[Guide] Installing Windows 11 on Unsupported hardware

[EphraimK]

Chances are, your PC is not compatible with Windows 11. In fact, most CPUs on the market right now aren't compatible! Well, right now, I'm going to show you how to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.

 

There are three popular ways to install Windows 11. Two of these worked for me on my Dell Latitude E6420 (from 2011). Just a fact, I'm typing this from Windows 11 on my "unsupported machine". The three popular ways to do this:

 

1. Windows Insider Registry Hack

This one did not work for me. During the time Windows 11 was in beta, this worked as a way to get updates. Well now, this doesn't work. There is a way to join the Windows Insider Program from Windows 11 to receive Dev channel updates using this script . This worked for me to download the update- to about 8% until Windows Update opened the "Check your PC" page. You can stop this from happening by hacking the registry to not detect your CPU, but, if you're like me, your PC doesn't have Secure Boot...So you still won't pass the test despite your PC not being detected. But that's for updating after you've installed (not to mention that was only during the Dev Beta). Well, doing this from Windows 10 gives you the same "Check your PC" screen shouting "Your PC sucks!" I mean "You don't have Secure Boot". I have a TPM 1.2, and Windows excepts that, but no Secure Boot... That's all I'm gonna say about this option.

 

 

2. The ISO Merge

I like to call this solution "The ISO merge". This way is incredibly simple. And it worked for me.

Here's what you need.

 

1. A Windows 10 ISO (You'll need to download their Media creation tool, unless you download from macOS or Linux, in that case it gives you an ISO download link)

2. A Windows 11 ISO

3. WinRar or 7-Zip

 

1. When your software is downloaded and installed, and your ISOs are downloaded, we can get to work. Start by opening both ISOs. Copy the contents of the Windows ISO to a folder on your desktop. Call the folder "Win11". 

2. Go to Win11/sources and delete either "install.esd" or "install.wim" (Depending on how you downloaded it, it will be either one of these). 

3. Go to the Windows 11 ISO/sources and copy "install.esd" or "install.wim" and paste it in the Win11/sources folder.

 

After this you can either re-compress it with ImgBurn, but this never booted for me when I used it. What I recommend doing is

 

Option 1 (recommended). Format a USB flash drive of 6GB or more to Fat32 and copy the contents of Win11 to the drive. You can boot off of it there.

 

Option 2 (Not recommended). Run Win11/setup.exe. The reason I don't recommend this is because once when I did this, the Windows Explorer environment did not respond. I used the "run setup.exe" method three times, the first                                                         two times with a developer version (via UUP Dump), and the third time with a release version of the ISO from Microsoft's website. Using a release version of the ISO the PC had this error, not the two                                                           times I use a UUP Dump ISO. You have been properly warned. This can, however be fixed by resetting your PC, which I did. I chose the option to keep my files, delete my apps and this worked. It                                                                reinstalled Windows 11 and kept my files.

 

 

3. Registry Hack during manual install

This one also worked for me. 

Here's what you need.

 

1. Windows 11 ISO

2. USB Flash drive of 6GB or more

3. Rufus for flashing the drive

 

Alright.

 

1. Use Rufus to flash the ISO to your USB drive.

2. Boot off the USB.

3. Press the Shift+F10 keys to open the Command Prompt

4. Type in regedit and press enter.

5. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / Setup and create a new key (right-click on Setup / New> / Key) and call it "LabConfig". Create three new DWORD (32-bit) values called BybassSecureBootCheck           

    BypassTPMCheck and BypassCPUCheck. Set them all to a  Hexadecimal of 1 (by double-clicking on them individually). 

6. Close the regedit and the Command Prompt.

7. Proceed with the setup as you normally would.

 

I hope this helps you install Windows 11 on your "unsupported" machine. If you have questions, feel free to PM me, or just comment below!

 

Thanks for reading,

                 EDK Tech

[WkdPaul]

- your thread was moved to the Guides and Tutorials section -

[EphraimK]

oops...i thought i put it there

[stephentidwell420]

I'm running windows 11 on unsupported hardware and while I'm not looking for help I'd like to point out probably due to a lack of uefi bios and secure boot windows 11 is unable to properly check the boot volume 

 

My solution was to use a copy of Hiren's Boot CD and use the appropriate program to check and reset the dirty bit preventing me from performing trim on my ssd or in this case my boot volume

 

P.S. I believe the only thing left that works to install Windows 11 these days that confirm works on retail release is the registry hack during manual install

 

it is also worth noting that the reset windows option won't work correctly if your bios is unsupported as well

[EphraimK]

5 hours ago, stephentidwell420 said:

I'm running windows 11 on unsupported hardware and while I'm not looking for help I'd like to point out probably due to a lack of uefi bios and secure boot windows 11 is unable to properly check the boot volume 

 

My solution was to use a copy of Hiren's Boot CD and use the appropriate program to check and reset the dirty bit preventing me from performing trim on my ssd or in this case my boot volume

 

P.S. I believe the only thing left that works to install Windows 11 these days that confirm works on retail release is the registry hack during manual install

 

it is also worth noting that the reset windows option won't work correctly if your bios is unsupported as well

Yes, UEFI Bios is of course vital, unless you use the ISO merge hack, or use a registry hack. 

SecureBoot is not a problem. My computer is "unsupported" because of the CPU and lack of SecureBoot. I do have TPM 1.2 though, and, Windows 11 actually accepts that. But, lack of SecureBoot does not cause Windows to not check the boot volume properly. My drive worked perfectly running Windows 11, with some hiccups (OS bugs). Just a note though, I don't like Windows all that much after working with my Raspberry Pi and experimenting with Ubuntu, I just finished today a full transition from Windows to Linux. In fact, I'm typing this from Ubuntu 20.04. One of the main reasons I switched was this was simply faster. Plus, I can run most Windows applications using WineHQ, some macOS applications using DarlingHQ (once I get it working) and those I can't get running, I can install a Windows virtual machine and use my parents' MacBook.