Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

junglee · Jun 6, 2022

I had missed out on reading the message issued by Microsoft on 24th of June 2021 at

Preparing for Insider Preview Builds of Windows 11

UPDATE 6/28 at 12:30pm PDT: See this blog post on an update on Windows 11 minimum system requirements. Today, we unveiled Windows 11 to the world, and we know Windows Insiders are super excited to get th

blogs.windows.com

a day or two before the release of Windows 11. I suspect that some members who have installed Windows 11 on uncompliant PCs may have also missed out. For those who have not read this message, it is very much worth reading.

The letter has cleared a few unanswered questions in my mind including why I am getting Windows 11 updates from Microsoft in the Beta Insider Channel and the future that may be awaiting for my PC.

SlicEnDicE · Jun 6, 2022

I am fairly certain I have not missed out on anything. I have one computer that is not even close to meeting any of the minimum Windows 11 requirements (12 years old hardware) and also have another device that only have an incompatible CPU, while the other requirements (security) are in check.
I haven't noticed any differences on either machine (except for the security related things, which I have mostly turned off for performance anyways), and if I had a compliant CPU too, I am almost certain I would experience more bugs than I have so far.

I've tested every part of Windows 11 from day one, even stuff that should not even work on my computer according to Microsoft because of my location and my hardware. Everything has been running flawlessly.

...so there is that... :wink:

SlicEnDicE · Jun 6, 2022

Windows 11 is 99% just a new skin put on top of Windows 10...in a few years this may be different though. So far hardware has not changed that much in 12 years to make any kind of difference in the end.

dbartenstein · Jun 6, 2022

SlicEnDicE said:
I am fairly certain I have not missed out on anything. I have one computer that is not even close to meeting any of the minimum Windows 11 requirements (12 years old hardware) and also have another device that only have an incompatible CPU, while the other requirements (security) are in check.
I haven't noticed any differences on either machine (except for the security related things, which I have mostly turned off for performance anyways), and if I had a compliant CPU too, I am almost certain I would experience more bugs than I have so far.

I've tested every part of Windows 11 from day one, even stuff that should not even work on my computer according to Microsoft because of my location and my hardware. Everything has been running flawlessly.

...so there is that...

Agreed. I'm running Win 11 on 3 non-compliant machines (1 straight Win 11, 1 Dev, 1 Beta), the oldest being about 13 years old, and am not seeing any issues. Windows Update is having no issues with any of them.

cereberus · Jun 6, 2022

dbartenstein said:
Agreed. I'm running Win 11 on 3 non-compliant machines (1 straight Win 11, 1 Dev, 1 Beta), the oldest being about 13 years old, and am not seeing any issues. Windows Update is having no issues with any of them.

Just because that is true now does not necessarily that it will always be true in the future.

Eventually, the day will come when drivers need to be updated for (later) W11, releases and old hardware will not be able to cope unless pc vendors issue updates (not likely if devices are getting old).

The main reason W11 works on most devices now (regardless of TPM bypass etc) is because there is not yet enough of a difference between W10 and W11 (in terms of drivers), and W10 drivers happily work on W11. W8 drivers used to (mostly) work on W10 at initial release, but as time has gone by, that is no longer true - even more so for W7 drivers. The same will happen with W11 at some point for some devices.

Cromax · Jun 6, 2022

cereberus said:
Just because that is true now does not necessarily that it will always be true in the future.

Eventually, the day will come when drivers need to be updated for (later) W11, releases and old hardware will not be able to cope unless pc vendors issue updates (not likely if devices are getting old).

The main reason W11 works on most devices now (regardless of TPM bypass etc) is because there is not yet enough of a difference between W10 and W11 (in terms of drivers), and W10 drivers happily work on W11. W8 drivers used to (mostly) work on W10 at initial release, but as time has gone by, that is no longer true - even more so for W7 drivers. The same will happen with W11 at some point for some devices.

not true i use old sata controller driver from 2015 and works fine

spapakons · Jun 6, 2022

All devices work fine (with rare exceptions and some Intel graphics devices) as long as there is at least Vista 64-bit driver. Intel intentionally blocks Windows 8/10/11 from using their Windows 7 drivers to force us upgrade our hardware. We either rely on Windows Update to automatically find drivers or use a third part modified Windows 7 driver like I did for my test laptop (1st system specs). I used modified drivers for Intel GMA 4500 (Intel Mobile 4 family) graphics card, see my older posts.

Bree · Jun 6, 2022

SlicEnDicE said:
Windows 11 is 99% just a new skin put on top of Windows 10...in a few years this may be different though. So far hardware has not changed that much in 12 years to make any kind of difference in the end.

I would have said more like 90%. The other 10% is the defaults for many of the security settings. The main reason MS have imposed a minimum hardware requirement seems to be so that a default install of Windows 11 can reliably have all the advanced security (eg. core isolation) turned on by default, whereas in Windows 10 although they were available they are all turned off by default.

SlicEnDicE · Jun 6, 2022

As long as your hardware vendor adhere to the latest WIndows driver model specs, you'll be fine with any hardware. You only need a HDD/SSDD, RAM a MB and a CPU, which of only the MB chipset really needs a driver in order to work properly. That won't change anytime soon.

spapakons · Jun 6, 2022

If a driver works now on Windows 11, 99.99% it will also work in newer Windows 11 versions. Like a driver that works in Windows 10 RTM (2015 first release) also works in Windows 10 21H2.

