-upgraded-to-windows-11-76c3c125-82e0-4d1e-9550-12ed09f9058e
Jay Glasgow 1 Reputation point

2021-10-27T22:27:36.19+00:00

Here's a link to Microsoft's own support page! Where they list ALL of these models as being good for upgrade. Anyone from Microsoft answered why the Surface Pro 6 is stating it's NOT compatible when their support site says it IS compatible? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/which-surface-devices-can-be-upgraded-to-windows-11-76c3c125-82e0-4d1e-9550-12ed09f9058e
JetC 6 Reputation points

2021-10-31T20:00:33.35+00:00

Same issue - Exceedingly frustrated with Microsoft due to lack of future-proofing their recent own-brand machines for their own OS.

Having also spent >$2,500 three-years ago on what I thought was going to be a great machine with good longevity I now find that my Surface Pro (16GB memory and Intel Core i7-7660U CPU @ 2.50GHz) is not upgradeable to Windows 11.

MS, please rethink this; this is my third Surface Pro, I don't want it to be my last.
Colin Turner 1 Reputation point

2021-12-27T09:43:43.327+00:00

I too thought I was future proofing by buying the most expensive top of the line surface book only 3 years ago, with i7-7660 CPU and 16GB memory. Now I find it is already obsolete. This is obviously a case of planned obsolescence to force customers to buy a new computer if they want the latest operating system. So OK, you buy the latest 2022 Surface laptop with windows 11, but will it be compatible with windows 12 when it is released? Probably not, as it seems MS has committed to a planned obsolescence sales strategy. Time to move back to macbook, the apple walled garden isn’t great, but at least their OS is backwards compatible with earlier models.
Ahsan Seyal 6 Reputation points

2022-01-26T03:18:09.273+00:00

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6600U CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.81 GHz My Surface Laptop > also is not allowing me to upgrade to Windows 11. Very sorry to see this restriction from Microsoft. What will happen if I create the media and force the install will it not install at all or just not supported?
Tony Farnum 1 Reputation point

2022-04-02T22:49:34.297+00:00

I am in a similar bind and bought 2 Surface Pros as I travel for international work and have had to return my earlier machine because of a battery problem which left me in a bind as I couldn't mail it from the country i was in.

This is a real pain and I have been using Surface Pros since the very first one as they sit very neatly on long haul flight seat tray tables which allows me to write up my mission reports.

Is it not possible to upgrade the processors?
Ruth M 1 Reputation point

2022-04-26T21:17:24.27+00:00

I have a Surface Book 2 -- about 3 years old. I woke to the Win 11 update happening without me. Believing/hoping since I have an MS product, it should be ok. I didn't get any errors...not right away. But if I leave my pc on for a while, it goes into sleep mode, I return and can no longer use the touchscreen. Sometimes it'll return when I close the lid for a few minutes and reopen, but not always. Also, my pc no longer hibernates/sleeps when the lid is closed -- it just burns pretty hot. Some issues obviously. I'm likely not recalling other issues. All for a few aesthetic updates that I can see, while reducing even further the amount of customization one can readily do. Argh. I haven't seen an update on the driver for the touchscreen, apparently, mine is the latest. I'd like to see more fixes rolling out by MS asap.

So, for those wanting to update to 11...I'd say take your time, its got bugs.
Guktian Guk 1 Reputation point

2022-04-28T14:02:17.543+00:00

Likely a "safe boot" setting in the BIOS
Had the same problem, went into BIOS and set safe boot to standard and something else blah blah windows compliant.
After that it installed normally.
Ruth M 1 Reputation point

2022-04-28T14:23:12.107+00:00

oh. ok, I'll check that out. Since it installed during the busiest time of my life, I've just barked about it and haven't looked into it too much. I'll be able to give it a bit more time in two weeks or so. Thank you!
Terry 1 Reputation point

2022-09-07T03:12:42.523+00:00

I am in the same boat with my surface. I will never buy another surface laptop. complete joke, just unbelievable. I will just migrate to a higher end chromebook when support ends for windows 10. Nice hardware but won't miss it.

18 answers

optodata 11 Reputation points

2021-10-23T18:16:44.91+00:00

You can run Win11 on older Surface Pro devices by adding a single registry key at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup. Add a DWORD 32-bit key called AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU and set it to 1. See this article for more details: https://www.pcguide.com/windows-11/how-to/allowupgradeswithunsupportedtpmorcpu/

I also upgraded the TPM1.2 on my Surface Pro 3 (2015) to TPM 2.0 so the only limiting factor remaining was my i7-4650U CPU. The firmware update installer and instructions are here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/install-and-use-the-surface-pro-3-trusted-platform-module-tpm-update-tool-d5e52c61-c7ec-0544-b6e9-e0e0b85cbc10

Here's proof that a Surface Pro 3 can run Win11 :)
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Ryan O. Gardner 11 Reputation points

2021-11-16T00:49:29.193+00:00

Don't know why this isn't upvoted more. After searching all over the place, this was what worked for me! Thank you optodata-5136!
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Paul Fried 16 Reputation points

2021-10-04T15:44:55.06+00:00

First time I am really disappointed from Mircosoft, bought the Surface to be "Future" proof and now this ...
Also using the i/-7660U with TPM2.0 enabled, so what is the point?
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James S. Brown 6 Reputation points

2021-10-05T18:52:02.157+00:00

Also have the most powerful Surface Pro 3 with W10 Pro installed...TPM is enabled and the W11 compatibility check only shows the processor (i7-4650U) as being incompatible...WTF...as there are lesser (and older) processors that show as being compatible! Hey @Microsoft - is this just an oversight..(??)
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Nigel Kroiter 1 Reputation point

2021-10-05T20:49:16.837+00:00

As I understand it there are no CPUs older than 8th generation that are supported aside from a very select few 7th gen chips. That being said, my understanding is that you will still be able to upgrade to Windows 11 by manually downloading the iso file and installing it.
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Nigel Kroiter 1 Reputation point

2021-10-05T01:15:41.323+00:00

I also have the same model Surface Pro. As ridiculous as it is, Microsoft are not supporting it for Windows 11, however aside from the 7th gen CPU, it meets all other requirements. I read an article (link below) that said that unsupported systems would still be able to install Windows 11, but it just wouldn't come through as an automatic update and would need to be installed manually from an ISO file. I really hope that this is the case, as I have been running all the preview builds on my Surface Pro with no issues at all.
The link to the article is https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/youll-be-able-to-run-windows-11-on-older-pcs-if-you-install-the-update-manually/
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mohammadreza hiedary 1 Reputation point

2021-10-10T19:32:27.643+00:00

It is strange that Microsoft did not think of its customers when designing Windows 11!
Of course, maybe it is very normal !!
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