I've come accross a feature of modern Intel CPUs called MSR 0x2E that is somehow involved in power management functions. I figured that MSR stands for Model Specific Register, and I guess this MSR has been there at least since the Sandy Bridge generation, but possible much longer.
Now, many mainboards since 2012 lock this register at boot, so that any attempts to write to it result in a GPF. This is a problem for a certain popular OS (that shall not be mentioned here), as it cannot be installed on those mainboards without modifying either the board or the OS.
Out of curiosity, what does MSR 0x2E do? And why do most mainboard (MSI, Asrock, Foxconn, ...) vendors lock it?
(For security reasons? Are they selling a premium unlocked version (they do this with VT-X/VT-D which is unavailable on some 'consumer' boards)? Do they have an agreement with Apple or Microsoft? etc...)
