Microsoft is currently tweaking the system requirements for the upcoming Windows 11 version, 24H2, expected to be generally available in September or October 2024. The feature update will be jam-packed with AI and as such it is speculated that certain CPU instructions are necessary.
While initially, only PopCnt seemed to be a necessity, it looks like mandatory SSE4.2 requirement is also being added to the underlying code, and unsupported old CPUs that do not pack these instructions will no longer be able to boot into Windows 11 24H2, even when using bypass tricks that work exclusively on the latest version of Windows.
One of the features related to the upcoming AI-heavy Windows 11 is an "AI File Explorer," also apparently referred to as an Advanced Copilot. Initial details of the AI File Explorer were revealed by reports back in March. Essentially, it appears to be like a modern version of Cortana. For those who may not have been following, the Cortana app was killed off in August last year.
Microsoft is also setting a baseline requirement for the AI File Explorer. Code related to such system requirements was discovered recently. Windows user and Twitter (now X) user Albacore, who uncovered the requirements code first, found out that a cautionary message will be displayed on such systems not meeting the requirements. This is sort of similar to the missing PopCnt message or a system requirements not met watermark.
Looking at bits present in insider build 26200, AI Explorer indeed checks these requirements and if they aren"t met, a warning will be present in its overlays. You can however skip the check altogether by disabling ID 48486440. This only disables AIX making the check, not the API https://t.co/XmnjzCZqEw
— Albacore ☁️ (@thebookisclosed) April 22, 2024
Quite curiously, Microsoft seems to have set the need for an ARM64 processor for AI File Explorer. Hence, it is possible that the feature may be a Surface-exclusive feature, or perhaps Microsoft will add AMD64 ISA to the list later if it intends to bring the feature to x86 PCs as well. After all, the company did announce AI PCs for enterprises alongside AMD just over a week ago.
Meanwhile, aside from ARM64 CPUs, 16GB of system memory has also been set as a recommendation for the AI File Explorer.