Windows 8 is the next big thing from Microsoft and installing it is a breeze if your system is ready. Windows 8 has some very specific processor requirements above just he processors clock speed.

A processor must have support for SSE2, PAE, and NX to run Windows 8. SSE2 is an instruction set used by third party applications and drivers. PAE and NX are processor security features required to enable protection from malware and viruses.

The easiest way to determine if the processor has these features it to run a command line application called Coreinfo. You can download core info from this link.

Unzip Coreinfo.zip to your desktop and open the command prompt as shown below.

Change the directory to your desktop by typing the command cd desktop, then type coreinfo to run the utility.

In the display provided from CoreInfo, make Sure the highlighted items are supported:

If the highlighted items are supported - Congratulations, your processor is compatible with Windows 8!