Millions of PC users around the globe are still running the Windows 7 operating system. Although Microsoft has officially stopped supporting Windows 7 for over a year now (stopped on January 14, 2020), Microsoft is currently offering paid security updates to businesses running Windows 7.
If you are also using an edition of Windows 7 and your PC meets the stringent minimum hardware requirement set for Windows 11, you might be thinking of upgrading to Windows 11 by skipping Windows 10.
Can you run Windows 7 programs on Windows 11?
As per this page of Microsoft, the best thing is that programs that are compatible with Windows 7 will run on Windows 11 as well. This means that you can run Windows 7 programs on Windows 11 without any issues.
Additionally, Windows 11 also offers the Windows Compatibility mode, which one can use to run incompatible programs on Windows 11.
When you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 11, you will miss several features of Windows 11. For example, features like desktop gadgets, Windows Media Center, and Internet Explorer are no longer available. That said, Windows 11 is a significant upgrade, especially for Windows 7 users, given that Windows 11 offers a completely refreshed user interface.
If you are on Windows 7 and planning to upgrade to Windows 11, we recommend you check if your PC can run Windows 11. Remember that with Windows 11, Microsoft increased minimum system requirements to run the operating system, and it now requires a 64-bit CPU, TPM 2.0, and secure boot, among other requirements.
And if your PC does support Windows 11, you cannot perform a direct upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 11. Instead, you will have to clean install Windows 11.
Windows 11 is expected to be released by the end of this year.
Tip: Although it’s 64-bit only, Windows 11 supports 32-bit applications as well.