Microsoft has been adjusting the Windows 11 installer since Februaryfor CPUs that do not support the SSE 4.2 extended instruction set, Windows 11 will not be installed and cannot be bypassed.
On an ordinary PC, if the CPU does not support SSE 4.2, Windows 11 cannot be upgraded, and the system may report a POPCNT error code.
It is worth noting that Windows Server 2025 no longer supports these old CPUs, because starting from Windows Server 2025 Build 26080, the detection function of SSE 4.2 has also been added.
Netizen @TheBobPony conducted an installation test. After the Windows resource file loading phase is completed, an error will be reported and restarted, and the installation interface cannot be entered normally. At least there is currently no way to bypass this restriction.
It is also a reasonable request for Microsoft to add the SSE 4.2 instruction set. After all, CPUs released after 2007 basically support this instruction set extension, which mainly affects those CPUs released before 2007.
For example, there is a Dell test machine here on Bluepoint.com that uses an Intel Core Duo 2 processor. This processor was released in 2006. It does not provide SSE 4.2 support. Of course, I will not use it on this machine. Install Windows 11 or Windows Server 2025. After all, it is too old, and it still uses DDR2 2GBx2 memory (this is added separately later).
Therefore, starting from Windows 11 24H2, Windows 11 LTSC 2024, and Windows Server 2025 released this fall, CPUs released before 2007 will no longer be supported. These machines should indeed be retired.
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