Microsoft blocks one way of installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware
Over the weekend, there has been quite a bit of panic about Microsoft blocking one of the ways to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. Some news sites claimed that this was the end of all bypasses.
Reporting has gone out of hand. This article's aim is to offer a balanced view.
The details:
- One method to bypass Windows 11 hardware requirements is blocked in Windows 11, version 25H2.
- Administrators could run setup.exe with the parameter /product server to bypass requirements.
- Other bypasses, including through Rufus, are unaffected.
Windows 11 Hardware Requirements
Microsoft changed the hardware requirements of its Windows 11 operating system when it launched. The operating system checks during setup if the PC is compatible.
This is done through various checks to determine if the processor and other components are supported. If they are not, Windows setup throws the error "this PC can't run Windows 11".
This does not necessarily mean that the PC is incompatible. Sometimes, certain requirements may be disabled. This can be the case for TPM 2.0, Trusted Platform Module.
Microsoft created the PC Health Check app for users. The app checks if the PC it is run on meets the system requirements of Windows 11.
The message This Pc doesn't currently meet Windows 11 system requirements is shown, if at least one requirement is not met.
Two main cases are possible:
- A requirement is not met that is fixable easily. This can be a lack of storage space or because a feature like Secure Boot or TPM is not enabled.
- Requirements are not met that can't be fixed without replacing hardware. Incompatible processors or systems that do not support TPM at all come to mind.
Requirement checks can be bypassed to install and run Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.
The full number of Windows 10 and earlier PCs that are not compatible with Windows 11 is unknown. In 2023, Canalys Research estimated that at least 240 million devices are incompatible and therefore stuck on Windows 10.
Windows 11: Microsoft created ways to bypass hardware requirements
Microsoft created several methods to bypass hardware requirements of the Windows 11 operating system.
One of them was the aforementioned setup parameter. Many admins liked it, because it required no preparation of the Windows 11 ISO image or changes of the Registry.
Windows enthusiast Bob Pony discovered that Microsoft patched the option in the Windows 11 insider build 27686.
Windows 11 setup threw the error "This PC can't run Windows Server" and stopped the installation as a consequence.
Other bypasses exist. Software, including Rufus and Ventoy, prepare the installation media to bypass the checks. This is a convenient way, as you do not have to manipulate Registry keys manually.
This is probably the easiest option right now to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.
Both use the same Registry bypass, which administrators may also apply during setup of the Windows 11 operating system.
The Windows 11 Registry bypass
You may use Rufus or Ventoy to apply these automatically. This is the manual option:
- Run Windows 11 setup as you normally would.
- Hit Shift-F10 during the language setup page; this opens the command prompt.
- Type regedit and press the Enter-key; this launches the Registry Editor.
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup.
- Right-click on Setup and select New > Key.
- Name the key LabConfig.
- Right-click on LabConfig and select New > Dword (32-bit) value.
- Name it BypassTPMCheck.
- Double-click on the value and set it to 1.
- Right-click on LabConfig again and select New > Dword (32-bit) value.
- Name it BypassSecureBootCheck.
- Double-click on the value and set it to 1.
- Right-click on LabConfig and select New > Dword (32-bit) value.
- Name it BypassCPUCheck.
- Double-click on the value and set it to 1.
- Close the Registry Editor window.
- Close the Command Prompt window.
- Continue with setup.
The changes bypass the TPM, Secure Boot and Processor checks of Windows 11's setup.
Note that you may also bypass RAM, Storage, and Disk checks.
- BypassRAMCheck - Set to 1 to bypass RAM checks.
- BypassStorageCheck - Set to 1 to bypass storage requirements checks.
- BypassDiskCheck - Set to 1 to bypass disk checks.
Microsoft is enforcing new hardware requirements in Windows 11, version 24H2
Up until now, Microsoft has not enforced hardware requirements. You could install Windows 11 on an unsupported PC and it would run fine. This changes with the release of Windows 11, version 24H2.
Microsoft is enforcing a CPU requirement. The processor needs to support SSE4.2 to run the new version of Windows. This feature is supported by the majority of PCs, as it was introduced around 2008.
Still, users who have installed Windows 11 on a PC that does not support it cannot upgrade their devices to the new version of Windows 11 or install it from scratch.
