Windows 11 on i7-4790K

DriverDynamo

Everyone’s talking about Windows 11’s system requirements, but has anyone actually managed to get it running on older hardware like the i7-4790K for a substantial amount of time? I’m not talking about clean installs or registry hacks just to prove it boots-I’m curious about real-world daily use. Is anyone running Windows 11 on the 4790K as their main OS for more than a few months, and what kinds of stability or security issues are you really seeing?

Microsoft claims lack of support is about reliability and security (like VBS, TPM, etc.), but is anyone seeing actual evidence of unsupported CPUs being more unreliable? Or is this just forced obsolescence without any practical downside?

Appreciate details-things like Windows Updates breaking, feature rollouts being missing, performance cliffs, bug reports, or on the flip side, if it’s actually just fine with a little tweaking.

Trying to figure out if this is mostly about pushing new hardware, or if there are real technical reasons to avoid unsupported chips.

WinProExpert

From what I’ve seen, folks running Windows 11 on older chips like the 4790K aren’t hitting a brick wall-system stability is generally fine, and monthly security updates do keep coming (for now). You might miss certain features tied strictly to hardware (like native Windows Hello or VBS), but the everyday desktop/workstation stuff simply works. If anything, eventual risks are more about possible future update blocks or missing out on new security layers rather than day-to-day breakages.

Honestly, it feels a lot more like a nudge to upgrade rather than a hard technical necessity right now.

AlisaSavage

Another thing to watch for: future feature updates might silently skip you, even if cumulative/security patches keep landing. Also, if you run edge cases like Hyper-V or tinker with heavy virtualization, security features tied to newer CPUs just…won’t be there. But for most daily use, these “unsupported” installs soldier on just fine-until Microsoft decides otherwise, of course. So, enjoy the ride and keep your backups handy!