Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

While reading irrelevant stuff on Google I discovered the following interesting parameters for Windows 11 Setup:

/compat ignorewarning /migratedrivers all

The first suppresses minor warnings and proceeds with the upgrade without stopping the installation. The second is much more important! It leaves your perfectly working drivers alone, including official OEM drivers, without trying to replace them! So the full syntax of the command to upgrade Windows 11 on an unsupported computer is:

D:\setup /product server /compat ignorewarning /migratedrivers all

where D: is the drive letter of the virtual drive when you mount the ISO, change if different. Of course don't forget to disconnect from the internet during the installation, just in case.

The reason a lot of updates fail (SAFE_OS migration) is MS constantly pushes out a compatibility list which blocks specific drivers during an update. By ignoring the list with "/migratedrivers all", you're doing it at your own risk.

garlin said:

The reason a lot of updates fail (SAFE_OS migration) is MS constantly pushes out a compatibility list which blocks specific drivers during an update. By ignoring the list with "/migratedrivers all", you're doing it at your own risk.

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If a successful upgrade will save me many hours of installing, configuring and tweaking all my applications from scratch I am willing to take the risk. With the proper steps and precautions (install all updates, upgrade all drivers, disable unnecessary startup applications and devices, disconnect from the internet) I maximize the chance of success.

Disconnecting from the network means you're blocking the upgrade from checking the appcompat list. That's great for bypassing HW requirements, but it doesn't solve the problem of why MS added specific apps and drivers to the compatibility list. MS didn't add them for random reasons.

When you using Rufus to bypass the requirements, all it does is temporarily overwrite the HW portion of the block list in the registry. The goal in the end is to have a bootable Windows, and sometimes a driver should be blocked.

garlin said:

Disconnecting from the network means you're blocking the upgrade from checking the appcompat list. That's great for bypassing HW requirements, but it doesn't solve the problem of why MS added specific apps and drivers to the compatibility list. MS didn't add them for random reasons.

When you using Rufus to bypass the requirements, all it does is temporarily overwrite the HW portion of the block list in the registry. The goal in the end is to have a bootable Windows, and sometimes a driver should be blocked.

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All my drivers are compatible with Windows 10/11: Intel H61 chipset, nVidia GeForce RTX 3050, Realtek HD Audio, Realtek Gigabit Network, Wireless 802.11ac USB dongle, Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle, so nothing to fear, especially if I have updated them all before the upgrade. I prefer to deal with some minor compatibility issues, if any, than doing a clean installation that would take days with my limited free time. Common sense.

While installing windows 11 26H2 build 26340.9482 through bootable usb on unsupported hardware, I received the following error messages on different occasions while installing it.

How to fix the above errors in the next installation attempt.

gaffar said:

While installing windows 11 26H2 build 27340.9482 through bootable usb on unsupported hardware, I received the following error messages on different occasions while installing it.

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If I recall correctly, the last time I saw those error messages, "It looks like you started an upgrade and booted from installation media...." and "Windows 11 installed failed", the fix was to start over with another clean install, and switch to the previous version of Setup.

I have a Rufus enabled bootable usb and receive different error messages.This I remember, ox80070570.
I have heard lot about server method, I am trying it next.
In this way Perhaps I won’t get different error messages.
There are power cuts in my region. So I have to restart Microsoft windows 11 installation from beginning.This is a painful task for me.

It is hard to differentiate between English alphabet O and o and math number “0” zero. Thanks

gaffar said:

It is hard to differentiate between English alphabet O and o and math number “0” zero. Thanks

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Not really. Alpha is perfectly round, numeric is elliptical

gaffar said:

How to fix the above errors in the next installation attempt.

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To upgrade a compliant Windows 11 PC using the ISO you must disconnect or disable in Device Manager any other disks with GPT partition style. I have read in some threads that the installation fails if you have more that one GPT disks connected (one being the Windows disk).

