You can bypass the requirements
Not all of them. Windows 11 stopped booting with Update 24H2 on CPUs that don’t support the Instruction POPCNT. But that’s only an issue for really old CPUs like Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD Athlon 64 X2
For a bit more context than “really old”: I had an Intel Core 2 Duo in 2009.
Another angle: Those were some of the first dual-core x86 processors, released 2006 and 2005 respectively. (Intel had the Pentium D as its first in 2005).
I don’t remember which I had for sure. I’m leaning more towards Core 2 Duo. It was my first PC, I was 12 and built it with my father.
I also got my first computer around then. I saved up for ages and bought the first gen Intel MacBook with an Intel Core Duo (2 cores, no hyperthreading). I still have that laptop somewhere… It blew my mind it could run Windows, and Windows laptops couldn’t compare at the time.
