Windows 11 supports a variety of ARM processors from Qualcomm. According to the official documentation, a computer with a Snapdragon 850 or higher processor is required for support. However, PCs with a Snapdragon 835, the original Windows on ARM chip from 2016, can bypass the hardware requirements and install Windows 11 at their own risk. This may end soon.
Starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, Microsoft’s operating system requires an ARM processor with 8.1 kernels. Attempting to boot the OS on devices with ARM v8.0 will result in system crashes. The Snapdragon 835 has Kryo 280 cores, which are derivatives of Cortex-A73 and are not suitable.
Although Windows 11 has never supported the Snapdragon 835 processor, it is technically possible to install the operating system on computers with this chip. Because of this, many consider Windows 11’s hardware requirements to be conditional — allegedly 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 due to security concerns.
As Windows 11 version 24H2 gains more features and requires support for newer instructions, users will find that their older computers are physically incapable of running the latest version.
The same will happen to older x86 processors without POPCNT support and the SSE 4.2 instruction set. The Snapdragon 835, however, is a much newer processor. The end of ARM v8.0 support also means the end of the road for enthusiasts who are still «playing» with Lumia phones. However, the Surface Duo will still be able to run Windows 11 because they have much newer Snapdragons.
Source: Neowin