Windows 8 has officially been released with new features and improvements. Users who are planning to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 shouldn’t go by the system requirements given in the official page as many users are receiving “Your PC’s CPU isn’t compatible with Windows 8” error while upgrading to Windows 8.
The error occurs when a user tries to upgrade to Windows 8 on a machine that doesn’t support PAE, NX, and SSE2 features. Users who have are getting the error should check out the BIOS for NX entries and enable the same. If the feature isn’t available, there is no working method available to install Windows 8.
Even though most processors support these features, it makes sense to check if your PC’s CPU supports PAE, NX, and SSE2 features before starting the installation procedure. So, how to check if your PC’s processor supports above mentioned features? Simple, download and run a small command-line utility named Coreinfo to see if you can install Windows 8 on your PC.
Follow the given below instructions to know how to use the Coreinfo tool to verify if your PC’s processor supports PAE, NX, and SSE2 features.
Check if your CPU supports Windows 8/8.1
Step 1: Download Coreinfo tool zip file from here and extract the file to get coreinfo.exe file.
Step 2: Open Command Prompt by entering CMD in Start menu search box and pressing enter key. If you are on Windows 8 CP or DP, switch to Start screen, type CMD and then press enter key to launch the same.
Step 3: In the command prompt and enter the full path to the coreinfo.exe file and then press the Enter key. For example, if you have saved the coreinfo.exe file on desktop, you have to enter C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\Coreinfo.exe and press enter key.
Step 4: In the result, check for PAE, NX, and SSE2 entries. If your processor supports a feature, you will see * character next to the feature name, and – character if not supported. As you can see the below screenshot, our processor supports PAE, NX, and SSE2 features.
Don’t forget to verify if your processor supports Windows 8 Hyper-V feature.
shaleem says
my CPU is core i3 M330 @ 2.13 and it supports NX and PAE
shai says
i have amd atlon processor.can i install windows 8 in my system?
carolyn says
brainout says
November 4, 2012 at 1:35 pm
What instructions he gave worked for me
Wy973 says
Manoj, you must unzip de zip file. You will have coreinfo.exe
Manoj Chahar says
as i type “C:\Users\Home\Desktop\Coreinfo.zip”
it does not show the support of PAE, NX, and SSE2
rather it just opens the Coreinfo Zip file
what should i do?
please reply.
kyle says
bought a cheap Pent 4 541 off ebay ($5 w ship incl) for an old dell originally with a Pent 4 520 SPECIFICALLY TO GET 64 BIT + NX, PAE, & SSE, but >>>>
BEWARE: you may also need CMPXCHG16B, PrefetchW, and LAHF/SAHF capability.
W8.1 clean install success 32bit but failed 64bit as my processor has no PrefetchW.
the only way I ever proved this lack of capability (aside from the pop-up during 64bit install) was Coreinfo, but, I must say, it was very frustrating trying to figure out the EXACT characters to input to run the cmd. not! not! not! obvious! in fact – it was as if Microsoft Itself wrote coreinfo, well, I guess it is DOS……
but it beats wasting time playing Candy Crush
Snakeman says
Too bad when I ran it, I got this:
Coreinfo requires Windows XP 64-bit or higher, or Windows Server 2003 or higher.
FeXid says
I came here because I wanted to upgrade my OS from Wind7 to Wind8. Previously, I tried the Upgrade Assistant software from microsoft and the results said that my processor did not not support the “NX” thing. But, after I tried the Coreinfo software, the result was definitely different. It said that the “NX” thing was suppported. I don’t know which one is correct. I didn’t even try to install the wind8 yet. FYI, I am using Intel i3-M330 @2.13 GHz. Does anyone else have the same processor?
Peeyush says
Why NX ? what is it ? stupid windows 8
ken says
thank you, it worked just as in your instructions “use the cmd prompt, and type in the exact address of the coreinfo.exe location.
my hp pavillion a230n does not support.
I agree w8 is a waste of good money and will stay with w7 i read that MS is rethinking w8 and some big changes are coming soon.
ken
cheid says
If your Coreinfo window closes too fast, you can make a text file in Coreinfo folder with .bat extention and following contents ‘Coreinfo.exe >>log.txt’. Run this .bat file and it will write all info in the log.txt, located in Coreinfo folder.
jajaja says
very usefull and so easy thank you very much
nitindodiya says
my pc. cor 2 deo 3gb rem 500 GB disc not supported
windows 8 but y
Chris says
Hey guys if you are still looking and if coreinfo is not staying open try running in the cmd box the following: If the CMD already shows C:\Users\Yourusername>
Place the following to make it run:
downloads\coreinfo\coreinfo.exe
This is what worked for me.
Protocol1972 says
“Coreinfo not staying open”
Try running CMD as Administrator,
GazzMan says
mikey1352 & Rick press windows key & R together then browse to the directory of the coreinfo file and then type the file name in. Window will display information
By the way my i7 720qm processor dosen’t support NX :-(
brainout says
HERE’S HOW TO FIX THE CORE INFO BUG.
Copy the coreinfo.exe to your root directory.
Open Notepad and then type in it what’s BETWEEN the tildes
~~~~~~~~~~~
coreinfo.exe
PAUSE
~~~~~~~~~~~
Now save those two lines as ‘core.bat’ or any other name you like, so long as you use a ‘bat’ extension.
Then hit Start Run, and in the dialogue box type the name of that file.
Now the DOS window will stay open, but it’s at the end of the file, so you have to scroll up to read it.
brainout says
It does that because the guy who wrote the program, wrote it wrong. The program ends with an EXIT command, rather than staying open. So it runs, but you can’t see its output.
Since it’s an exe rather than a bat file, you can’t edit it to fix this simple bug, and you’ll have to wait MONTHS before someone actually tells the guy it’s buggy.
So I guess MS will lose sales, since no sane person would buy an upgrade which says it needs the mysterious ‘NX’, but you can’t tell if it’s in YOUR BIOS.
So that’s one more reason to avoid Windows 8. Not a good sign, when the Advisor itself can’t work and the program MS says you need to run, also won’t work.
Rick says
I have the same problem with Coreinfo not staying open. Anyone got a clue as to why it does that?
mikey1352 says
I tried “coreinfo” it runs, but it won’t stay open. It just flashes on briefly, then disappears.
Faizan Ali says
AW YEAH MY CPU supports NX, PAE and SSE4.2 and its not even a i7 its a simple Pentium D 945 3.4GHz
Andreas says
I would much rather see an article on how to check if Windows 7 users need the upgrade to Windows 8.
–
I think we do not at all.
For us Windows 8 is a stillborn microsoft child.
There is nothing that justifies the money wasted on an upgrade.
admin says
Thanks for the tip.
mikmik says
You can also just drag and drop the coreinfo.exe into the cmd terminal instead of typing the path. It will appear automatically.