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The official Microsoft page at Microsoft-Windows-11

states as requirement:

  • Processor 1 GHz or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible
  • 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC)

Does this mean there will be no 32-bit edition of Windows 11?

As far as I know, usually one can run 32 bit Windows on any CPU, so the CPU requirement may be totally unrelated.

I cannot find any data whether a 32 bit version will exist. I see unofficial downloads for both 32 bit and 64 bit, but these may well be not the final word. Does anyone have a definite official statement?

UPDATE

I found the following for Windows 10 at Windows 10 Requirements

Beginning with Windows 10, version 2004, all new Windows 10 systems will be required to use 64-bit builds and Microsoft will no longer release 32-bit builds for OEM distribution. This does not impact 32-bit customer systems that are manufactured with earlier versions of Windows 10; Microsoft remains committed to providing feature and security updates on these devices, including continued 32-bit media availability in non-OEM channels to support various upgrade installation scenarios

This is for Windows 10, not 11, but there seems to be a trend here. Logically it makes sense, but looking for official statements specifically for Windows 11 and certainty here.

The thing is - how does a customer upgrade to Windows 11 if he runs Windows 10 32 bit? That still is supported right now, per the above statement (on "non OEM channels").

gronostaj
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nepdev
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    @Smock If I'm reading that correctly, you are saying that some versions of Windows 10 for the amd64 platform don't support running 32-bit x86 code? If yes, can you provide a citation? I couldn't find anything on Google and I'm pretty sure I'm running some 32-bit software on Windows 10 21H1 x64. – gronostaj Jun 25 '21 at 11:50
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    @gronostaj Apologies! I thought it was a 32-bit app refusing to run on 64-bit but it turns out it's actually a 16-bit app! (I thought it was one particular 32-bit app that had trouble rather than all of them, but forgot I found it was 16-bit) But the point still applies (just with needing W10 32-bit to run older 16-bit applications) that there are legacy applications (even 16-bit ones) out there that are still required for legacy use and for whatever reason can't be updated/changed (niche app, with developers long gone). – Smock Jun 25 '21 at 12:05
  • @Smock - eventually, someone has to make the call to no longer support running 32-bit apps on a 64-bit platform. macOS was a decade ahead of Microsoft in this, so there's lots of 'history of what can happen'. macOS would run 32-bit code on the 64-bit OS for about a decade after the OS itself went 64-bit only. On macOS now, the next phase is already in swing… Intel code now runs under emulation; everything native is now ARM code. That will presumably also get several years transition time, before becoming truly obsolete. In the meantime, there's always VM. – Tetsujin Jun 25 '21 at 12:10
  • I'm sure Microsoft's stance on this is still in the aftermath of the great XP debacle… which just would not die, no matter how out of date it was. – Tetsujin Jun 25 '21 at 12:12
  • @Tetsujin XP is still not dead unfortunately, which is absolutely ridiculous, and I completely agree with you about the need to move on. In reality though, we're not really just looking at standard desktop users, it's those niche machines that sit in a dusty basement using software that control stuff, or an older database application that is no longer developed but can't be converted. These are the ones still stuck on older architecture. I'm not saying it's right, it's just a difficult situation. – Smock Jun 25 '21 at 12:23
  • MS though I suspect weigh the cost to support vs the profit from supporting - if enough customers require these things to be worth it, they'll do it (They didn't release a 32-bit version of W10 at first), which is why you can buy extended support contracts for older O/Ss. Apple on the other hand are happy to force you to buy new hardware (they own the HW+SW after all) even though there's nothing particularly wrong with the old hardware (but that's a discussion for another day, somewhere else). – Smock Jun 25 '21 at 12:23
  • Macs are basically supported for 10 years, 5 with full support, 5 with partial, before being declared obsolete. By that measure, XP is just as obsolete as a 2007 Mac. TBH, if users of those old industrial XP machines didn't think about some time in the past decade moving their factory's entire income dependancy to one of a series of everlasting, ever swappable VMs, then that's their own fault. – Tetsujin Jun 25 '21 at 12:26
  • TBH, I have a bunch of obsolete Macs running obsolete tasks here. They're still perfectly good for that. they don't go play on the interweb where it's not safe & they're all backed up to the hilt & could be turned into VMs in an hour, if I had to. My last Windows PC received that treatment just last month. Rather than running a big old desktop for the few times I need to test something on Windows 10, I imported it to one of the old Macs [actually a 2008] & it now happilly runs, 24/7, never sleeping, as a VM inside macOS. – Tetsujin Jun 25 '21 at 12:30
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    @Tetsujin well we've meandered far away from the question here anyway, and haven't really added anything to the question – Smock Jun 25 '21 at 12:33
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Smock Jun 25 '21 at 12:33

3 Answers3

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Does this mean there will be no 32-bit edition of Windows 11?

That’s exactly what it means, Windows 11 requires a processor support for (x86-64, AMD64, Intel 64). However, 32-bit applications will continue to run on Windows 11, through WoW64.

As far as I know, usually one can run 32 bit Windows on any CPU, so the CPU requirement may be totally unrelated.

I cannot find any data whether a 32 bit version will exist. I see unofficial downloads for both 32 bit and 64 bit, but these may well be not the final word. Does anyone have a definite official statement?

Microsoft has indicated implicitly that only 64-bit versions of Windows 11 will exist. The leak version of the Insider Preview build of Windows 11 is 64-bit.

This is evident by Windows 10 have the processor requirement that indicates the following:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC

Where Windows 11 requirements have indicated the following:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC)

By requiring a 64-bit processor Microsoft has made it clear a 32-bit version of Windows 11 will not exist. If they planned to release a 32-bit version then they wouldn’t have added the 64-bit requirement.

how does a customer upgrade to Windows 11 if he runs Windows 10 32 bit? That still is supported right now, per the above statement (on "non OEM channels").

The customer doesn’t upgrade to Windows 11 since the machine you describe would NOT satisfy the soft and hard floor requirements for Windows 11. If the machine has 4 GB of memory you might be able to perform a clean installation of Windows 11. However, the machine would also have to have a 64-bit processor.

Ramhound
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  • While sometimes one has to read Tea leafs to understand actions Microsoft takes, in this case by requiring a 64-bit processor and not explicitly stating the requirements for a 32-bit and 64-bit version of Windows 11, Microsoft has implied there isn’t a 32-bit version. The fact only a 64-bit version of the Insider Preview leaked ISO exists is more than enough evidence to explicitly make the statement a 32-bit version of Windows 11 will not exist – Ramhound Jun 25 '21 at 12:50
  • Microsoft is very likely getting pressure from Intel and AMD so they can discontinue Legacy mode in their processors products. Intel and AMD were also the behind the reasons Windows 7 explicitly does support newer processors. Intel and AMD already want to advanced the x86_64 architecture continue to advance big.LITTLE architecture designs to their products. – Ramhound Jun 25 '21 at 14:04
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Not only do you have to have a 64bit processor, so no there will be no 32bit version. Also I got this error when trying to upgrade to 11

enter image description here

Moab
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That can easily be bypassed using Rufus:

  1. Download the ISO from Microsoft's official website.

  2. Use Rufus to select the bootable USB drive.

  3. Select 'Image Options', then check the box that says 'Bypass CPU, TPM 2.0 and 4GB RAM Requirements'.

Now you'll be good to install on ANY 64-bit computer.

This info needs to be passed around to save the computers that could actually run Windows 11 instead of them going to waste.

Virtuality
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user1810287
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