Windows 11, a PC operating system developed by Microsoft, has higher system requirements than Windows 10. However, even older hardware can run Windows 11 if you eliminate these system requirements. In fact, it was possible to run Windows 11 even though it was unsupported, but it became a hot topic as it was revealed that some older PCs were changed from unsupported to unbootable in 24H2, the next most stable version of Windows 11.
Until now, it was possible to run Windows 11, which was not supported, even on older PCs equipped with Intel Core 2 Duo, a Windows XP-era CPU. However, in the preview version of Windows 11 version 24H2 released in February 2024, older PCs that were previously unsupported are no longer able to work.
According to reports, Windows 11 version 24H2 refuses to boot on older CPUs that do not support the POPCNT command. POPCNT stands for population count and is used to calculate the number of machine language bits. It’s unclear why POPCNT became a CPU instruction responsible for loading multiple Windows components, but in Windows 11 version 24H2 it is a model that requires the Windows kernel, system USB and network drivers, and other main instructions on system files.
So HUGE discovery found in Windows 11 version 24H2, from build 25905.
NOW YOU NEED a CPU with the “POPCNT” instruction!
There are various system files that require the POPCNT CPU instruction, from the Windows 11 kernel to XHCI USB drivers.Without POPCNT, it won’t boot! pic.twitter.com/vCWYvzfu6k
— Bob Pony (@TheBobPony) February 11, 2024
In the latest x86, POPCNT is implemented as part of the SSE4 instruction set. POPCNT was first implemented on Intel chips as part of SSE4.2 with the original first generation core architecture appearing in 2008. AMD chips include CPUs such as Fannon, Athlon, and Sempron, which adopted the AMD K10 released in 2007 , and POPCNT was first adopted as part of SSE4a.
In other words, Windows 11 version 24H2 will not be able to run on old PCs equipped with Intel Core 2 Duo or the first Athlon 64, which are the oldest products of this CPU. Windows 11 system requirements are listed in terms of CPU clock speed, amount of memory and storage space installed on your PC, etc., but in reality they are more complicated. For example, Windows 11 CPU requirements are 8th generation Intel Core CPUs or later or AMD Ryzen 2000 series CPUs or later, but there are models that appear to be driven at least in part by MBEC support of mode-based execution control, i.e. POPCNT or The presence or absence of MBEC support determines whether or not the latest version of Windows can boot. Related information can be found here.
#older #PCs #boot #Windows #version #24H2..
