Microsoft raises Windows 11 24H2 configuration requirements

According to media reports, Microsoft is also raising the hardware requirements for Windows 11, with a big wave of older CPUs going out the door.

As per the previous Microsoft requirements, the minimum configurations supported by Windows 11 are still 8th generation and above Intel processors or 2nd generation and above AMD Ryzen processors plus some other add-ons.

Then came the news that the new Windows 11 24H2 requires the processor to support the POPCNT instruction in order to boot, and if you think that's even more outrageous, then Microsoft isn't done yet.

In the latest version of Canary Build 26063, a new item has been added to the compatibility check, a registry item called "BlockedBYSSE4.2" checks if your processor supports the SSE4.2 instruction set, which is about to wipe out a whole bunch of older processors.

The SSE4.2 instruction set came out sixteen years ago, and Microsoft felt justified in doing so, after all, they weren't originally designed to run Windows 11.

Now the question becomes, will you upgrade to Windows 11 with its increasingly high bar?