Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

Yes, this is a very good starting point if coming from Windows. Works like a charm on older and slower hardware and both looks and behaves mostly like any Windows machine, except with less choppy experience.

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Pretty much it's like WiN7. Well visual wise

spapakons said:

And much less application compatibility which is what I hate most.

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You can run vm of windows....

WAI said:

You can run vm of windows....

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This would be like trying to use a Ferrari engine on a Mini Cooper. Why not use the real thing natively?

spapakons said:

This would be like trying to use a Ferrari engine on a Mini Cooper. Why not use the real thing natively?

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I get that but that's the only way I know of with software. I'm pretty sure someone knows another way

spapakons said:

This would be like trying to use a Ferrari engine on a Mini Cooper. Why not use the real thing natively?

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A pal of mine runs Windows in a Linux VM and he can't tell the difference between native and VM performance.

...but yeah...if you're locked in Windows native software, then stick with Windows. That's where you'll always get the best experience. But don't forget that other OSes has their place.

All 3 major OSes are awesome and garbage at the same time, completely depends on your perspective. All fully usable in their own space and should not be trashed just because of some bad experience.

Bree said:

When W11 was first leaked I tested installing it on the least appropriate hardware I could find, my little Acer Aspire One D270 netbook, see post #37.

Today I revisited that using the current latest RTM build 22000.527.....

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In light of the release of 22H2 and the 'will they/won't they' discussions around the know workarounds I thought it was time to revisit this.

I use this little old netbook as my 'miner's canary', if Windows 11 can install and run on this then it should work on anything.

To recap its specs, it fails on every single count except the bare minimum of having a 64-bit processor with more than one core. There is no TPM of any sort, it has a legacy bios (so no secure boot and MBR boot only). It's Intel Atom N2600 has no working 64 bit display drivers available (so only the Microsoft Basic Adapter can be used). The maximum memory a Cedarview Atom like this one can address is specified by the OEM as 2GB, and by Intel as 2.44 GB. It can in fact, when there's a 4GB RAM in its single slot, make 2.99GB available to the OS.

I used a completely standard and unmodified install usb for Windows 11 22H2 build 22621.525, as made by the latest MCT. To make it more challenging I was installing W11 Home as this PC only has a digital licence for Home.

To bypass all hardware checks at install @hsehestedt's list of registry patches still work.

To complete OOBE without having to connect to the internet or use a Microsoft account the BypassNRO workaround still works.

When I first tested 11 on this PC it was more as a joke, trying to see just how low I could go before W11 fell over. But that extra 0.99G makes a big difference. Along with upgrading its HDD to an SSD Win11 is now surprisingly useable - good enough for a little light browsing which is all this old netbook ever gets used for.

My test laptop (1st system) is much faster running Windows 11 on SSD than running Windows 10 32-bit on SSD. I also had a Windows XP era netbook, Acer Aspire One A150 with Intel Atom processor, 2GB RAM, SATA 2.5" disk and Intel 945G graphics, but unfortunately I sold it to a friend before having the chance to test Windows 10 on it. Windows 8 (not 8.1) ran fine with WDDM graphics driver, but needed a Registry hack to enable squeezed 1024x768 resolution to the native 1024x600. If you had anything lower than 1024x768, you could not access the modern Metro start screen (tiles), only the desktop. I believe Windows 11 would work even better at native 1024x600 without any graphics hacks.

spapakons said:

I believe Windows 11 would work even better at native 1024x600 without any graphics hacks.

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It copes surprisingly well with just 1024x600 to play with. The Start menu in particular sacrifices the 'Recommended' section to make room for the pins, relegating it to a small 'More' button. In fact, if you set Personalisation > Start to 'More pins' even that disappears.

There are a very few older apps (Backup & Restore - create a system image, for example) that require the full 600 height, else you loose their 'OK' button behind the Taskbar. Some 3rd party apps are the same. Setting the Taskbar to auto-hide helps with that.

If any of my customers need a clean Windows installation I always install Windows 11 instead of 10, even on unsupported computers. They will thank me later.

I successfully upgraded our work desktop, HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF (Intel Core i5-2500, 16GB RAM, Intel HD 2000 graphics) from Windows 10 64-bit 21H2 to Windows 11 22H2.

I just installed all updates up to build 22621.755. I noticed that Windows Explorer now has tabs, this means you can open two or more tabs in the same Explorer window. This might sound very good feature, but unfortunately has a drawback. The cut-copy-paste etc icons of Open Shell are now displayed at the left or the window instead of at the right as before. This is a little weird and needs some time to get used to. I also use Mica for Everyone to make the Windows Explorer title bar blue, the same color as my taskbar. But now each tab is surrounded by a light blue color at the title and I don't like it. A workaround it to change the File Explorer settings in Explorer Patcher to use the Windows 10 ribbon instead of the default Windows 11 command bar, This means I lose the native single color cut-copy-paste buttons, but I don't care as I can use the colorful icons of Open Shell instead. I just wanted to share for all of you that don't like the Explorer tabs how to switch them off. So the fix is to configure File Explorer in Explorer Patcher to use Windows 10 ribbon instead of Windows 11 command bar. This switches off the tabs and each window is a single tab as in previous versions.

I may use some of suggestions, work-arounds, herein to install Windows 11 in my Dell Inspiron 3552 with a Intel Celeron N3060 CPU, that has been labeled not worthy of Windows 11. It is 4 years old and still works great, but is a little slower these days and I think Windows 11 would speed it up a bit. Anyone successful; in similar PC upgrade?

Well considering maybe that cpu is more newer but less? Powerful then my OC Xeon E5450 3.7ghz but WIN11 should bring life to it

I have noticed that in such old systems a fresh Windows 11 is a little faster than a fresh Windows 10 64-bit installation. Maybe Windows 11 has better resource management. Yet another reason to bypass compatibility check and install Windows 11 instead of 10.

spapakons said:

I have noticed that in such old systems a fresh Windows 11 is a little faster than a fresh Windows 10 64-bit installation. Maybe Windows 11 has better resource management. Yet another reason to bypass compatibility check and install Windows 11 instead of 10.

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Interesting. I had felt the same way. At first I thought that it was just a fig newton of my immigration, but I've seen several people comment that this was their experience as well.

I'd agree 11 is less resource then 10 is so far

I agree. Windows 11 is certainly smoother & faster on my Win 10. And it is quieter.

If you have any computer with 64-bit CPU and at least 1 or 2 GB RAM it's worth to try installing Windows 11. Don't forget to post the specs and your experience here.

PS: To save you time, the first generation of AMD 64 CPUs lack the necessary instructions to run Windows 8 64-bit or newer. They can run either Windows XP/Vista/7 64-bit or Windows XP up to Windows 10 32-bit only. Any newer 64-bit AMD or Intel CPU should be able to run Windows 8/8.1/10/11 64-bit fine. Systems without WDDM graphics driver (Vista or higher) will use Microsoft Basic Display Adapter and be slower due to lack of hardware acceleration. In such systems use Windows 7 32-bit with Windows XP graphics driver (XPDM mode) to get maximum possible performance.

The blog How to Bypass Windows 11 Minimum Installation Requirements is a must read by everyone including gurus on this thread.