In addition, to upgrade an unsupported computer using the ISO you must disconnect from the internet to prevent a hidden compatibility check that makes the upgrade to fail. Also to prevent Windows Update installing updates and causing conflicts or messing with your drivers. Other precautions are to disable any third-party antivirus, antimalware, firewall etc. To disable all startup applications so they won't interfere with the process and even some non-Microsoft services such as application updaters. Also to disable any device in Device Manager that is not needed to upgrade (sound, network, Wi-Fi, webcam, card reader etc), so Setup won't try to install any drivers for them and cause issues. After you mount the Windows 11 ISO (open with File Explorer) it will create a virtual DVD, with drive letter say, D: (change if different). The command to bypass compatibility check is:

D:\setup /product server

Or, optionally to improve chance of success:

D:\setup /product server /compat ignorewarning /migratedrivers all

The /product server parameter tricks Setup that you are upgrading a Server version of Windows for which skips compatibility check by default.
The /compat ignorewarning parameter ignores minor warnings and proceeds with the installation rather than stop it.
The /migratedrivers all parameter explicitly instructs Setup to let your current drivers alone and don't try to update them during installation.

So disconnect from the internet, take other precautions as you like (I would take them all) and run the above command inside Windows to upgrade.

gaffar said:

I have a Rufus enabled bootable usb and receive different error messages.This I remember, ox80070570.
I have heard lot about server method, I am trying it next.
In this way Perhaps I won’t get different error messages.
There are power cuts in my region. So I have to restart Microsoft windows 11 installation from beginning.This is a painful task for me.

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I just Googled the error code, it means Setup cannot read some file. Probably the ISO is corrupt (if you mount it directly) or the USB flash drive is corrupt. Download the ISO again, just in case. If you are creating a USB flash drive, create that again, although it is not necessary, see my previous reply.

Error 0x80070570

spapakons said:

I just Googled the error code, it means Setup cannot read some file. Probably the ISO is corrupt (if you mount it directly) or the USB flash drive is corrupt. Download the ISO again, just in case. If you are creating a USB flash drive, create that again, although it is not necessary, see my previous reply.

Error 0x80070570

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Bootable USB Created using Rufus giving errors. and it takes a lot time to create one especially while removing bad sectors from concerned USB.
with ventoy it is just copy paste isos, but with ventoy, it is difficult to prepare bootable USBs, which can bypass windows 11 hardware restrictions.
Only one time rufus was successful in my case to install windows 11 26H2 build 26340.9212, but now it is giving me errors on installing it 2nd,3rd and 4th times etc.

@spapacons
you said to upgrade a complian windows 11 pc ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
but i have not a compliant machine
for me server method might work. i am trying it now, disconnecting from the internet.
would windows update work, i am trying it btw. Thanks.

gaffar said:

Bootable USB Created using Rufus giving errors. and it takes a lot time to create one especially while removing bad sectors from concerned USB.
with ventoy it is just copy paste isos, but with ventoy, it is difficult to prepare bootable USBs, which can bypass windows 11 hardware restrictions.
Only one time rufus was successful in my case to install windows 11 26H2 build 26340.9212, but now it is giving me errors on installing it 2nd,3rd and 4th times etc.

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Since you have issues with your USB-stick...

If you only want to upgrade, then you can mount the ISO while inside Windows. Open up Command Prompt and just navigate to the mounted virtual DVD and use the server method of upgrading by typing in the command provided in a couple of post up.

What it will do, is copy the setup files over to your drive (which the USB method also does), then reboot, install the upgrade, reboot, install drivers, reboot, finalize the setup and finally ask for you to login as normal. It may ask you some privacy questions during the process, but that's pretty much it.

spapakons said:

I just Googled the error code, it means Setup cannot read some file. Probably the ISO is corrupt (if you mount it directly) or the USB flash drive is corrupt. Download the ISO again, just in case. If you are creating a USB flash drive, create that again, although it is not necessary, see my previous reply.

Error 0x80070570

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i downloaded 8.30 GB ISO from windows insider website.using idm. how do you download files to reduce chance of corruption. our local electric company do blackouts sfter 1,2 and 3 hours haphazardly. so download cuts several times in the midway. idm has resume options for that, i tried them also. orbit downloader might work better.

gaffar said:

i downloaded 8.30 GB ISO from windows insider website.using idm. how do you download files to reduce chance of corruption. our local electric company do blackouts sfter 1,2 and 3 hours haphazardly. so download cuts several times in the midway. idm has resume options for that, i tried them also. orbit downloader might work better.

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I doubt IDM made any errors...

But to be sure, you can check the hash of the downloaded ISO, using the Get-FileHash command in Powershell against the ISO file you grabbed.

As of today, the hash for the latest insider EN-US official ISO download is:

768984706B909479417B2368438909440F2967FF05C6A9195ED2667254E465E3

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