Windows 10: W10 CPU Requirements not fully stated

Microsoft says the CPU requirement for W10 is:

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster

Well, it seems that they are using the same CPU requirements for W10 that they have for W8.1. I attempted to install W10 RTM on a machine I use for testing and it immediately complained that it was not NX capable. In fact, if you look at the details when the error comes up it references W8.1. So it appears that you are basically going to need a 64 bit capable processor and I don't think that any of them are anywhere near 1Ghz. I guess that Pentium 4's and similar are basically dead unless you either remain on W7 or use Linux instead.

:)

 

What are the old quad processor not supported in Windows 10 free upgrade?

Are you trying to install Windows 10 32bit or 64bit?

People keep asking if Windows 10 will install on a Q6600 CPU based PC, but they don't state which version of Windows 10 they want to install.

Windows 10 64bit has additional CPU feature requirements that the Q6600 does not have, so it should not work. The 32bit version should work though.

If anybody has W10 64bit working with a Q6600 I'd like to know. I have 8GB of RAM so I need to use the 64bit version.

 

Upgrade to Windows 10 Via Clean Install - Product Key Problem

1. The laptop was running an up-to-date, genuine W7. Using the W10 notification tray icon, successfully
reserved an upgrade to W10 and tried to upgrade but an error was displayed stating CPU not supported (E6400 Dell Latitude).

2. Downloaded/created official MS Download Tool. Upon execution an error was displayed stating an upgrade was in process, remove media, and reboot.

3. Rebooted and executed setup.exe from MS Download Tool which performed a
clean install - BTW, a W10 product key was required and there was no "skip" option. Using another laptop running a genuine W10, used its activated product key just so I could complete the installation.

4. Now, to activate, I need a product key. As I reserved the W10 upgrade (see#1), how do I determine the product key specific to this laptop. Thanks.

 

No. Pentium 4 works well with 10 on my system - see system specs - x86 Prescott from 2005 3.2 GHz. Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware - Page 3 - Windows 10 Forums

Windows 10 on old hardware (2007) - WinBeta - reboot.pro

Windows 10 Forums - Search Results

It will just about run on a 32-bit Celeron M 1.50 GHz, but I have not quite got the rest of the hardware to comply yet with the Windows 10 setup program which has some restrictions and probably bugs with CPU checking etc., as others have reported. Next to try is applying Install.wim directly to the volume I want it installed on.

 

There are two requirements for the CPU besides the speed. The first is NX Bit support, the second is CMPXCHG16 support. Most processors since about 2005 support both of these (with the exception that some AMD CPU's don't have the CMPXCHG16 support).

NX support, however, is often turned off by default in many BIOS's, so you may need to go into your bios and flip that on.

There does seem to be a bug where NX support is wrongly shown as lacking even when it's not on certain chipsets or cpu's, I don't know which ones, but there has been a lot of complaints about it.

Also, there is an Intel feature that automatically scales down the CPU when idle called Intel SpeedStep, and if this is enabled on some CPU's (I've most heard this on Core i7 4xxx CPU's) when installing it may report that your CPU isn't fast enough. You may need to disable this when installing, and re-enable after you've installed.

 

My test machine is a Dell Dimension 4700 w/ a Pentium 4 550 Prescott @3.4ghz installed. It has 4GB of memory installed even though 3.2GB will only be seen by a 32 bit Windows OS.

Originally I tried to install via a 32 bit W10 RTM iso loaded on a DVD. Today I noticed the get W10 icon in my status bar and tried to run it and I got a CPU incompatible message (attached).

I looked at your threads and it seems that you are on a preview release. I suspect this may be allowing W10 to install on incompatible hardware.

I guess I'll keep the machine running on W7 where there are lots of friends of mine still running older hardware that I support for free in retirement. I'm not interested with forcing their machines to upgrade, particularly where drivers will be unsupported in this configuration and can potentially be problematic now or down the road. I just ordered an old cheap i5 on eBay to perform future W10 testing with.

One interesting thing though... I searched this forum with the term NX and came back blank. One of your noted threads definitely uses the term in the narrative.

Thanks, Tim

 

@tgm - As you can see from this page

ARK | Intel 4 Processor 550 supporting HT Technology (1M Cache, 3.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)

The P4 550 doesn't support NX.

 

I knew that the CPU didn't support NX. If you look back to the beginning you will see that Mico$oft does NOT say in their System Requirements that the CPU have anything more than being capable of 1Ghz (or more). Clearly my CPU exceeds that spec. If M$ was open and honest about what the specs really are, the confusion would cease.