Closing Words
While there is a possibility that Microsoft is blocking other bypasses in the future, it is equally possible that Microsoft won't. The number of incompatible devices is going down with each passing year, as only compatible PCs are sold nowadays.
For now, other bypasses continue to work.
What is your take on the removal of the bypass? Let us known in the comments below.
Martin…thank you for all the work you have done…you have really helped me (and thousands of others I imagine) enjoy and protect the promise of all the good that computers and the internet were intended to provide humanity.
In that vein of thought, is it possible to use those registry mods on a new laptop that meets W11 standards, but runs on W10Pro successfully enough to get a pass as a W11 machine?
I’d really like to run DX12 on Fortnite, but Epic has caved to MS’s demand to run W11 under TPM 2.0.
Also, is there a way to load TPM 2.0 on a TPM 1.x machine?
All the best,
SpaceMarine
Boycotting your own software, interesting business model
“The processor needs to support SSE4.2 to run the new version of Windows. This feature is supported by the majority of PCs, as it was introduced around 2008.”
I have a old Q9000M from 2009 that only supports SSE4.1
I guess i will be forced to eventually ditch windows completely, i am not going to discard perfectly fine old computers that are serving their purpose just because MS and their advertisers/OEM want it.
Windows 7 feels like home and they run my old games like a breeze, MS can shove hog ad 11.
I don’t even play any modern games anymore, modern windows is losing it’s utility. If i ever need it i will just crack and dual boot it. Disposable junk OS.
I’m in the same boat, maybe for sentimental reasons, I am very loyal to my hardware. It has served me well for over a decade and still performs amazingly (I thought computers were supposed to get slow or sluggish after some years?).
With my main PC, for example, I know it’s limitations (which are few) and work around them. really the only limitation is modern gaming, but I look at the modern games and somehow they are not so appealing to me.
By the way, don’t ever feel like you’re missing out, because I figured this out some years ago: companies eventually pivot away from improving their own products so as not to risk making them too good, then change things up and repeat the trajectory. A hardware or software product must have flaws or a shelf-life so that you’ll go back to the vendor for the “newer” thing.
I look at so many things nowadays and if you go back 5, 10, 15 years you find things had better attention to detail, higher overall quality, and quality of life/use features you would not have even dreamed of.
I am actually a tech enthusiast and lots of things amaze me, cameras, phones, consoles, computers, but the new stuff most of the time is lame in more ways than one.
Reply; bruh’s Comment.
WHY IT PAYS TO KEEP WHAT YOU OWN!
Design has shifted more toward manufacturability and appearance than functionality, when it should be a balance of all three. Arguably, it’s nearly impossible for corporations to avoid participating in the trend cycle as long as consumers have an appetite for more — whether it’s a predilection for cooler clothing or whatever new incremental yet buzzy technology just came out. At the same time, the blame does not lie on consumers’ shoulders; corporations are responsible for creating and stoking the “new and more is better” culture we have today.
microsoft has screwed windows 11 up so bad people are going back to windows 10 big time
Microsoft an anachronism like politics poly- def. Many, ticks -def. Small Blood sucking creatures.
And it fits Microsoft def. Micro defined as small or miniscule and soft define as mushy or without form or structure. So Microsoft keeps making dumb decisions with little real forward vision they will one day no longer be in business or only a shell of a company existing only in name and for marketing like rca or Magnavox , Westinghouse, general electric and hundreds of other former mega corporations you may see products with these names but they are just name plates made by who knows who .
Blocking unsupported hardware from installing Windows 11 will just result in most people sticking to Windows 10 even after it goes out of support in 14 October 2025 (buying new computers is expensive after all), and will also result in more people switching to Linux Mint or other distros which is good news in Linux world but bad news for Microsoft since they are shooting themselves in the foot by blocking unsupported hardware from installing Windows 11. All the Windows 11 requirements are arbitrary except for SSE4.2 requirement in 24H2.
Don’t want your garbage new OS anyways. Windows 7 has been more than enough for me still.
Enjoy bloodmoney of people, monopoly at its fullest.
It’s not like Microsoft is hiring our militias and hit-squads to gun people down, “bloodmoney” is such a ridiculous thing to say about a tech company, a company which only ever used “force” in the legal sense.
It’s also not a monopoly… many insults and complaints you can throw at microsoft and windows, how about you use the ones that are true?
