Solved Installation of Win 11 on incompatible Win 10 CPU

mecanicogolf · Jul 27, 2022

I have a borderline HP ENVY March 2017 model with an Intel CORE i5 7200 @2.50Ghz Kaby Lake CPU. Win 11 is running great on this machine and a lot better and faster than 10. I know I will get feedback on this statement, as I have before from this forum and I really don't care much about anyone saying how I should not be doing it. I have been since Windows 11 came out and I'm even on the BETA channel. Why go back?
Anyway what I'm getting to is what's the difference between using Win 11 on an incompatible Win 10 CPU and running Win 10 on my old Win 7. The old HP 620 runs Win 10 just fine and it's not compatible I believe but running great.

SlicEnDicE · Jul 27, 2022

Windows 10 runs fine on almost all Windows 7 PCs.

Difference between Windows 10 and 11 and the CPU support in particular has only to do with slightly worse performance with certain security features enabled.

Other difference is that Windows 11 has certain protections enabled by default while 10 does has them disabled. If your computer supports TPM2 then you're pretty much good to go.

Look at my laptop specs, I run 11 on an incompatible CPU too and it works great.

mecanicogolf · Jul 27, 2022

I have Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 AND...I've got CORE ISOLATION turned ON that doesn't turn off by itself as it did on Win 10. Never got anyone on the forum who knew the answer to my question why it does that. On Win 11 it stays fixed and stable. I'll never go back to Win 10 after over a year now.

bobkn · Jul 27, 2022

Some Microsoft people have hinted, darkly, that future Win 11 updates will not be installed on PCs that do not meet the official requirements. It has not happened, so far.

I expect there will be work-arounds, if the threat ever comes to pass.

Dru2 · Jul 27, 2022

mecanicogolf said:
I have Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 AND...I've got CORE ISOLATION turned ON that doesn't turn off by itself as it did on Win 10. Never got anyone on the forum who knew the answer to my question why it does that. On Win 11 it stays fixed and stable. I'll never go back to Win 10 after over a year now.

The only thing that makes your PC incompatible is the CPU (i5-7200).

I have a 2017 Lenovo laptop that meets all the Windows 11 requirements (TPM, Secure-Boot) except the CPU -i7-7600U. I'm running Windows 11 Pro through the Dev channel on it without issue.

BTW Core-Isolation (Memory integrity) is NOT a breaker that Windows 11 won't install or function. My desktop fully supports Windows 11 Pro RTM, even though I can't enable "Memory integrity" due to needed incompatible drivers Windows runs and functions just fine.

mecanicogolf · Jul 27, 2022

Thanks everyone!

mecanicogolf · Jul 27, 2022

bobkn said:
Some Microsoft people have hinted, darkly, that future Win 11 updates will not be installed on PCs that do not meet the official requirements. It has not happened, so far.

I expect there will be work-arounds, if the threat ever comes to pass.

In about a year and a half, Win 12 will come out and all our PC's for eleven won't work with Win 12.

And...........here we go again!

Try3 · Jul 27, 2022

mecanicogolf said:
I really don't care much about anyone saying how I should not be doing it

I don't know why you say that. There are several threads in this forum dedicated to running Windows 11 on incompatible computers; it's a topic of great interest to many members.

mecanicogolf said:
Anyway what I'm getting to is what's the difference between using Win 11 on an incompatible Win 10 CPU and running Win 10 on my old Win 7

Nothing.

Denis

mecanicogolf · Jul 27, 2022

I'll tell you why I said that. I am one of them who has great interest but I received so much flack from the forum that I gave up for quite some time. I explained to everyone how well my incompatible PC was running and all I got was people telling me all the negative things about having it installed on my poor incompatible PC and that I SHOULD go back to Win 10 NOW.

That's OK though. Went in one ear and out the other. As I stated, I'm into over a year now on the BETA channel of Win 11 and no problemos.

bobkn · Jul 27, 2022

Strange. There are a lot of people here running 11 on unsupported hardware. That includes me, on a laptop that meets every requirement except that it has a Gen 6 CPU.

There may be some risk, but I can always return to 10 on that laptop if it ever becomes desirable. It has been fine, so far.

And the next major release of Windows shouldn't be until late 2024, at the earliest. (Based on the 3 year announcement.)

Try3 · Jul 27, 2022

mecanicogolf said:
I received so much flack from the forum that I gave up for quite some time

I know what you mean.
I stopped using SevenForums for that reason.
TenForums was much, much better.
ElevenForum has been, in my experience, mostly alright. I'm hoping it will be in the much, much better camp by the time I am forced to update my other computers in 2025 and end up using this forum much, much more.

All the best,
Denis

Bree · Jul 27, 2022

mecanicogolf said:
all I got was people telling me all the negative things about having it installed on my poor incompatible PC and that I SHOULD go back to Win 10 NOW.

There are risks running 11 on unsupported devices, should MS ever change their mind about allowing them to receive all the updates. There are practical issues too, workarounds are needed should you ever need to re-install or do an in-place upgrade.

