Windows 11 is now three years old, but the hardware requirements haven’t changed. Running the operating system in officially supported modes requires an 8th generation Intel or 2nd generation AMD Ryzen processor (or newer) with some additional features. This requirement can be very easily circumvented, allowing users with older hardware to run Windows 11 with relatively little trouble. However, things change with Windows 11 version 24H2.
You probably know that Windows 11 version 24H2 (its preview build) requires the POPCNT instruction to boot. CPUs without POPCNT will no longer be able to run 24H2 builds, even with existing changes. Microsoft recently added a corresponding registry to the Windows Registry, refuting some speculation that the POPCNT directive requirement was a temporary measure or a mistake. The setup experience now warns you about missing steps when installing version 24H2 on older computers.
In the latest Canary build 26063, the list of compatibility blocks received a different value (spotted by Deskmodder). “BlockedBYSSE4.2” is responsible for checking whether the processor supports her SSE4.2 instruction set. You can check by launching Registry Editor and navigating to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\CompatMarkers\GE24H2.
It may be easy to get angry that Microsoft is blocking older hardware from running operating systems. However, note that SSE4.2 is an instruction set introduced 16 years before his. Like it or not, new features require more modern hardware, so it makes sense that older processors won’t be able to run OSes they weren’t designed for in the first place.
The whole POPCNT story isn’t exactly new in the Microsoft world. Even Windows 10, which is considered globally “omnivorous” in terms of hardware compatibility, had to drop some chips at some point. Starting with the April 2018 update, Windows 10 cannot run on certain Intel mobile chips due to a bug in the currently unsupported graphics driver.
If you’re still determined to run Windows 11 24H2 on unsupported hardware, read this guide to learn how to make sure your CPU has the necessary instructions.
