CPU Not Compatible – What Is It
Some users wanting to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 experienced errors with installation. One of these errors is CPU Not Compatible. When you click and run the “Get Windows 10” from your system tray bar, you’ll receive the “CPU is not compatible with Windows 10” error. When this happens, it might be good to check if there’s a bug or if your NX feature (a requirement for the Windows 10 installation) is enabled.
Solution
Error Causes
The “CPU is not compatible with Windows 10” error normally occurs when:
- NX feature is not enabled
- You experienced the Windows 10 bug
Further Information and Manual Repair
To successfully upgrade to Windows 10, your CPU must support Physical Address Extension (PAE), SSE2, and NX features. If any of these features are not activated on your system, it’ll cause the CPU not compatible error. However, some users still reported experiencing this error even though their CPU has these features activated. Normally, this is due to the bug that Windows acknowledged.
If any of these two scenarios apply to your computer, the following methods will help you fix the problem:
Method 1 – Check for bugs
The bug applies to some Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 systems. The bug occurs when the “Get Windows 10” app fails to recognize CPUs as being compatible. This produces a false negative result with a message, “Here’s why Windows 10 cannot be installed on this PC: The CPU isn’t supported”. To fix this bug, Microsoft released an update.
Unfortunately, the patch update (KB2976978 for Windows 8/8.1 and KB2952664 for Windows 7 SP1) to fix the bug may not be automatically downloaded to your computer. If this is the case, you need to verify first if the patch was installed correctly. To do this, follow the steps below:
- Click ‘Start’ and type in View Installed Updates. The “View installed updates” icon should appear. Click the icon.
- Go to the Search bar (Top right portion) then type the patch name for your system. Make sure that you type the correct patch name for your system since Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 have different names. If you find the patch, it means it’s already installed. You can now upgrade to Windows 10 without the CPU not-compatible error.
- But, if you can’t find it you need to install the patch manually.
- Go to Windows Update then click the “Check for Updates” button.
- Browse through the available updates and look for KB2976978 for Windows 8/8.1 or KB2952664 for Windows 7 SP1
- Download the right patch. You may need to reboot your system once it’s done.
- The downloaded patch should be applied after a day or two with the Windows Task Scheduler. Once the patch is applied, you can now upgrade to Windows 10.
Method 2 – Check CPU features and activate them if needed
A major requirement for Windows 10 upgrade is for the CPU to have Physical Address Extension (PAE), SSE2, and NX features enabled on your system. If you receive the CPU not compatible error, one possible cause is that any of the mentioned features are not available OR not enabled on your system. Here’s how you can fix this:
- Verify if your CPU supports the three instruction sets. You can use software that provides information like this. If all three are available, proceed to the next step.
- Go to your computer’s BIOS. To do this, reboot your computer. You will need to press a key specific to your computer’s manufacturer (usually it’s F12, F8, F2, or DEL).
- Look for the NX (No Execute Bit) settings. This is normally found in the “Advanced Configuration” menu, or something similar to this. Just take note that the NX setting can be named differently in BIOS. Some other names include EDB (Execute Disabled Bit), EVP (Enhanced Virus Protection), Execute Disabled Memory Protection or No Excuse Memory Protect.
- Once you’re in the NX settings, make sure that it’s enabled.
- Exit the BIOS and SAVE your changes.
- Boot your computer normally, then try upgrading to Windows 10 again through the “Get Windows 10” app found in the system tray.
Method 3 – Force enabling NX Bit
If changing the settings in your BIOS doesn’t do the trick, your final option is to force enable the NX bit in your Windows system. However, this is only applicable IF and ONLY IF your CPU does support it. To force enable NX bit, do the following:
- Click Start and go to command prompt (Type “cmd” – no quotes) and press enter.
- Copy and paste the text below to the command prompt.bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOn
- Execute the command. You will need to reboot your computer once this is done.
- Download and install Windows 10


It would be very difficult to even start a free eMail list without mentioning Google's Gmail. Introduced all the way back in 2004 as an invite-only service it became over time the most popular email platform largely due to the fact Google is offering free eMail accounts.
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Lack of organizing messages into folders is a little confusing since Gmail offers its own unique label system but sometimes I need to have old reliable save eMail to folder.
All in all, Gmail is a great service and it offers a great eMail on the go experience.
Free Windows eMail client simply called Mail is what was once outlook express. Mail itself has the ability to work with other popular accounts like Google Gmail account, Yahoo, iCloud etc. How it comes with Windows OS and it integrates very well with Microsoft Calendar, this eMail client is for many the first choice.
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Overall, a simple and nice eMail client worth your time, especially if you are on the Windows platform.
Great eMail client matching in functions against paid and premium solutions of big tech companies. Fueled with plenty of customization options and reskinning ones this eMail client offers a lot for its free price tag.
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All in all, Thunderbird is one great eMail client and it would be a shame not to use it because of its technical side, if you need a reliable and secure eMail client on a single machine, look no further than Thunderbird.
Outlook comes as a part of the Microsoft Office suite and as one of the oldest eMail clients, it is still widely popular and adopted through many users and businesses. It has tight integration with all Microsoft services and full integration with Calendar making it one of the if not the best eMail client out there.
Outlook also has a free online service completely free for personal use as well.
The downside is that you can not get it as a separate product if you want a business version other than as a part of the Office suite.
The final verdict would be that this is perhaps the best eMail client out but the big downside is that there is no desktop version outside the Office suite.
eM Client offers a wide array of features, including a calendar, contacts, and chat. Support is provided for all the major email services including Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, and Outlook.com. The latest version also offers PGP encryption, live backup, basic image editing capabilities, and auto-replies for Gmail.
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A one-time purchase is not pricy and it could offer some features that some free clients are missing. Go check it out with a free trial and see if it is for you.
This eMail client's main focus is the simplicity of use with visual appeal while tackling multiple eMail accounts. It has many built-in apps along with a customizable interface. Unlike some more Microsoft-centric email clients, Mailbird Business supports a diverse range of integrated apps, including WhatsApp, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, and Slack, all making for a better-streamlined workflow.
The downside of this client is the yearly subscription plan. I think people, in general, want to get away from software subscription plans so I will include this as a downside but bear in mind it is downside just in terms of a business plan not in the client itself.
Inky is eMail client if you are looking for security. It uses AI along with machine learning in order to block all types of phishing attacks that can get through to other clients. The proprietary machine learning technology can literally read an email to determine if it has phishing content, and then is able to quarantine the email or deliver it with the malicious links disabled. It also takes things a step further and offers an analytics dashboard, which allows an administrator to see patterns of attacks based on dates, or targeted users.
The downside is that client itself is so much focused on security that sometimes some nonsecurity features get overlooked and provide a poor experience but if you need a good and greatly secured eMail client Inky is one to check out.
However, if you are working on a computer with a keyboard and mouse this feature might annoy you and seem like something that is not needed. Like many things inside Windows 11 this feature also can be customized and turned OFF if you do not want it.
In this guide, we will see how to turn these boxes off. Microsoft has somewhat hidden this feature but luckily it is not difficult to find it if you know where to look.
Storage management Page update
Another thing with the Steam store management page is the ability to move installation files from one location to another. Let’s say that you have two or more hard disk drivers in your machine and that you have SSD that you use for running stuff since it is fast and larger and slower one for storage. Now you can easily and quickly move one installation from one to another in order to take advantage of your faster SSD for quicker LOAD game times without making a new installation.
Also, you can now drag and drop items in the download bracket to reorder download orders or place them as active downloads to start downloading right away. 