For a novice user I would recommend staying on Windows 10. But if you have some technical skills and know what you're doing then there should be no problem running Windows 11 on an unsupported device.

I have 11 running on 4 machines, two are fully compatible, two are unsupported. One of the unsupported devices is running the Insider Release Preview build of 22H2 without any issues, and gets all the updates.

Dru2 · Jul 28, 2022

mecanicogolf said:
I'll tell you why I said that. I am one of them who has great interest but I received so much flack from the forum that I gave up for quite some time. I explained to everyone how well my incompatible PC was running and all I got was people telling me all the negative things about having it installed on my poor incompatible PC and that I SHOULD go back to Win 10 NOW.

Most of the Windows 11 nay-sayers don't even run the OS. They might claim they gave it a try, but.... The only thing wrong with Windows 11 are people's fear of change.

Good luck.

mecanicogolf · Jul 28, 2022

Dru2 said:
Most of the Windows 11 nay-sayers don't even run the OS. They might claim they gave it a try, but.... The only thing wrong with Windows 11 are people's fear of change.

Good luck.

Obviously, I am not one of them if I have been running it on my supposedly Win 10 only PC for over a year now.

spapakons · Jul 29, 2022

As I have said at the other relevant threads, running Windows 11 on an unsupported machine is as secure as it would be running Windows 10 64-bit with the same settings and applications. Absolutely no difference. Don't believe others that say running Windows 11 would get you all sort of viruses and malware. Bu****it. It is exactly the same safe as running Windows 10 64-bit, so no reason to go back. Even if Microsoft would stop updates, you would run an updated third party Antivirus and that's it. The same as running Windows 7 or 8 today, just make sure you have an updated protection and don't worry about Windows updates. Also core isolation (memory integrity) in theory makes the computer more secure if using virtualization, but it also makes your computer very slow, it has a performance penalty. So even if your computer can use it, I recommend to disable it to boost performance. Also remember that you don't need Windows 11 native drivers, any Windows Vista 64-bit driver or newer works in Windows 11 with the exception of some Intel graphics Windows 7 64-bit drivers. For these you either rely on Windows Update to find drivers or use modified Windows 7 drivers that do install on newer Windows versions. An example are the modified drivers for Intel GMA 4500 (aka Mobile Family 4) graphics of my 2nd system.

Bree · Jul 29, 2022

spapakons said:
Even if Microsoft would stop updates, you would run an updated third party Antivirus and that's it. The same as running Windows 7 or 8 today

I suspect that if Microsoft ever did stop updating unsupported devices the AV definitions would continue to get updated, just the security/quality cumulative updates for the OS itself would stop. Windows 7's Microsoft Security Essentials still gets updates to this day. MSE uses the same scan engine and virus definitions as W10/11's Defender.

spapakons · Jul 29, 2022

The worst it can happen is that you won't get updates enabling new features. Eventually (in some years time) your Windows version will be so outdated that you cannot use any new hardware or software. By then you would probably have replaced your computer anyway, so don't sweat. No rush to do it now.

mecanicogolf · Jul 29, 2022

spapakons said:
As I have said at the other relevant threads, running Windows 11 on an unsupported machine is as secure as it would be running Windows 10 64-bit with the same settings and applications. Absolutely no difference. Don't believe others that say running Windows 11 would get you all sort of viruses and malware. Bu****it. It is exactly the same safe as running Windows 10 64-bit, so no reason to go back. Even if Microsoft would stop updates, you would run an updated third party Antivirus and that's it. The same as running Windows 7 or 8 today, just make sure you have an updated protection and don't worry about Windows updates. Also core isolation (memory integrity) in theory makes the computer more secure if using virtualization, but it also makes your computer very slow, it has a performance penalty. So even if your computer can use it, I recommend to disable it to boost performance. Also remember that you don't need Windows 11 native drivers, any Windows Vista 64-bit driver or newer works in Windows 11 with the exception of some Intel graphics Windows 7 64-bit drivers. For these you either rely on Windows Update to find drivers or use modified Windows 7 drivers that do install on newer Windows versions. An example are the modified drivers for Intel GMA 4500 (aka Mobile Family 4) graphics of my 2nd system.

I'll try turning off memory integrity and see how the performance reacts. It does run a little slower and, of course, gotta think about the CPU not being compatible and not put any more unwanted strain on it. I notice it takes a while to start (HDD) and for some files to react slower too.

spapakons · Jul 29, 2022

Try to cleanup your disk and then defrag. It is a good idea to scan and fix disk errors before defragmenting. Windows defrag should be OK, but for better results I use Auslogic Free Defrag. Also if you have very little free disk space it affects performance. Consider moving some data to another disk to free space. Do that before defragmenting.

mecanicogolf · Jul 29, 2022

I turned off Core Isolation. Right now I don't see much difference, but I'll keep using it without it on for a while and see if it makes a big difference.
What could happen to my PC if it's off? I hate leaving it less secure and if I see little or no difference, I'll slide her back on.