Solved Help with upgrade to Windows 11 on Unsupported

Hi, I am posting here to see if I can get some help on upgrading to Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.
I am currently running Windows 10 Home 22H2 Build 19045.4291 which goes out of support in 2025. PC Health check shows unsupported CPU and no TPM 2.0.

I therefore tried to do an in place upgrade to Windows 11 using a method found on YouTube. This supposedly does not require the registry hack or some of the other workarounds listed by others on this forum. The method involves downloading the latest Win11 ISO from Microsoft, mounting the ISO and copying the contents to a folder(win11) on the C: drive then running C:\Win11\setup.exe /product server. This supposedly installs Windows 11 as a server and bypasses the CPU and TPM compatibly checks. Everything goes fine and there are no error messages about unsupported hardware and the system reboots to commence the installation
I have tried this four time but each time it hangs at 89% on the second boot with an error The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error in during MIGRATE_DATA operation. 0xC1900101 - 0x4000D.
what I have tried so far:-
1) Unplugging all external USB devices except keyboard and mouse (removed wireless keyboard and used generic USB keyboard and mouse).
2) Removed any add-in cards eg Firewire and USB PCI Cards
3) Uninstalled 3rd Part Sophos Home antivirus
4) Uninstalled any software that might impact upgrade eg Samsun Magician, Powerline Utilities etc
5) Because the error relates to the migration phase I have temporarily moved all the contents of the Document, Music, Video, Downloads libraries to another disk.
Note if relevant. I have two 1Tb Seagate SATA data disks attached. One is NTFS and the other ExFat

I have used the latest Win11 ISO 23H2 from Microsoft download page choosing International English (my pc is GB English) and have even tried an ISO created by the media creation tool but all hang at the same point and come up with the same error on reboot after rolling back.
I would rather not do a clean install unless forced to as I have a few programs I cant replace.
I have attached the setuperror.log file which has numerous errors but have no idea what I am looking for in the log

Does this method work or do I have to use one of the other methods which modify the registry or as the error message implies this is a bad driver? Do I have to upgrade to Win 11 22H2 first and then to 23H2 in order for this to work? If so where can I get a clean copy of 22H2 please?
Any help would be appreciated
Fozzie

Get a USB stick with at least 8gb or higher capacity.
Download and install Rufus.
Rufus has options for installing your Windows 11on your device to automatically bypass your unsupported cpu and TPM.

In this video, i will upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11 on unsupported computer hardware. Although Windows 11 has a higher system requirement, you may still be able to perform an upgrade on an unsupported computer. The Windows setup has an “appraiser” service that checks to see if your computer meets the minimum hardware requirements for that version. It’s possible to replace the appraiserres.dll file in the Windows 11 setup with one from an older build of Windows 10. In order to replace the Windows 11 DLL with one from Windows 10, you’ll actually need the setup files for Windows 10.

Dannydet said:

Get a USB stick with at least 8gb or higher capacity.
Download and install Rufus.
Rufus has options for installing your Windows 11on your device to automatically bypass your unsupported cpu and TPM.

Click to expand...

Thanks but that's a clean install. I need to keep some of my programs which OI no longer have the install media. Also I am not sure its the TPM or CPU, I think it may be another issue? Unless the error is a known TPM/CPU upgrade issue

FreeBooter said:

It’s possible to replace the appraiserres.dll file in the Windows 11 setup with one from an older build of Windows 10.

Click to expand...

It's a lot easier to just replace the appraiseres.dll file with a zero-byte (blank) one that you make in any text editor and then save as appraiserres.dll. You do this after you start the setup.exe and while you still have access to the desktop.

FreeBooter said:

In this video, i will upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11 on unsupported computer hardware. Although Windows 11 has a higher system requirement, you may still be able to perform an upgrade on an unsupported computer. The Windows setup has an “appraiser” service that checks to see if your computer meets the minimum hardware requirements for that version. It’s possible to replace the appraiserres.dll file in the Windows 11 setup with one from an older build of Windows 10. In order to replace the Windows 11 DLL with one from Windows 10, you’ll actually need the setup files for Windows 10.

Click to expand...

Many thanks, Ill try your solution and report back.

You are very welcome and good luck!

Wisewiz said:

It's a lot easier to just replace the appraiseres.dll file with a zero-byte (blank) one that you make in any text editor and then save as appraiserres.dll. You do this after you start the setup.exe and while you still have access to the desktop.

Click to expand...

That's what I did with 2 Win10 Notebooks from 2014, seem to be working fine. I did the Upgrade by running the setup.exe file on the USB drive from within File Explorer on the booted Win10, not from booting to the USB drive. Just for s&g I did the same on a Dell Precision Desktop with a XEON CPU, pulled the Win10 HDD, hardware-cloned it to a same-size HDD then installed Win11, worked and I then changed back to the Win10 drive, put the Win11 drive on the shelf and can put it back in use if desired.

@Fozzie Bear

This method will work easily enough.