Mark Phelps · Jun 7, 2022

Since this thread is about using Win11 on incompatible hardware, I thought I would add my comments here. IF this is the wrong thread, then let me know where this needs to go.

I read here somewhere recently that build 22621 can not be installed on incompatible hardware using the previous hack of deleting the AppraiserRes.dll file.

If this is true, that implies that once upgraded to that build, Windows Updates will no longer be supplied, and/or will no longer work, with PCs that don't pass the hardware check.

I'm asking because I have two "incompatible" PCs running Win11 at present and if build 22621 ends this, rather than upgrade, I will just restore the PCs to Windows 10.

magilla · Jun 7, 2022

Mark Phelps said:
Since this thread is about using Win11 on incompatible hardware, I thought I would add my comments here. IF this is the wrong thread, then let me know where this needs to go.

I read here somewhere recently that build 22621 can not be installed on incompatible hardware using the previous hack of deleting the AppraiserRes.dll file.

If this is true, that implies that once upgraded to that build, Windows Updates will no longer be supplied, and/or will no longer work, with PCs that don't pass the hardware check.

I'm asking because I have two "incompatible" PCs running Win11 at present and if build 22621 ends this, rather than upgrade, I will just restore the PCs to Windows 10.

That is what I experienced today when I tried to upgrade 4 non-compatible computers to June 7 update. It runs a check and specifies missing tpm 2.0 and secure boot on these computers. I have not removed appraiserres.dll file, so cannot comment on that.

PurSpyk!! · Jun 7, 2022

Used Rufus to create an install CD, using the fix the program provides, and my first gen i7 computer updated and all runs as expected. Windows update works, and even tried to install some drivers. I have no issues so far.

dbartenstein · Jun 7, 2022

magilla said:
That is what I experienced today when I tried to upgrade 4 non-compatible computers to June 7 update. It runs a check and specifies missing tpm 2.0 and secure boot on these computers. I have not removed appraiserres.dll file, so cannot comment on that.

I got that too. Used the rufus solution

6391mb · Jun 7, 2022

Mark Phelps said:
Since this thread is about using Win11 on incompatible hardware, I thought I would add my comments here. IF this is the wrong thread, then let me know where this needs to go.

I read here somewhere recently that build 22621 can not be installed on incompatible hardware using the previous hack of deleting the AppraiserRes.dll file.

If this is true, that implies that once upgraded to that build, Windows Updates will no longer be supplied, and/or will no longer work, with PCs that don't pass the hardware check.

I'm asking because I have two "incompatible" PCs running Win11 at present and if build 22621 ends this, rather than upgrade, I will just restore the PCs to Windows 10.

Is the reg hack no longer working as it certainly was a while back.

Mark Phelps · Jun 7, 2022

6391mb said:
Is the reg hack no longer working as it certainly was a while back.

I don't know about the "reg hack" -- as I have not used that. Neither did I use the RUFUS solution, although I know about that.

Instead, I simply extracted the ISO to a folder and deleted the dll file.

At least as recently as build 22000.708, this has worked fine on "incompatible" hardware.

Bree · Jun 7, 2022

Mark Phelps said:
I read here somewhere recently that build 22621 can not be installed on incompatible hardware using the previous hack of deleting the AppraiserRes.dll file.

I have 22621 installed and running on incompatible hardware. In fact, it started off with 22593 and has had Windows Update download and install all the upgrades from then on up to the latest one for 22621. For each upgrade to succeed I had to use a workaround.

MS now check for the existence of appraserres.dll and the install or upgrade will fail if it has been deleted. You now have to replace it with a dummy file, zero bytes in size, and named apprasierres.dll. To make one, create a new text document on your desktop, then rename it.

Mark Phelps · Jun 7, 2022

Bree said:
I have 22621 installed and running on incompatible hardware. In fact, it started off with 22593 and has had Windows Update download and install all the upgrades from then on up to the latest one for 22621. For each upgrade to succeed I had to use a workaround.

MS now check for the existence of appraserres.dll and the install or upgrade will fail if it has been deleted. You now have to replace it with a dummy file, zero bytes in size, and named apprasierres.dll. To make one, create a new text document on your desktop, then rename it.

WOW -- thanks very much for this!!

spapakons · Jun 8, 2022

Yes, latest Insider's Preview versions for appraiserres.dll and if it's missing you get an error. I am not sure if this will also be true for any new general release version. The workaround is to replace it with an empty file. Right-click on the desktop, create a new text file. Rename it to appraiserres.dll and copy it to the folder replacing the original file.

jbcarreon123 · Jun 8, 2022

spapakons said:
Yes, latest Insider's Preview versions for appraiserres.dll and if it's missing you get an error. I am not sure if this will also be true for any new general release version. The workaround is to replace it with an empty file. Right-click on the desktop, create a new text file. Rename it to appraiserres.dll and copy it to the folder replacing the original file.

When MS found this workaround, they may sign the DLL and the install/upgrade will fail if the DLL is not signed by MS provided sign.

I hope this will not happen.