I really don’t care because I won’t be going there.
Is Windows 11 an OS for real people? I remember years ago, the worry about everything going online. Look where MS is now. I have a Windows 10 desktop that I despise, but use for some online things. My workhorse is my Windows 7 computer and my playtime is also on a Windows 7. I will surrender Windows altogether before I ever do battle with an online advertising monster.
At this point I think it’s pretty obvious what is their strategy for the future windows releases, and i mean after the testing ground called “11”
They’re following apple’s “Walled garden” approach, full control both in HW (See ARM CPUs) and OS level
If that’s the case then i’m sad to say this but Windows 10 will be the last MS OS for me.
Microsoft has made quite a mess for themselves with these artificial requirements, and it will be fun to watch things unfold from Linux as the end of Windows 10 support draws closer. Not as much fun as Recall would have been to watch, or how fun and satisfying it is to watch Windows gradually mutate into a platform that prioritizes covering everything in ads and dark patterns instead of actually serving the end user.
I’m still salty that there was such a public uproar over Recall though. We knew enabling Recall by default was a very bad idea, but sitting quietly and letting them make the mistake of deploying Recall on everyone would have been the better course of action IMHO. It’s like a game of chess, never interrupt your opponent while they are making a mistake.
I don’t get it.
People will wait in line to spend $1000 on the newest cell phone every 6 months, a device designed to track your every digital and physical move, with an ever changing OS designed to make settings they don’t weant you to see harder and harder to find and apps that change near daily.
But for FFS they will have a fit if you suggest they should replace that 5 year old PC or laptop, or change it’s OS in any way, that they use to shop online or send private emails from. /faceplam
Have you considered the cost to the planet? It’s not just the manufacturing process, it’s also the recycling cost (sorry I meant Humanitarian Aid to Africa, who then dump it). There is absolutely no reason for older phones not to work for longer periods of time, other than manufacturer greed. Just how much innovation is left these days anyway?
@Tachy,
You can flash an OS onto a PC which is newer than the hardware, and you can even flash software onto hardware which didn’t exist when that hardware was made, because a lot of care and attention went into making drivers which work across a wide range of devices. Then, you can even inject/install more specific drivers that are made by hardware manufacturers.
Mobile phones do not work under the same premise of “standard drivers”, if you want to flash an OS onto a phone, it has to be an OS image that was specifically made for that phone, or close enough. So keeping a phone after the hardware vendor has decided to give up on the software is infinitely more difficult. Ever heard of installing a display or a microphone driver onto a phone? it’s just not a thing.
But also I don’t care, my main phones are a jailbroken S2 and an S4 mini. I can text, listen to music with a headphone jack, take photos, notes, browse a good portion of the web, and watch youtube thru a 3rd party app. There’s also a bunch of games from that era which don’t suck and contain no ads. Be the change you want to see.
It’s probably because PC’s didn’t start out this way, and people who’ve been using them for literal decades have a rightly well-defined expectation as to how they are to behave. Completely Under the operator’s control, not working against their own/private interest, fully functional offline/without an online account, etc etc.
I would not be surprised if Microsoft has lucrative deals with hardware manufacturers to make people buy their new hardware.
Most of the old hardware can easily run Linux. It’s faster than Windows and much more user friendly now.
Who would willingly install a Windows OS which these days has become little more than an adserver and riddled with AI into the bargain.
From experience installing Windows 10 on a machine that was not listed by the manufacturer as supported, one day your non-supported box is going to give you problems you will not be able to fix without going back to the version of windows the box shipped with.
Or, just install Linux.
Linux isn’t a solution. It’s a garbage consumer desktop OS. It belongs, headless, as a server, or a compute endpoint, and only where a GUI is begrudgingly needed by the end user due to the software (Cadence, Synopsis, etc).
Sincerely, your local systems engineer maintaining such environments.
Microsoft doesn’t care about us, they force us to install Windows 11 on PCs not supported on Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 to forbid us from installing Windows 11 25h2, it’s big nonsense
Don’t download the latest .iso, problem solved.
“Many admins liked it”
Installing Win11 on unsupported hardware in corporate environment is just dumb and asking for trouble later on.
They can block all ways of installibg W11. No one will really care. Thanks for the article! :]