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Install Windows 11 On Old PC

Do you want to install Windows 11, but your PC is old or unsupported?

As you already know, Microsoft has recently introduced its full commercial version of the new operating system – Windows 11. The new OS isn’t sold separately but as an upgrade to your existing Windows 10. To successfully install Windows 11, you will need a valid license for Windows 10 and version 2004 or later installed.

If you aren’t in a hurry, there’s an option to wait through the Windows update to be offered a Windows 11 installation one day, but if you don’t have the patience to wait, read on.

Install Windows 11 on a newer PC

Suppose you have a relatively new and powerful PC and want to install a new Microsoft Windows 11. Here we have two variants, installing a new OS from scratch or upgrading your existing Windows 10.

However, just in case, you need to make sure that your computer is compatible or ready to install a new OS.

The first step is to download the PC Health Check program. If PC Health Check determines that your PC is Windows 11 compatible, you must go to the second step.

The next step is to download Windows 11 from the official Microsoft site. Note that to install Windows 11, you have three options:

upgrade from Windows 10,
create a USB flash drive with Windows 11 installation and
download Windows 11 ISO image disc.

Windows 11 Installation Assistant

The easiest way to install a new OS is through the Windows 11 Installation Assistant (IA) application. With IA’s help, you will upgrade your Windows 10 to version 11 in a few simple steps. By installing this way, all your data and programs will remain intact.

For clean installation and more flexible operation, I recommend the second option to create a USB flash drive with Windows 11.
So, prepare one blank USB flash drive of at least 8GB.

After creating the Windows 11 USB installation disc, you need to reset the computer and enter the BIOS. In the BIOS, select the primary Boot device to be a USB flash drive with Windows 11.

When you restart the computer, installing a new OS will start. All other steps are similar to the Windows 10 installation process.

Please note: If the SSD isn’t new, you must know that this installation method involves deleting all data. Therefore, save important data before starting the installation on the old disk.

Install Windows 11 on an older PC

You have installed Health check, and after checking, there is a message that the computer isn’t compatible with Windows 11.

Although you think your computer is powerful enough to run smoothly with Windows 10, how is it possible it will not work with Windows 11?

No matter what Microsoft says, you can successfully install Windows 11 on your “old” or unsupported PC with a trick.

I will immediately tell you from experience that you can install Windows 11 on much older computers and laptops with dual-core processors, but with certain conditions.

The minimum RAM must be 8GB and an SSD capacity of 240GB or higher. If you meet these two conditions, you will enjoy everything the new operating system brings without any problems. If you have completed these two conditions, let’s start installing Windows 11 on an older PC.

Clean install of Windows 11

Prepare a USB flash drive with Windows 11 installation as I explained earlier. Start the computer and wait for the OS installation screen to appear.

Please select I don’t have a product key and move to the Next button for the next screen.

The next step is to choose the version of the operating system as I chose Windows 11 Pro.

After selecting the OS version, this next screen appears, informing you that your computer doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for installing Windows 11.
Most would give up right away at this stage but don’t despair. There is an elegant solution on how to move on to the next step. While still on this screen, press the Shift + F10 key combination.

A command prompt window will open in which you will type the Regedit command and press Enter.

The Registry Editor will open in which you need to select: HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / Setup

Now you need to do the following steps:

Create a new key in the right window (right-click, New Key),
The name of the new key should be LabConfig, press Enter,
Go to the right side of the Registry window, right-click, and create; New – DWORD (32-bit) Value,
Type the name BypassCPUCheck and press Enter.
Right-click on DWORD and put 1 instead of 0 in the Value Data field

Repeat the same procedure for two more values: BypassTPMCheck and BypassSecureBootCheck, so that it looks like the following image.

When you’re finished editing in Registry Editor, close the window and type exit at the command prompt.

And moment of truth

Now click the back button in the dialog box.

We return to the OS version selection and click the Next button.

And as you can see, there are no more warnings that your computer doesn’t meet the requirements for Windows 11.

Next, we continue the installation ordinarily similar to Windows 10.

After 10 to 15 minutes and a few standard questions about the Windows 11 user environment, you come to the home screen of your new operating system.

As you have seen, with a few tricks, we can make Windows 11 run smoothly and seamlessly on older hardware.

Upgrade of Windows 10 to Windows 11

Another way to install Windows 11 on your old computer involves the upgrade process with Windows 10. And for this process, you need a USB flash drive that you made in the way I described earlier.

You don’t need to change anything in the Registry Editor for this method of installing Windows 11. Note that the installation preparation includes saving all your data and programs after upgrading to Windows 11.

Here I warmly recommend that you manually save all your data in case the upgrade process goes wrong due to some driver or hardware that Windows 11 will not properly recognize.

The only prerequisite for this type of installation of Windows 11 is to download a small script from here.

Do the following steps:

Unzip the downloaded file and run the script,
From the USB flash drive with the Windows 11 installation, run the setup.exe file

It would be best to connect to the Internet while installing the OS update.

Ignore the warning that there will be a compatibility issue with your hardware in Windows 11.

Before upgrading your existing OS, choose what you want to do with your data.

You are then ready to install Windows 11. Be patient until the installation is complete, and see the new Windows 11 interface in about 30 to 45 minutes.

Conclusion

If you’re curious about the new Windows 11, you can try it out on your PC even though PC Health Check says otherwise. The only condition is that your PC has enough memory (at least 8GB) and an SSD with which the new operating system will work quite well.

I would recommend making a USB flash drive with a Windows 11 installation and starting with a clean installation on a blank SSD. This way, you’ll be familiar with the Windows 11 interface, and if you don’t like it, don’t upgrade from Windows 10.

However, if you decide to upgrade right away, I advise you to save manually all the essential data just in case. It is unlikely that something will go wrong, but Murphy’s Law does not sleep. Anyway, good luck with installing and migrating to Windows 11.

If you have any additional questions or suggestions, do not hesitate to leave a comment.

How To Install Windows 11 On Old PC