INSTALL THE WINDOWS 11 PREVIEW
Microsoft has released an early preview of Windows 11, but you need to be part of its Windows Insider Programme (or ‘Program’ – Microsoft flip-flops with its spelling of this) to install it.
We don’t recommend installing the preview build over your existing version of Windows 10. Like most previews, it’s likely to contain bugs and flaws, which may eventually force you to revert to Windows 10 – and that would mean reinstalling from scratch. Instead, it’s best to install Windows 11 on a virtual PC, which you can run alongside your existing Windows 10 installation. We’ll explain how to do this. Bear in mind that virtual PCS borrow system resources (such as memory, hard-drive space and processor power) from your main PC, so you’ll need a reasonably powerful computer with a minimum of a quad- core processor and 8GB of memory.
Create your virtual PC
To get Windows 11 you first need to install Windows 10 on your virtual PC using an ISO file (this doesn’t affect your existing installation of Windows 10). To get this, go to www.snipca.com/38818, click ‘Download tool now’, then run the program that downloads. Follow the installation process, selecting ‘Create installation media’ when prompted, followed by ‘ISO file’, then choosing where to save the file (make a note of this location as you’ll need it later). The download can take up to one hour, so in the meantime you can get on with creating your virtual PC.
Download and install Virtualbox from www.snipca.com/38819 (click the ‘Windows hosts’ link). Run the program, then select the Tools menu on the left, followed by the blue ‘New’ button. Give your virtual PC a name, select Windows 10 under Version, then click Next.
Leave all the settings at their defaults except the memory (select 4,096MB for this) and hard disk (select at least 80GB). Windows 11 also requires a minimum of a dual-core processor, so right-click your virtual PC from the menu on the left, then select Settings, System, followed by the Processor tab. Now drag the Processor slider to the 2 position (see screenshot below). You can give it more cores, but this will slow down your main computer. Click OK to save your changes, then run your virtual PC by double-clicking it.
Your virtual PC will now boot within a separate window and ask you to supply an ISO file. Assuming the Windows 10 ISO file that you started downloading earlier has finished, locate and select it – otherwise, put the kettle on and give it a few more minutes. Once it’s got your ISO file, the virtual PC will run through the standard Windows 10 installation process. Follow this through, using a Microsoft account when prompted to sign in (you’ll need this to access the Windows Insider Programme).
Become a Windows Insider
In your virtual PC, click the Start button, type windows insider, then press Enter. Click ‘Get started’, select your Microsoft account from the list, then read and accept the terms.
On the next screen, click the box under ‘Choose your Insider settings’. If you see an option labelled Dev Channel, select it, then skip to the ‘Upgrade to Windows 11’ section below. If not, you need to delve into the Windows registry by clicking Start, typing regedit, then pressing Enter (because we’re doing this on a virtual PC, any changes to the registry won’t affect your main PC).
First, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\ Windowsselfhost\ui\selection folder, double-click the Uibranch value on the right, then change the ‘Value data’ entry to Dev (see screenshot 1 above). Next, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\ Windowsselfhost\applicability, then double-click Branchname and change it to Dev. Also check the Contenttype value is set to Mainline and the Ring value to External (if not, edit them accordingly). Finally, restart your virtual PC.
Upgrade to Windows 11
On your virtual PC, open Settings (press the Windows key+i), select ‘Update & Security’, then click ‘Check now’. Windows should now locate the Windows 11 preview build and start downloading it (see screenshot 2 above – this took just over one hour on our virtual PC). Once it’s downloaded and installed, click ‘Restart now’ and wait for the update to complete. Your virtual PC will then boot into Windows 11.