Although the official system requirements for Windows 11 are very strict, since its launch it has been possible to install the system on most computers that can already run Windows 10. Microsoft has closed some early ports of entry, but recently a relatively simple trick was discovered that bypasses all requirements and installs the system.
But even if users exploit this or some other trick, Windows 11 version 24H2 will no longer be able to boot after installation, Neowin reports.
The reason is that Microsoft has made a change in the upcoming update which means that the system cannot run on processors that lack the SSE4.2 instructions and the instruction “popcnt” (for population count) which counts the number of ones in a binary integer. A number of system files, both basic drivers and Windows services, now require both of these for the system to start.
The changes were introduced in builds 25905 and 26080 and will not disappear before the update is released sharply this fall. Affected processors include Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD Athlon, so it is not exactly any newcomers that will soon be shut out.
Tags: Microsoft blocks older processors Windows #24H2
