Did windows 10 drop support for first-generation Intel Core i7-920, i7-960 processors?
I found a post in French that claims that to install version 1803 and later, one must disable in the BIOS the option of Intel VT-d.
The post mentions that if you then upgrade Windows, you lose vitualization, and you can no longer enable it again, as without it Windows will block on its logo screen.
Vitualization might not be very important for playing Minecraft.
I found an example that shows windows 10 version 2004 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDkpD16VLes works with intel i7-920 CPU but then on the same motherboard windows 10 fails to work with an Intel LGA1366 Xeon CPU.
The above youtube video demonstrates that Windows 10 can change what CPUs are supported in newer versions (i.e. older versions of Windows10 did support LGA1366 Intel Xeon CPUs but newer versions of Windows10 do not support LGA1366 Intel Xeon CPUs).
p.s. I wasted about 3 hours to swap out the i7-960 for the i7-920 and doing so did not fix the issue.
My personal triage will be to run older windows 10 version 1709. Keep Windows defender updated but not update windows version (can't update).
Update: 2021-09-25: User @harrymc had the solution! I am very grateful for his help! See harry's solution here.
I have windows 10 latest running on my i7-960. I did not install it from scratch but has been updated gradually. No issues have come up. Here is the system screen