Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

Could your disk has errors? Open a Command Prompt as Administrator and execute the command chkdsk C: /f to check for errors and fix them. You will see a message that the disk cannot be scanned while Windows is running and you will be asked if you want to schedule it for next restart. Reply Yes and restart to do it.

spapakons said:

Or you could download the respective ISO and create the USB flash drive with Rufus and also patch it to bypass compatibility check.

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I downloaded the 24H2 iso using the MCT. Created the USB flash drive with Rufus. Checked all the boxes to disable all compatibility checks. Upon attempting to do an in-place upgrade on an unsupported system, it failed bypassing the compatibility checks. I ended up using the product server hack to upgrade the unsupported device. I've seen in some posts that replacing the apparaisers.dll file no longer works. Is this so?

wabbit said:

I downloaded the 24H2 iso using the MCT. Created the USB flash drive with Rufus. Checked all the boxes to disable all compatibility checks. Upon attempting to do an in-place upgrade on an unsupported system, it failed bypassing the compatibility checks. I ended up using the product server hack to upgrade the unsupported device. I've seen in some posts that replacing the apparaisers.dll file no longer works. Is this so?

Click to expand...

yes I tried thus fails

wabbit said:

I downloaded the 24H2 iso using the MCT. Created the USB flash drive with Rufus. Checked all the boxes to disable all compatibility checks. Upon attempting to do an in-place upgrade on an unsupported system, it failed bypassing the compatibility checks.

Click to expand...

Windows 11 24H2 and Rufus 4.5 -> Bypassing system requirements only works in a clean installation.

wabbit said:

I've seen in some posts that replacing the apparaisers.dll file no longer works. Is this so?

Click to expand...

Doesn't work anymore.

Windows 11 24H2 requires a CPU with PopCnt support (2008 or newer CPU). This is a hardware requirement that cannot be bypassed.

Works with or without an internet connection.

How to bypass Windows 11 24H2 system requirements to upgrade from ISO file?

It doesn't matter if Windows 10/11 is installed on a GPT or MBR disk.

- Download Windows 11 24H2 ISO file.
- Mount the ISO file.
- Run the following command, replace "X" with the drive letter of the mounted iso file.

X:\setup.exe /product server
-or-
X:\sources\setupprep.exe /product server

- In this mode, the Windows 11 installer thinks it is installing Windows Server Edition and does not check the Windows 11 system requirements.

How to bypass Windows 11 24H2 system requirements to perform a clean install?

Download Windows 11 24H2 ISO file.

Option 1.

Rufus settings to create UEFI bootable USB.

- Partition scheme: GPT

"GPT" means installing Windows on a GPT disk (UEFI/GPT installation).

- Check the "Remove requirement for 4GB RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0" option.

Option 2.

Rufus settings to create BIOS bootable USB.

"BIOS" means legacy BIOS or CSM (Compatibility Support Module).

- Partition scheme: MBR

"MBR" means installing Windows on an MBR disk (BIOS/MBR installation).

- Check the "Remove requirement for 4GB RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0" option.

wabbit said:

I've seen in some posts that replacing the apparaisers.dll file no longer works. Is this so?

Click to expand...

Yes, that no longer works in 24H2. It does work for 23H2 though, so my upgrade method was to use the 23H2 install media, but replace its install.esd (or install.wim) with the one from the 24H2 media. This 'hybrid' install media can be used for an in-place upgrade with the usual 23H2 workarounds.

This sucks ah ha but Hopefully MS will continue to update 23H2 in the years to come but with only security updates. Even with the trick product server it reboots ofc bc of my cpu. Ehh I'm just curious what the file is so I can remove it from iso or replace some files with 23H2

I wanted to see what hacks work in the 24H2 ISO and I booted it on a virtual machine. For clean installation the Registry hack (or using a script to automatically import the values) still works. I noticed that at the final screen before starting you can switch to the older Setup version. I did that just in case and I could see the available disk partitions. This means that I successfully bypassed compatibility check and I could start installing. To upgrade from 23H2 to 24H2 I disconnected from the internet and tried to replace the file. It doesn't work and that's the reason why Rufus also fails because it does the same thing. Probably a newer version will succeed. I then tried the setup /product server. This worked, thanks God, and I successfully upgraded my unsupported virtual machine to 24H2. All other updates install without checking compatibility.

WAI said:

This sucks ah ha but Hopefully MS will continue to update 23H2 in the years to come but with only security updates. Even with the trick product server it reboots ofc bc of my cpu. Ehh I'm just curious what the file is so I can remove it from iso or replace some files with 23H2

Click to expand...

You must disconnect from the internet during the whole upgrade in order to succeed, see my previous post.

I see that a few people have successfully installed Windows 11 24H2 on AMD FX CPU's, however I am not so lucky. The bypass is working just fine on my boot disk, as I have installed 24H2 on my ThinkPad which too needed the bypasses, but has a 4th gen Intel CPU. So I know the USB stick is actually working.

However, on my ThinkCentre which has the FX-8370, things are not so great. What is actually happening is that the Windows logo will display, but no spinner actually shows. In fact, all USB devices simply shut down (mouse, controller, webcams power LED), all of them. You can leave it for half an hour and it never progresses. The AMD FX is being touted here as absolutely supporting SSE 4.2, as well as on Wikipedia, CPU-Z and hwinfo, all of them claim it has it. 2. Both here, and on another forum, two FX users were successful without a hitch. I can not grasp why mine won't however, and honestly I have zero intention to buy a new computer when this one is STILL capable of booting in 5 seconds, and is honestly handling most modern games that I actively play just fine. It has not struggled in 2024. EXCEPT 24H2. (There's more to this, but I'd rather avoid sad stories about my health.)

