Windows 10 Users Could End Up Missing Out on Support for Wi-Fi 7 despite It Coming to ChromeOS, Linux, and Windows 11

Peter_Brosdahl

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According to a leaked document, it appears that Windows 10 users will not be able to access the best features of the latest Wi-Fi standard. Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) brings a number of improvements over its predecessor (802.11ax), most notably a doubling of bandwidth channels, and modulation. The leak via X user "chi11eddog" (via WccfTech) shows an Intel document that clearly indicates that only Windows 11, ChromeOS, and Linux users are getting support for Wi-Fi 7.

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Well windows 10 users won't give a crap because it's not like they will suddenly be running on hardware that supports Wi-Fi 7.

Unless I'm WAY off base and it's a software/firmware update.
 
How many people actually need WiFi 7? Very few ISP's offer speeds that would utilize it. Even fewer people are going to have local network equipment to support making it useful. Outside of very niche enterprise environments where it would be useful.

I feel like we've gotten to the point where faster WiFi doesn't make sense.
 
Riccochet said:
I feel like we've gotten to the point where faster WiFi doesn't make sense.
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While faster components that put the bottleneck someplace else is how we leapfrog our way into overall improvement - I do more or less agree with this.

I'd like to see the focus on range, power efficiency, channel depth, security, etc. over speed.
 
Brian_B said:
While faster components that put the bottleneck someplace else is how we leapfrog our way into overall improvement - I do more or less agree with this.

I'd like to see the focus on range, power efficiency, channel depth, security, etc. over speed.
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7 is up to 46 gbps. No one is going to be able to take advantage of that.

And, yeah, range is the concern. As they go up in frequency and bands you get less and less range and/or ability to pass through walls. Old B/C/G 2.4 Ghz is still the king of range.
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
The leak via X user "chi11eddog" (via WccfTech) shows an Intel document that clearly indicates that only Windows 11, ChromeOS, and Linux users are getting support for Wi-Fi 7.
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I don't think we have any idea what the leaked image means about future driver support, especially without any additional context. Any one of us could probably make a better guess about it than WccfTech.
 
This is all about device density. Wifi hotspots are a hub. Bandwidth is divided by number of clients and their demand. So having more overall abdwidth is not about raw throughout but the user experience per client.

A 46gigbit pipe can feed 92 people 500megsbit of bandwidth. In an enterprise that's meaningful. Especially for big meetings or conference centers.
 
Tempest said:
I don't think we have any idea what the leaked image means about future driver support, especially without any additional context. Any one of us could probably make a better guess about it than WccfTech.
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Agreed. And while it may be that Intel is only planning on making Windows 11 drivers, but there are a lot more chipset providers and third-party integrators out there than just Intel.
Riccochet said:
7 is up to 46 gbps. No one is going to be able to take advantage of that.
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No one is going to take advantage of that... today. Give it 5+ years when devices have had a chance to permeate and other things advance, and we may all be laughing at how no one could ever possibly use more than 640k of RAM. Grim makes a good point about it being more about device density than top speed - and that is entirely true and I didn't think of it.
 
What drives me nuts about networking is the terminology — everything from the naming of communication standards to the insane number of abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms. I bet that every word in the English language also exists as a networking acronym (or "initialism" for the nitpickers) if case sensitivity is ignored.

I just finished reading a network-related document — if anyone is wondering where that came from.
 
Tempest said:
I just finished reading a network-related document — if anyone is wondering where that came from.
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I totally get it. I remember being frustrated with how many came up every single week (more specifically acronyms) in every class I had. I used to tell my professors that was probably the hardest part of my classes and they laughed. To this day when I hear people complain about them I tell them that they have no idea what exists once you get past the first layer of IT networking.
 
Tempest said:
I don't think we have any idea what the leaked image means about future driver support, especially without any additional context. Any one of us could probably make a better guess about it than WccfTech.
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Agreed but MS is well known for keeping features off an older OS when it's readying for a full switchover and we're about to enter the two-year countdown for 10.

learn.microsoft.com

Windows 10 Home and Pro - Microsoft Lifecycle

Windows 10 Home and Pro follows the Modern Lifecycle Policy.
learn.microsoft.com

However, I do expect somebody to make some sort of patchwork driver to get it to work in the meantime. It'll probably be lacking something but give the majority of the functionality.
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
However, I do expect somebody to make some sort of patchwork driver to get it to work in the meantime. It'll probably be lacking something but give the majority of the functionality.
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It will require some security override to install would be my guess - if Windows doesn't want to sign the driver as legit. That would be a pain in the rear but within the scope of possibility.

It would also be one more reason to finally jump ship to Linux.
 
Brian_B said:
It will require some security override to install would be my guess - if Windows doesn't want to sign the driver as legit. That would be a pain in the rear but within the scope of possibility.

It would also be one more reason to finally jump ship to Linux.
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I utterly DREAD the mass market embracing Linux. Good lord can you imagine being in IT security and responsible for patching BYOL setups running Linux... so many branched variants. Does Patch A apply to branch x?

Nightmare fuel.
 
Grimlakin said:
I utterly DREAD the mass market embracing Linux. Good lord can you imagine being in IT security and responsible for patching BYOL setups running Linux... so many branched variants. Does Patch A apply to branch x?

Nightmare fuel.
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To be honest, I think the same, if not worse, about Windows right now... so, yeah.
 
Grimlakin said:
I utterly DREAD the mass market embracing Linux. Good lord can you imagine being in IT security and responsible for patching BYOL setups running Linux... so many branched variants. Does Patch A apply to branch x?

Nightmare fuel.
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Thankfully I never have to worry about that. None of our enterprise software runs on Linux. We do have several Linux servers, but they are not internet facing.

Linux is still trash for anything outside of tinkering or dedicated servers requiring it.
 
Riccochet said:
Thankfully I never have to worry about that. None of our enterprise software runs on Linux. We do have several Linux servers, but they are not internet facing.

Linux is still trash for anything outside of tinkering or dedicated servers requiring it.
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Yea I'm not talking servers here but more workstations. But I agree on the server front there's basically Windows AIX, AS400, and Redhat Enterprise. Anything else isn't worth the LOE.
 
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