Instead they are now pumping out Go Win 10 (GWX.exe) to every W7-SP1 machine with Windows Update with literally millions of them unable to properly install it. Even in my very small circle of retirees the issue is popping up and I'm getting phone calls. What I really believe is that they are hyping the hell out of W10 with the hope that these people with older machines will buy new hardware which translates to $$$ for M$. There has been collusion between M$ and the hardware vendors for years; nothing seems to have changed. But now they have eliminated support for Easy Transfer too, you have to wonder how they expected people to migrate to these new machines?

 

They say a bit more than that, if you look more closely:

Windows 10 Specifications - Microsoft

"To install a 64-bit OS on a 64-bit PC, your processor needs to support CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW, and LAHF/SAHF." Nothing about NX (= DEP), though. The implication is that CMPXCHG16b etc. is not required for the 32 bit version; I wonder whether that is true.

I suppose that it would have been nice to have Windows Update download a utility that checked hardware before offering up GWX. It might have saved some disappointment.

It wouldn't have occurred to me that eliminating Windows Easy Transfer was a problem. I haven't used it in years. Don't need it to transfer files, don't trust it to transfer settings. If it could have transferred applications - that would have been interesting.

 

Coreinfo.exe From TechNet Windows Sysinternals
Coreinfo

Gives the following for INTEL Pentium 4 3200 Prescott 540 LGA775 (Supported features in bold)

Code: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1, GenuineIntel Microcode signature: 00000017 HTT * Hyperthreading enabled HYPERVISOR - Hypervisor is present VMX - Supports Intel hardware-assisted virtualization SVM - Supports AMD hardware-assisted virtualization X64 - Supports 64-bit mode SMX - Supports Intel trusted execution SKINIT - Supports AMD SKINIT NX * Supports no-execute page protection SMEP - Supports Supervisor Mode Execution Prevention SMAP - Supports Supervisor Mode Access Prevention PAGE1GB - Supports 1 GB large pages PAE * Supports > 32-bit physical addresses PAT * Supports Page Attribute Table PSE * Supports 4 MB pages PSE36 * Supports > 32-bit address 4 MB pages PGE * Supports global bit in page tables SS * Supports bus snooping for cache operations VME * Supports Virtual-8086 mode RDWRFSGSBASE - Supports direct GS/FS base access FPU * Implements i387 floating point instructions MMX * Supports MMX instruction set MMXEXT - Implements AMD MMX extensions 3DNOW - Supports 3DNow! instructions 3DNOWEXT - Supports 3DNow! extension instructions SSE * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions SSE2 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 SSE3 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 SSSE3 - Supports Supplemental SIMD Extensions 3 SSE4a - Supports Streaming SIMDR Extensions 4a SSE4.1 - Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1 SSE4.2 - Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2 AES - Supports AES extensions AVX - Supports AVX intruction extensions FMA - Supports FMA extensions using YMM state MSR * Implements RDMSR/WRMSR instructions MTRR * Supports Memory Type Range Registers XSAVE - Supports XSAVE/XRSTOR instructions OSXSAVE - Supports XSETBV/XGETBV instructions RDRAND - Supports RDRAND instruction RDSEED - Supports RDSEED instruction CMOV * Supports CMOVcc instruction CLFSH * Supports CLFLUSH instruction CX8 * Supports compare and exchange 8-byte instructions CX16 - Supports CMPXCHG16B instruction BMI1 - Supports bit manipulation extensions 1 BMI2 - Supports bit manipulation extensions 2 ADX - Supports ADCX/ADOX instructions DCA - Supports prefetch from memory-mapped device F16C - Supports half-precision instruction FXSR * Supports FXSAVE/FXSTOR instructions FFXSR - Supports optimized FXSAVE/FSRSTOR instruction MONITOR * Supports MONITOR and MWAIT instructions MOVBE - Supports MOVBE instruction ERMSB - Supports Enhanced REP MOVSB/STOSB PCLMULDQ - Supports PCLMULDQ instruction POPCNT - Supports POPCNT instruction LZCNT - Supports LZCNT instruction SEP * Supports fast system call instructions LAHF-SAHF - Supports LAHF/SAHF instructions in 64-bit mode HLE - Supports Hardware Lock Elision instructions RTM - Supports Restricted Transactional Memory instructions DE * Supports I/O breakpoints including CR4.DE DTES64 * Can write history of 64-bit branch addresses DS * Implements memory-resident debug buffer DS-CPL * Supports Debug Store feature with CPL PCID - Supports PCIDs and settable CR4.PCIDE INVPCID - Supports INVPCID instruction PDCM - Supports Performance Capabilities MSR RDTSCP - Supports RDTSCP instruction TSC * Supports RDTSC instruction TSC-DEADLINE - Local APIC supports one-shot deadline timer TSC-INVARIANT - TSC runs at constant rate xTPR * Supports disabling task priority messages EIST - Supports Enhanced Intel Speedstep ACPI * Implements MSR for power management TM * Implements thermal monitor circuitry TM2 - Implements Thermal Monitor 2 control APIC * Implements software-accessible local APIC x2APIC - Supports x2APIC CNXT-ID * L1 data cache mode adaptive or BIOS MCE * Supports Machine Check, INT18 and CR4.MCE MCA * Implements Machine Check Architecture PBE * Supports use of FERR#/PBE# pin PSN - Implements 96-bit processor serial number PREFETCHW - Supports PREFETCHW instruction Maximum implemented CPUID leaves: 00000005 (Basic), 80000008 (Extended). Logical to Physical Processor Map: ** Physical Processor 0 (Hyperthreaded) Logical Processor to Socket Map: ** Socket 0 Logical Processor to NUMA Node Map: ** NUMA Node 0 No NUMA nodes. Logical Processor to Cache Map: ** Data Cache 0, Level 1, 16 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64 ** Unified Cache 0, Level 2, 1 MB, Assoc 8, LineSize 128 Logical Processor to Group Map: ** Group 0[/quote] This processor has NX, PAE, and SSE2, so can run x86 Windows 8.x and 10.
PAE is a prerequisite for NX, but no Windows x86 OS implements the use of 4GB or greater physical memory.
This Pentium 4 cannot run a 64-bit OS, so CX16, LAHF/SAHF, etc., are irrelevant.

