Back in May, Microsoft announced an upcoming change in the hardware system requirements for running its Edge web browser. At the time, Microsoft said that PCs would need to have a processor that supported the SSE3 instruction set and beyond to continue to support Edge.
That change was supposed to become effective with the release of Edge 126, which was launched in its Stable Channel in mid-June. However. Microsoft has quietly announced that the hardware requirement change for Edge has been pushed slightly back.
Petri reports that in a message sent on Microsoft's M365 Admin Center app, the company has delayed the end of Edge support for non-SSE3 PCs and lower to version 128. The message did not offer any explanation for the delay in this hardware requirement change for Edge.
The message added:
Impacted devices will see a banner in Microsoft Edge versions 126 & 127 stating: “This computer will soon stop receiving Microsoft Edge updates because its hardware is no longer supported.”
The M365 Admin Center message added that while Edge 128 will still work on PCs that don't have SSE3 support, they will no longer receive any feature or security updates. Microsoft does not recommend users keep running Edge 128 on those older PCs.
Edge 127 is now available in the Dev Channel, and is currently expected to be released in the Stable channel sometime later this week. Edge 128 is available for Mac PC users to check out in the Dev Channel and should be available for Windows users in that same channel soon. Edge 128 is not expected to be released on the Stable channel until late August at the earliest.
Even with this delay, this change will likely only affect a small percentage of PCs. The SSE3 instruction sent was launched for processors in 2004, which means Edge should soon not be supported on PCs that are 20 years old or older.
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