Windows 11 on unsupported CPU's

[mikkh]

www.theverge.com/22715331/how-to-install-windows-11-unsupported-cpu-intel-amd-registry-regedit


This sort of works in that it actually started the Windows 11 installation on an old i5 CPU based computer.

I think they forgot to mention one step though, it will still require 'secure boot' and EUFI to be enabled in the BIOS if it has any chance to work.

I was expecting a bit much from that CPU (ten years old) and it runs Windows 10 perfectly fast enough with an SSD - Windows 10 is so ugly though!

If your computer is newer (say 4-6 years old) and fails the compatibility test much to your annoyance, there is still hope for you with this.

Just check you have secure boot and EUFI boot already enabled first.

If you don't there is a chance your current (Windows 10) OS will not boot after the change. If this happens, just switch back to 'legacy' to get access to Windows 10 again.

Happy tinkering.

[mikkh]

There's an easier way that works without registry hacks, secure boot and reliance on TPM2 or any TPM at all.

Tried it on two PC's now and it works fine.

You'll need both the Windows 10 ISO and the Windows 11 ISO first - available from Microsoft

Make a bootable Windows 10 (yes 10) USB stick, but don't use the media creation tool from Microsoft because it will use the FAT 32 filesystem and make the next step impossible.

Use 'rufus' instead and make sure you change to NTFS as the file system

Open the newly created bootable USB stick and go to the sources folder and find install.esd and delete it

Open the Windows 11 ISO ( Windows will mount it and treat it as an optical drive) go again to the sources folder and find the install.wim file and copy it to the Windows 10 bootable USB stick
To the same sources folder obviously and you're done!

With the USB stick still inserted reboot the PC/laptop and press the relevant boot menu key (to boot USB) - you should research that first if you don't know already. F12 and F11 are the most common but it could be several others. Just search for common boot menu keys in google (it's NOT the key to enter the BIOS)

It will say Windows 10 to start with, but by the time you pick 'home', 'pro' or whatever version you want, it will say 11 and it will install Windows 11 because that's what install.wim contains.

It's quite annoying they restrict it to newer hardware because it runs fine on older machines - assuming you have at least 8 GB RAM and an SSD drive.