Meanwhile, if you are on Windows 11 and wondering about its compatibility with your system, a document from Intel, spotted by Twitter (X) user Chi11eddog, seemingly confirms that Windows 11 is going to be supported. And although the document does not mention Windows 12, which is expected given that the product has not even been officially announced yet (Microsoft recently revealed the release date for Windows 11 23H2).
While this is certainly expected, users who would have stuck to their Windows 10 PCs, either due to the hardware being not on the support list or simply because they prefer the older OS over the new ones, are likely going to be out of luck as the supported OS does not mention Windows 10.
I mean, at the time Wi-Fi 7 comes out, Windows 10 will be almost a decade old. I’m all for a good Microsoft thrashing, but expecting them to go back and add support for Wi-Fi 7 to a decade-old operating system seems a bit unrealistic.
Thom Holwerda,
To me the question isn’t whether microsoft supports wi-fi 7 on windows 10. microsoft are not the ones writing the drivers. The question is whether microsoft will prohibits manufacturers from supporting and certifying their wifi drivers for windows 10.
From the article…
Unless there is a legitimate ABI breaking change, then it is likely the exact same driver would just work across windows 10/11 (and the upcoming 12). It won’t be the first time artificial microsoft policies have broken technically compatible drivers. If microsoft won’t allow manufacturers to submit windows 10 drivers that would otherwise work in order to create artificial selling points for windows 11, well I feel that’s manipulative. It isn’t in user interests, especially considering that windows 10 is still supposed to be officially supported.
Windows 10 already does not have Wifi 6E support. They’re not backporting the Wifi stack changes. Of course they won’t bother with Wifi 7.
But to me there is a big difference between having a driver that supports Wifi 6 vs no driver at all. A driver for 10 that supports Wifi 6 should be possible.
Windows 10 supports wifi6 just fine “Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)” on intel ax200 modules.
He said Wifi 6E, not Wifi 6.
He said both in the statement, I’m guessing he meant 6E everywhere, thats the most likely assumption, but NaGERST’s follow up isn’t in vain he could have meant 6 without E.
Exactly. The quote above is misleading because you need more than a driver change to support newer WiFi standards. You also need stack changes to support it. This is true on all operating systems that support WiFi.
And here I am, having started on 8-bit computer kits
Support is not broken by an OS missing software. Hackaday shows a WiFi setup running on a Mac portable.
It took me months to get WiFi to work on windows 3.1 but it does now.
It took a lot of work and the help of many open source devs but I have both a Windows Vista and a System 7 Mac connected to actual 6e on my Deco mesh.
Microsoft support does not make or break using a connection method.
0brad0,
I’m still curious whether the windows 11 ABI actually changed, or if the driver ABI is compatible and the decision to deny them on windows 10 is just political.
Alfman,
wrt. ABI changes, I am not sure whether there is anything inherently different in WiFi 7 what would require updates to the kernel itself. (I am not discounting that possibility, but isn’t that unlikely)?
The only thing would be not certifying the drivers as you suggested. It is one additional field in their digital signature: “this driver is certified for Windows 10, Windows 10 ARM, Windows 11, Windows 11 ARM, etc.”
And given the Windows 10 support end date is still years away, I don’t think this is a legitimate decision.
What exactly does 6E and 7 get you that plain old 6 doesn’t? A little faster, bragging rights, etc. But when my Internet connection is at 20-30Mbps then it doesn’t make any real difference between having WiFi at 108 MBps and 300 Mbps.
There’s no killer app right now that is driving people to upgrade their systems to the latest and greatest, no matter how much the hardware makers and Microsoft want to sell us new stuff: My current CPU is 5 years old and does everything I want with speed and ease.
I have real needs in my life that I need to pay for: Upgrading my computer hardware and/or OS is not one of those needs.
A very good point, for most people especially those on windows 10 and older pcs, 6E and 7 are not needed. I’m on one of the minority here, I need the speed ( on 1 Gbps up/down fiber) but not cpu horsepower or windows 11 yet. So there is an elegant solution: wifi ethernet bridge. Yes having a wired solution all the way would be best, but money and time are a factor.
Today nothing… but in 5 years as almost all devices use it, it gets you higher spectral utilization in busy areas which means less congestion…. ever go to an airport or hospital or even a dense apartment area, wifi performance will be trash…. in a few years it will be somewhat less trash and improved spectral utilization is part of that.
As an example wifi N = 64-QAM , AC = 256QAM , 6E = 1024QAM and 7 = 4096QAM …. basically Wifi 7 will pack up to 64x more data into the same spectrum compared to plain old wifi N.
> What exactly does 6E and 7 get you that plain old 6 doesn’t?
Nothing currently for most people.
Here’s me still using 5 and just getting 382 Mbps. I guess I could gfo to 6 and get better but I have other issues, like 180 Mbps on my wired connection 😉 Yes latency is better, no it’s not an easy thing to improve, wifi is 114 Mbps in the same room so no go.
It’s all fast enough and the 515 Mbps my eero says the internet is is shared beetween a lot of devices. I guess if I really wanted to download something faster I could take the laptop downstairs with a cable and connect it, but I doubt I will (I onloy got the 500 for the better upload rate.
Since on the eero 6 they flaked out and made the 2 extension’s (my room wifi shows I need a 3 mesh network at least), cheap and wirthout ethernet, only an erro 6+ 3 pack makes sense, still no 6ghz though. Think I’ll keep my plain eero’s even with the current 25% discount. It may make some things better but it’s not worth it.
So IMO even 6 is not needed for most people.
Carrot007,
I’ve you’ve got a NAS and want to access it wirelessly, then new standards might be useful. But in terms of average home users accessing the internet. IMHO the internet service is a bigger bottleneck. I’m jealous of those who’ve got ISPs competing for gigabit speeds, but here we live with a monopoly: low speeds at high prices.
I don’t get the issue… If you’re running 10, either you’re butthurt about Windows 11 and afraid of change, or your computer has a wifi card that doesn’t support Wifi 7.
Most end users will buy a device and never change the OS on it. There’s people out there still using decade old PC’s with Win7 on them. So, since the hardware that most Windows 10 installs are running is old, they literally won’t have Wifi 7 capable hardware anyway. It makes sense to invest the effort in getting Wifi 7 working in 11 and newer, and not worry about 10.