Windows 11 Will Simply Not Run On Pre-2007 PCs Once 24H2 Update Arrives
Windows 11 Will Simply Not Run On Pre-2007 PCs Once 24H2 Update Arrives
Officially, Microsoft bars any PCs earlier than 2016 from officially running Windows 11 due to the lack of TPM 2.0, although it’s possible to work around it by either adding an add-on TPM chip or bypassing the limits imposed by the company by unsanctioned means.
However, if you managed to install Windows 11 on an ancient PC today, there’s a good chance that you won’t be able to install the next major update – as it simply will not boot. The reason lies in the new requirement imposed on the upcoming Windows 11 24H2 update. This version of Windows will require a rather obscure instruction set called POPCNT (short for Population Count). The reason for this added requirement is unclear.
So HUGE discovery found in Windows 11 Version 24H2, since build 25905.
A CPU with the instruction “POPCNT” IS NOW REQUIRED!
There are various system files requiring the POPCNT CPU instruction, from the Windows 11 kernel to the USB XHCI drivers.Without POPCNT, it doesn’t boot! pic.twitter.com/vCWYvzfu6k
— Bob Pony (@TheBobPony) February 11, 2024
To get disqualified from the next major Windows 11 update, you’ll need to own CPUs considered ancient by today’s standards. POPCNT was first implemented in the original Intel Core generation under the “Nehalem” architecture released in 2008, whereas AMD’s first architecture that supports this instruction set, the K10 (under Phenom, Athlon, and Sempron banner) dates back to 2007. Anything older than these chips will simply not run the 24H2 update at all – although you’d be hard-pressed to make it run Windows 11 in the first place.
So how does this affect things? Not by much. Any system as old as these unsupported CPUs is probably eating dust in a corner of a house or long gone in the recycling facility – but this certainly will affect a small group of hobbyists whose only goal is to install Windows in all kinds of ancient systems. That being said, these people have managed to work around the limits imposed by Windows 10 (due to SSE2 support), so there’s a good chance this can be worked around, too.
Source: Ars Technica
Pokdepinion: I guess the limit will be worked around at some point, just for science.