Windows 10 requires no lesser requirements than Windows 8.1 equivalent versions - even in prelease versions:
System requirements - Microsoft Windows

 

Well, this is interesting. The 32 bit version of W10 upgrade install (RTM) complains about the CPU and there is 32 bit W7 already installed on the machine. I'll swap out the drive and see if I can install either 32 or 64 bit versions of RTM will install if no OS is present.

I've got another i5 machine that I'm testing W10 with (x64) and I got to say that there are lots of bugs that M$ needs to address. Lots of configuration click spots do nothing and you need to revert to the old Control Panel to actually get things done.

 

The P4 550 lacks NX (also known as Execute Disable Bit). It also lacks 64 bit instructions. Good luck with the 64 bit installation.

The division of configuration settings between Settings and the old Control Panel is one of the things that MS really ought to fix soon. Actual bugs? None that I've seen, although there was a fair amount of fiddling with drivers on a 2008 laptop with an AMD CPU and an nVidia motherboard chipset.

 

I've got chips on the head... When I saw the table of CPU features previously in the thread, I thought it was for mine; it's not. So I'm sort of back to square one, The P4 550 will not load Win 10 (any version) due to the lack of NX even thought the machine is requesting that I upgrade it and M$ neglected to mention that NX is a requirement.

As for stuff that doesn't work, that's a bug in my book. It sure seems that W10 was rushed to production to satisfy the marketing people. I avoid pre-production versions where bugs are expected (and numerous). At Micro$oft they are a expected even after SP1 comes out. So far W10 is reminding me of Vista although I suppose it's better than Win-ME.

 

There may never be formal Service Packs for 10.

You'd equate 10 with Vista because it can't install on a CPU that's from the leaden age of Intel? That's an, er, unique viewpoint.

 

Not having Service Packs could be a colossal mistake. Corporations want standard packages that they can work with and deploy easily. Remediating software packages against a moving target OS is foolhardy and next to impossible to accomplish. Remember Y2K? Both end user corporations and software vendors put a line in the sand for a reason. Microsoft is already saying that this is probably the last OS level. So how is anyone going to standardize a release without a formalized Service Pack (or whatever M$ chooses to call it)?

My comparison with Vista has nothing to do with Intel or the chips that it may run on. It all has to do with user interface and functionality or the lack thereof in many cases. It's such an immense topic that it's just not appropriate to get into a deep discussion in this thread. But for now I don't see any large corporation that does not have to, moving to W10 anytime soon for all sorts of reasons.