I don’t know what else to say: The Windows 11 upgrade status is a confusing mess. Depending on when your computer was built, what components you chose, and how it was configured, there’s a good chance Microsoft is trying to scare you away from installing the free upgrade that’s available a day early today. Millions of people will be told their systems are incompatible, and Microsoft reserves the right to stop security updates if you install them on older systems.
However, as far as we can tell, Windows 11 is largely Windows 10 with a fresh coat of paint, and there’s a strong chance your Windows 10 computer will run Windows 11 just fine. Do we recommend? Not necessarily, but this article can help you figure out if your computer is ready to drive.
Here is a basic checklist of what you will likely need and how you can meet each requirement.
- Basic system requirements: 1GHz dual-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, UEFI motherboard, TPM 2.0, DX12 graphics, 720p display
- UEFI must be enabled
- TPM must be enabled
- Secure Boot must be enabled
- If you want an in-place upgrade, the processor must be on Microsoft’s approved list
- 64GB of free space if you want to dual boot Windows 11
Before we go any further, why not try Microsoft’s official PC Health Check tool? (Direct download from here.) If you pass, you’re probably fine already. Just wait for the official Windows Update and you should be fine.
But if not, your first step should probably be to turn on your TPM and Secure Boot setting.
How to open TPM
As we discussed in June, your PC probably has a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) built into your desktop or laptop motherboard or CPU. (If not, there is rogue roads aroundBut let’s start by saying you did.)
It is possible for Windows to see your TPM and you can easily check it by running the PC Health Check tool mentioned above or by pressing the button. Win + Rhe is writing tpm.msc to the visible window and tapping login to see what kind of TPM might be in there and if it’s “ready to use”.
If not, don’t give up yet! It may be disabled in your BIOS and you will have to hunt for it.
Once in the BIOS, the TPM setting goes by a wide variety of names. (My desktop motherboard called it “Intel PTT” (Platform Trust Technology), but it could be an “AMD PSP fTPM” or just a “Security Device”.) If you don’t see a clear place to check, recommended by Microsoft It’s looking for a submenu named “Advanced”, “Security” or “Trusted Computing”.
Oh, and depending on your BIOS you may need to use your keyboard’s arrow keys to move around, and possibly even the PG UP / PG DOWN buttons to turn things on and off again. (Sorry if you know this, but it’s no longer safe to assume.)
Understood? Wonderful! But don’t leave the BIOS just yet.
If you only have one TPM 1.2 module and not TPM 2.0, you’re out of luck anyway: Microsoft will let you change a registry key in Windows to allow upgrades if you “accept and understand the risks”. If so, shoot Startmedicine regeditto call “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup,” and look for a value named AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPUand set its value to one. If not yet, right click and create a new DWORD Value with this name, then set the value to 1.
How to turn on Secure Boot
Once you’re in your motherboard’s BIOS, you’ll probably also be able to find a submenu for Secure Boot. It can be embedded in a “Security”, “Boot” or “Authentication” tab.
Scroll to “Enabled” if it isn’t already.
If you want to check if Secure Boot is already enabled from Windows (perhaps saving yourself from going to the BIOS), there are several ways to do that as well: In addition to Microsoft’s PC Health Check tool (direct download), you can hit Start and write System informationClick and launch this application to see various things including the Secure Boot pass status and your current BIOS mode.
I can’t turn on Secure Boot and I’m not sure I have UEFI.
If your computer is not very old, it is probably choice There may be a UEFI BIOS, but you may not actually be using it at the moment. You may be in an “legacy” BIOS that uses MBR (Master Boot Record) partitioned drives instead of the modern GPT (GUID Partition Table) standard that Windows requires for UEFI.
If that sounds like a lot of alphabet soup, you might want to stop here! Microsoft has an MBR to GPT conversion tool, but messing around with partition tables basically puts the data on your drive at risk. That tool didn’t work. boundary The staffer who continues to use a different method that wounds his entire department by deleting it. (Sorry, Cam!)
If you don’t care about your data, you can also do a clean install of Windows 11. And if you care about that data, why not try dual booting Windows 11 instead? Also, if your CPU is very old, these may be your only easy option.
“The processor is not supported for this version of Windows.” Help!
while there is anytime Fraudulent ways to circumvent Microsoft’s restrictions – a boundary The author scammed the Windows 11 updater by using a Frankenstein-esque combination of old and new ISOs – the company often frowned upon users with old CPUs who installed Windows 11 on existing Windows 10 operating systems while keeping current settings and files.
It turned out to be an easy workaround for this: just change a registry setting!
Otherwise, you’ll need to create a new drive partition or overwrite the existing one to do a clean install or dual boot. More on the following.
You can find Microsoft’s official lists of supported processors at these links:
- Supported Intel CPUs for Windows 11
- Supported AMD CPUs for Windows 11
- Supported Qualcomm SoCs for Windows 11
Generally, Intel 8th Gen or newer CPUs, AMD Ryzen 2000 and newer are supported.
Dual boot or clean install of Windows 11
Whether you’re starting from scratch or dipping a toe in a pair of boots, the process should be more or less the same: you need to free up some space, Download Windows 11 ISO or toolburn it to a bootable drive and use it to install Windows.
You don’t need a second drive inside your PC to dual boot – you can simply shrink your existing partition with Microsoft’s Disk Management tool. Hit Startstart typing “Create and format hard disk partitions” and press enter to start it. Make sure you have plenty of space on your drive, then right click and choose Shrink the volume. You’ll want to shrink it down to at least 65,536MB (64GB) so there’s enough room for Windows 11 — I installed 128GB (131,072MB) on my laptop just to be safe. You can’t shrink any more than you have, and you may want to give your current OS some room to breathe.
To actually upload this ISO, all you need is a USB external drive – an 8GB USB 3.0 key should work just fine – and a piece of software to burn it to disc. Microsoft has its own Media Creation Tool, which we’ll link to soon, and I’m a big fan of Rufus to burn my bootable USB drives using also downloadable ISOs.
Power users may want to try AveYo’s Universal Media Creation Toolit can download the image and bypass the TPM for you too.
If all goes well, you will reboot your computer with that USB key inserted to start the process. You may need to press a key such as F12 while your system boots up and manually select your external drive if it doesn’t load automatically.
Now, be careful about choosing the right place to install Windows 11 – if you shrink your drive to make room for dual booting, you’re telling Windows to install on unallocated space, and you’re overwriting an existing drive. a clean install (file loss ahoy!), you will choose that drive instead. For a desktop with multiple drives, you may want to turn off the power and remove the excess ones before choosing where to install them. It’s easy to hit the wrong button and clear data, and we’d hate for this to happen to you.
Once you have a dual boot, it’s not too difficult to switch between the two operating systems. shoot me Windows Type the key to pull up the start menu UEFI and choose Change advanced launch optionsselect , then reboot now. Back in the advanced start menu, Use another operating system and it will present you your choice of operating system.
Update, October 7: You may need to create a new DWORD Value named “AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU” in your registry editor if it doesn’t already exist. Also added a link this guide to do it.
