I'm having trouble upgrading Windows 11 from version 23H2 to 24H2.
I'm having trouble upgrading Windows 11 from version 23H2 to 24H2.
Hi,
This is my first time dealing with this problem.
I manage a mix of servers: four Hyper-V 2019 bare-metal machines, two older ones with dual Xeon Silver 4110 processors, and two newer ones with dual Xeon Silver 4310 CPUs (both 128GB RAM).
I have various Windows Server 2019 VMs along with a few Windows 10 and Windows 11 VMs.
During an update from Windows 11 version 23H2 to 24H2, I encountered these messages:
"This PC's processor doesn't support a critical feature (PopCnt)"
"This PC's processor doesn't support a critical feature (SSE4.2)"
Despite being new CPUs from 2021, Intel confirms they support SSE4.2 and AVX.
Could there be a BIOS setting I need to adjust so that SSE4.2 is enabled? Or should I configure something differently to allow the upgrade on these servers?"
Thanks!
Yes, W11 are gen2 VMs and support all the newest features and requirements.
When setting up new virtual machines, I consistently opt for Gen2. That's correct.
The servers satisfy all conditions for installing Win 11 24H2 directly, though the challenge lies in the VM not properly exposing or utilizing the necessary features with default configurations. Using Gen2 means the vCPUs are synthetic rather than emulated; you might find success by specifying a particular processor model in the VM's settings instead of relying on passthrough, especially if your CPU is newer than the Hyper-V version—such as with your "Skylake-Server IBRS" chips. Be aware that you may need to not only lower the settings to a consumer-grade CPU line but also revert to an older generation to achieve compatibility, though avoid going too far back as it could eliminate Win 11 support entirely.
Additional information:
The provided links serve as initial references for further exploration on the topic.
It is probable that multiple factors contribute due to variations in server ages and versions.
A uniform answer might not exist.
I needed to set up Windows Server 2025 with the latest Hyper-V updates. 24H2 doesn't handle Hyper-V 2019 servers well, and Hyper-V itself doesn't meet the full requirements of 24H2. Everything is now resolved.