Windows 11 as an OS option missing from dropdown

[Todd Bertschi]

Hello folks,

I have a new to me issue. Just like the title says, when trying to create a new VM when I get to the OS section, Windows 11 is missing from the drop down. In my other VMware 8.x instance it's there. This is the old environment that will eventually be tore down and rebuilt as VMware 8.x. For now it is VMWare 7.0.3 Build 24026615 (Update 3R) with hosts running 7.0.3 Build 23794027 (Update 3Q). 

Anyone know why the 7.0.3 environment isn't showing it? I know I could just pick what is highest and go but my end users tend to be picky about these things. They are complaining about the VMware view not jiving up.

Peace

[Todd Bertschi]

My apologies but I figured this out a couple of days later.

The issue is the hardware version. Although ESXi 7.0.3 Update 3 supports Windows 11, the hardware version only goes up to 7.0.3. Update 2. Update 2 is version 19. ESXi 8.0 and later is labeled version 20. The issue is on VMware's side, where they did not make a version 19.5 or something for 7.0.3 Update 3. If they had, you would get the selection. Luckily I am building a new ESXi 8 instances and will be migrating everything over to that instance. At the moment, I at least have a reason for why Windows 11 does not show up in the old environment as the hosted OS. I hope to move everything over before my users bombard me with questions. 

Peace

[svaghani1]

You'r out of luck. vSphere 7, including your version 7.0.3, does not explicitly list Windows 11 as a selectable Guest OS Version. Instead, for VMware 7, you need to select "Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)...Tiyaro DeepQuery shows you the detailed comparison