1) Create a vhdx file large enough for your updated windows system via diskpart -- and run as administrator

2) attach the vdisk

3) on the vdisk create efi partition and data partition

4) clone the existing system to the disk

5) boot it

6) Remove these two registry entries so you can (re-)join the insider program. These 2 registry entries once removed wil prompt for "Becoming a windows insider" (You can always "Unjoin" afterwards.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\Applicability
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\UI

7) reboot system

8) windows insider -- join windows insider --> link account (ignore any warning about insufficient hardware)

9) now simply update via Windows update.

If you don't want the hassle of using vhdx files backup existing system (so if it goes pearshaped you can restore) and start from step 6.

Easily done

QED

cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

@Fozzie Bear

This method will work easily enough.

1) Create a vhdx file large enough for your updated windows system via diskpart -- and run as administrator

2) attach the vdisk

3) on the vdisk create efi partition and data partition

4) clone the existing system to the disk

5) boot it

6) Remove these two registry entries so you can (re-)join the insider program. These 2 registry entries once removed wil prompt for "Becoming a windows insider" (You can always "Unjoin" afterwards.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\Applicability
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\UI

7) reboot system

8) windows insider -- join windows insider --> link account (ignore any warning about insufficient hardware)

9) now simply update via Windows update.

If you don't want the hassle of using vhdx files backup existing system (so if it goes pearshaped you can restore) and start from step 6.

Easily done

QED

cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

Many thanks @jimbo45, I think I need to try your method. Unfortunately I tried both the methods outlined by @FreeBooter and @Berton and both failed with the same error message The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error in during MIGRATE_DATA operation. 0xC1900101 - 0x4000D. I am beginning to think this is a hardware issue rather than a Win 11 upgrade issue. I have another SSD which I can use to clone the existing Image to using Macrium Reflect. If that fails the next step is a clean install on a empty SSD and possibly dual boot so I can keep the software I have on Win10 .
Many thanks for all who have replied to help me out.

Fozzie Bear said:

Many thanks @jimbo45, I think I need to try your method. Unfortunately I tried both the methods outlined by @FreeBooter and @Berton and both failed with the same error message The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error in during MIGRATE_DATA operation. 0xC1900101 - 0x4000D. I am beginning to think this is a hardware issue rather than a Win 11 upgrade issue. I have another SSD which I can use to clone the existing Image to using Macrium Reflect. If that fails the next step is a clean install on a empty SSD and possibly dual boot so I can keep the software I have on Win10 .
Many thanks for all who have replied to help me out.

Click to expand...

This may not help you much, but I like to keep the installers for all the software I use in OneDrive so whenever I need to clean install, they are always one of the first things available! You can probably do the same thing with Google Drive or iCloud If you prefer to use those instead. (This only really helps if the software you use is able to auto update itself to a newer version, from an older version since the installers do get dated pretty quickly. You can see my Chrome installer is from 2020! But it still works fortunately.)

Fozzie Bear said:

both failed with the same error message The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error in during MIGRATE_DATA operation

Click to expand...

That implies there was a first boot phase and I did not boot to the USB drive, just double-clicked/ran the setup.exe file on that drive while having File Explorer open in Win10.

Many thanks @DennyZenny
I do normally keep all my software on an installs repository on my server. Unfortunately the ones I am missing are from a company that has gone our of business and even if I reinstall them they will no longer activate on the company's activation server has been taken down.
Many thanks for the suggestion though.

Fozzie Bear said:

Many thanks @DennyZenny
I do normally keep all my software on an installs repository on my server. Unfortunately the ones I am missing are from a company that has gone our of business and even if I reinstall them they will no longer activate on the company's activation server has been taken down.
Many thanks for the suggestion though.

Click to expand...

Thats unfortunate.

Berton said:

That implies there was a first boot phase and I did not boot to the USB drive, just double-clicked/ran the setup.exe file on that drive while having File Explorer open in Win10.

Click to expand...

Hi @Berton There was no USB stick involved. The install was an inplace upgrade directly from an iso on the hard drive.

A mounted .iso file is read-only and I've found the change/s needed to enable installing on unsupported computers can't be made but they can be made on the USB Thumb drive created by the MCT.

Berton said:

A mounted .iso file is read-only and I've found the change/s needed to enable installing on unsupported computers can't be made but they can be made on the USB Thumb drive created by the MCT.

Click to expand...

When starting an in-place upgrade from a mounted ISO it first copies the files setup will run to the C: drive. You can then replace the copy of appraiserres.dll there.

Disconnect from the internet before starting. Mount the ISO and run the Setup.exe you'll find there. On the first screen click 'Change how Setup downloads updates' and select 'Not right now'. Next replace C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\appraiserres.dll with an empty dummy file, make one by making a new text document on your desktop and renaming it as appraiserres.dll. You can now continue the install and it will skip the compatibility checks.

Hello @Fozzie Bear: By chance did you disconnect from the internet before and during your attempts to upgrade? Ever since 22H2 came out, I've always disconnected from the internet when doing in-place upgrades on unsupported devices. There is a chance that if you are connected to the internet during the upgrade, the altered apparaiseres.dll could be overwritten.

@Bree

Yours is a much more complete version of my #5 above. Well done.

What are your current plans for troubleshooting versus backing up files and a fresh installation?

Had you uninstalled Avast?