Windows 11 24H2 will require chips with ARM v8.1 and SSE 4.2 - goodbye Snapdragon 835 and older x86 processors

Windows 11 supports various ARM processors from Qualcomm. According to the official documentation, a computer with a Snapdragon 850 processor or newer is required for support. However, on PCs with Snapdragon 835, the original chip for Windows on ARM from 2016, users may bypass the hardware requirements and install Windows 11 at their own risk. This may soon come to an end.

Starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, Microsoft's operating system requires an ARM processor with version 8.1 cores. Attempting to load the OS on a device with ARM v8.0 will result in system crashes. Snapdragon 835 has Kryo 280 cores, which are derived from Cortex-A73 and are not compatible.

Although Windows 11 never officially supported the Snapdragon 835 processor, it is technically possible to install the operating system on computers with this chip. Because of this, many consider the Windows 11 hardware requirements to be conditional - supposedly a trick to force customers to buy newer hardware. Microsoft denies these accusations and claims that the OS does not support a large number of relatively powerful chips for security reasons.

When Windows 11 version 24H2 receives more features and requires support for newer instructions, users will find that their old computers are physically unable to run the latest version.

The same will happen with old x86 processors without support for POPCNT and SSE 4.2 instruction set. However, Snapdragon 835 is a much newer processor. The end of support for ARM v8.0 also means the end of the road for enthusiasts who are still "playing" with Lumia phones. However, Surface Duo will still be able to run Windows 11 as they have much newer Snapdragons.

Source: Neowin