I even tried BobPony's test ISO, it's the same thing, hard lock at the Windows logo.

But here's the kicker, in VirtualBox using AMD-v? It actually works, indicating the CPU DOES handle this just fine. Is this perhaps a mere BIOS/Motherboard issue instead? The BIOS doesn't have what I'd call a full UEFI implemtnation, it's more EDK-II in ROM, and DUET did not help either as it's the same thing; hard lock at boot logo. It does not reboot in either case which is about the only difference I can see.

I have also tried in-place upgrades, as both 23H2 running as MBR/Legacy and GPT/UEFI, but in both cases, it's the same hard-lock with USB devices shut down. I'm throwing in the towel for this, please if you've installed on an FX and can properly verify it actually is working WITHOUT a VM (natively on the host), please do share. I will not use 3rd party sourced ISO's for obvious security reasons.

Rufus has released a 'temporary workaround' for upgrading to 24H2 on "unsupported" machines.

Workaround with Registry entries

I've used this and I have now managed to update my "unsupported" 4th Generation Intel CPU machine that I posted about yesterday.

(You still need to have POPCNT and SSE4.2 on any unsupported machine, of course).

Bree said:

Yes, that no longer works in 24H2. It does work for 23H2 though, so my upgrade method was to use the 23H2 install media, but replace its install.esd (or install.wim) with the one from the 24H2 media. This 'hybrid' install media can be used for an in-place upgrade with the usual 23H2 workarounds.

Click to expand...

Sorry Bree. I am confused.

I thought I was stealing install.esd from 23H2 and placing it in the 24H2 ISO. I read it wrong.

How does using a 23H2 ISO work to in-place to get 24H2 using the 24H2 install.esd in the 23H2 ISO?

Sorry if that reads confusingly

CarlSD said:

Rufus has released a 'temporary workaround' for upgrading to 24H2 on "unsupported" machines.

Workaround with Registry entries

I've used this and I have now managed to update my "unsupported" 4th Generation Intel CPU machine that I posted about yesterday.

View attachment 110961

Click to expand...

Worked for my 4th gen i7 ThinkPad this morning, but refuses to get past the boot logo on my AMD FX-8370 ThinkCentre (the spinner never shows up, either booting from USB or in-place upgrade. In-place upgrade cancels itself after it fails to reboot with a SAFE_OS error).

antspants said:

How does using a 23H2 ISO work to in-place to get 24H2 using the 24H2 install.esd in the 23H2 ISO?

Click to expand...

You can't modify an ISO, so mount the 23H2 ISO and copy everything to a temporarily folder somewhere (on an external drive will do). Delete it's sources\install.esd (or install.wim). Mount a 24H2 ISO and copy the install.esd (or install.wim) from there to your sources folder.

Disconnect from the internet then run the Setup.exe you'll find at the root of your temporary folder to start the in-place upgrade. When you get to the first screen you should use the appraserres workaround. Select 'not now' for how to get updates, then let the upgrade proceed.

spapakons said:

I wanted to see what hacks work in the 24H2 ISO and I booted it on a virtual machine. For clean installation the Registry hack (or using a script to automatically import the values) still works. I noticed that at the final screen before starting you can switch to the older Setup version. I did that just in case and I could see the available disk partitions. This means that I successfully bypassed compatibility check and I could start installing. To upgrade from 23H2 to 24H2 I disconnected from the internet and tried to replace the file. It doesn't work and that's the reason why Rufus also fails because it does the same thing. Probably a newer version will succeed. I then tried the setup /product server. This worked, thanks God, and I successfully upgraded my unsupported virtual machine to 24H2. All other updates install without checking compatibility.

Click to expand...

I'll give that a try.

Bree said:

You can't modify an ISO, so mount the 23H2 ISO and copy everything to a temporarily folder somewhere (on an external drive will do). Delete it's sources\install.esd (or install.wim). Mount a 24H2 ISO and copy the install.esd (or install.wim) from there to your sources folder.

Disconnect from the internet then run the Setup.exe you'll find at the root of your temporary folder to start the in-place upgrade. When you get to the first screen you should use the appraserres workaround. Select 'not now' for how to get updates, then let the upgrade proceed.

Click to expand...

I have Anyburn to modify the ISO, thanks

Bree said:

You can't modify an ISO, so mount the 23H2 ISO and copy everything to a temporarily folder somewhere (on an external drive will do). Delete it's sources\install.esd (or install.wim). Mount a 24H2 ISO and copy the install.esd (or install.wim) from there to your sources folder.

Disconnect from the internet then run the Setup.exe you'll find at the root of your temporary folder to start the in-place upgrade. When you get to the first screen you should use the appraserres workaround. Select 'not now' for how to get updates, then let the upgrade proceed.

Click to expand...

What's the appraiserress workaround?

Stigg said:

What's the appraiserress workaround?

Click to expand...

Start Setup. Before you proceed any further replace the appraserres.dll file in the hidden folder C:\$Windows.~BT/sources with a zero byte file of the same name. Make one by creating a new text document and renaming it as appraiserres.dll. Let Setup continue and it will skip all checks.

Bree said:

Start Setup. Before you proceed any further replace the appraserres.dll file in the hidden folder C:\$Windows.~BT/sources with a zero byte file of the same name. Make one by creating a new text document and renaming it as appraiserres.dll. Let Setup continue and it will skip all checks.

Click to expand...

I used to replace the appraiserres.dll at the very start. Does it have to be replaced later now?

Guy's I've tried what I know but it always reboots upon the restart when finishing upgrade but I know it's bc of my cpu but I know there's something... Just some File that 24H2 is just ticking away "Oh no this is too old" but I guess I'll wait for another new Rufus Hopefully