How to bypass the requirements

Does Windows 10 say your processor isn’t supported by Windows 11? Here, we explain how to bypass the restrictions and complete the installation

The CPU and TPM requirements to upgrade to Windows 11 are catching a few people out. Unlike previous operating systems, Microsoft is enforcing a strict dress code on the Windows 11 party. If your machine doesn’t hit its published list of requirements, then we’ve got a solution to get you from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

We’re going to guide you through two setup routines and show you some sneaky ways to bypass Windows 11’s checks for CPU, TPM and a few other gotchas. First, we’ll upgrade from Windows 10 on a machine with an incompatible sixth-generation Intel Core processor, and for those with something older still we’ll do a fresh installation of Windows 11 on a first-generation Core i3 machine.

Before we begin, we need to make Microsoft’s position clear if you decide to proceed with our bypass tweaks:

“The PC doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements for running Windows 11 – these requirements help ensure a more reliable and higher-quality experience. Installing Windows 11 on this PC is not recommended and may result in compatibility issues.

“If you proceed with installing Windows 11, your PC will no longer be supported and won’t be entitled to receive updates. Damages to your PC due to lack of compatibility aren’t covered under the manufacturer warranty. By selecting Accept, you are acknowledging that you read and understand this statement.”

Read that? Still here? Then let’s begin.

OPTION 1 IN-PLACE UPGRADE

Your first step is to modify the Windows Registry. Select Windows PowerShell (Admin) by right-clicking on the Start button in the bottom left-hand corner. Now type the following command, pressing Enter at the end (there’s a space after the “/v”, not a line break):

REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassTPMCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1

If PowerShell doesn’t then report that

“The operation completed successfully”, double-check your spelling and spacing.

This command adds an entry to the Registry called “BypassTPMCheck”.

Now to bypass the Windows 11 CPU check. Type the following command, pressing Enter at the end:

REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassCPUCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Again, if you don’t get a confirmation message, then check your spellings and spacings (note that, again, there is a space after the “/v”) .

We aren’t quite ready yet, however, as Windows 11’s strict requirements may scupper your installation chances in other ways, too. We can easily overcome the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage limit, as well as the requirement for Secure Boot. If required, use these commands in the same way:

REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassRAMCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1

REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassStorageCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1 REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassSecureBootCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Now close PowerShell. Your machine will bypass these checks and Windows 11 should install if you follow our advice in the main feature.

OPTION 2 THE CLEAN INSTALL

An alternative method is to perform a clean installation of Windows 11 on a freshly formatted drive. If you’ve turbo-charged an old machine with an SSD, this is a great way of extending the life of older hardware.

This method is extremely simple to perform and is almost identical to the advice in the main text. However, we need to make a small intervention during the setup to inject the necessary code to once again bypass the CPU and

TPM requirements.

RIGHT Pressing Shift+F10 will bring up our old friend, the command prompt

As before, create a bootable Windows 11 USB stick. This time, boot your PC with the USB stick inserted. On a fresh drive, the machine should find the files on the USB stick, but if it continues to look in the wrong place, then pressing F2, F8, F12 or DEL during the startup procedure should bring up a boot selection menu.

At the Windows Setup screen, press Shift+ F10 to open the command prompt box as shown in the image below. Now, very carefully, type in the following: REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup /v AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU /t REG_DWORD /d 1 Press Next and the installation will continue as normal.