What are the earliest CPU's supported by Windows 8 & Server 2012:

Windows NT 6.2 (Windows 8 & Server 2012) need a these x86 extensions:
PAE/NX/SSE2

The newest of the three instruction sets (NX) was first supported with the first AMD64 processors (2003), very late 32bit Intel Pentium 4 processors from 2004 onward has this requirement.
Windows NT 6.2 Operating Systems will fail to boot on processors before launch before 2003 (AMD) or 2004 (Intel).
No 32 bit CPU for AMD CPUs. very few for intel (64bit was being introduced to Pentium 4 around 2005).
Requirements will stay the same until Windows 11 24H2 where there are newer extensions required.
Late Windows NT 6.1 (Windows 7 / server 2008 R2) updates from 2018 onward also required PAE/NX/SSE2. Killing off Intel Itanium (IA64) ISA support and any x86 CPU before what was listed above.

Sources:
learn.microsoft.com
Wikipedia: NX Bit
Wikipedia: P4 Prescott
Wikipedia: WinSer 2008 R2

Date: Fall 2024

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