Microsoft is ending Edge support on computers without SSE3

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Microsoft has updated the official Edge documentation on the Microsoft Learn website to warn users about compatibility changes that will soon be made to the browser. Starting with version 126, Microsoft Edge will require a processor with the SSE3 instruction set and newer. Computers with CPUs that do not support SSE3 will be out of support.

05/13/2024 Microsoft Edge support on CPUs without SSE3 will be out of support in Edge version 126.

Just like the story with POPCNT instructions in Windows 11 24H2, SSE3 support in Microsoft Edge will only affect a small fraction of users who run the browser on very old hardware. Intel introduced SSE3 in 2004, and AMD followed suit shortly. The earliest Intel processors with SSE3 include chips with Prescott cores (Pentium 4, Pentium D, Celeron D, etc). On the AMD side, those are Opteron, Sempron, Athlon 64, and others that were based on K8.

Microsoft Edge 126 is expected in the Stable Channel on the week of June 13, 2024.

As of right now, Microsoft Edge has the following software requirements:

Windows: Windows 10 and Windows 11
macOS: Catalina 10.15 and newer
iOS: iOS and iPadOS 14 and newer
Android: Android 4.4 KitKat and newer
Linux: yes
Chromebooks: Edge does not support Chromebooks

The last time Microsoft updated the documentation was in January 2023, when the company notified users about the end of Microsoft Edge support on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Server 2008 R2, Server 2012, and Server 2012 R2. Edge 109 is the last version that works on those platforms.

Some of the other processor-related changes in Microsoft products include the original Windows on ARM PCs. Although Snapdragon 835 was never supported in Windows 11, it was possible to bypass hardware requirements and run the latest OS unofficially. Starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, the operating system requires ARM v8.1 and newer, which renders the Snapdragon 835 physically unable to run the upcoming update. There are also rumors about AMD not supporting Windows 10 in next-generation Ryzen processors.