Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

KiVri · Oct 14, 2025

No time to reply to all so I'm just gonna say thanks to all who helped!

Re: Imaging, don't worry I have CloneZilla for that!

KiVri · Oct 15, 2025

Try3 said:
Make a system image & file backups [if you backup files separately] before you do anything.

Ok, now I have more time. :) Like I said already, I have Clonezilla for that. It's the best.

Bree said:
A Sandy Bridge CPU is a second-generation Intel Core processor (Core i3, i5, i7). The lowest you can go is a 1st gen Intel Core, that was the first Intel CPU to get the SSE4.2 instruction set.

My System Two is running 25H2 well on its 1st gen i5.

Its HDD has been upgraded to a Crucial MX500 SATA 2.5" SSD. Upgrading to an SSD will give the biggest performance boost, more RAM could be added at your leisure. My 8GB RAM is sufficient. 4GB RAM is the minimum requirement for W11, if that's all you have it should work well enough for now.

Wow, you've first gen? That's some dedication. I used to have a tower PC that broke (it turned on; literally no picture not even UEFI showed up). It had an FX 8320 Bulldozer CPU, 4GB DDR 1333 MHz RAM Kingston branding, and a codename FERMI Nvidia GTS 450 (pretty good GPU I must say for light media needs like I have, power consumption galore this PC was though) it would have been fun installing it on that one. To this day I have no idea what might have happened to it, do you? I didn't have the skills to troubleshoot it.

I tried though! motherboard was M5A97 LE R 2.0 by ASUS.

spapakons said:
Your laptop takes DDR3 SODIMM RAM modules. If I remember correctly, the larger capacity is 8GB, assuming your laptop is compatible. So you can reach 16GB RAM replacing both. However, as already mentioned, replacing the old mechanical SATA disk with a SATA SSD will make a much larger difference. Do that first and add RAM later.

I think my model is 8GB maximum ram? It's an sx289v. I asked dad he said it had developed a shutdown issue (I think the fans are clogged, also a repaste is needed I think). Also he said some photos of his aren't showing up, corrupted HDD? Bad sectors?

spapakons · Oct 15, 2025

Since you are going to replace the old mechanical 2.5" SATA hard disk with a SATA SSD, it is a good opportunity to remove dust and replace thermal paste with fresh for better heat dissipation. The shutdown issue was probably due to some software bug. You will be reinstalling Windows, so you don't care. If you mean that the computer was shutting down after some time, then this is because of high CPU temperature. Once you remove dust and replace thermal paste it shouldn't happen again.

Bree · Oct 15, 2025

KiVri said:
Wow, you've first gen? That's some dedication....

I do have more powerful supported devices, look at 'My Computers' below, in 'Other Info'

This 1st gen i5 has been running Windows 11 since launch in 2021 as a 'test machine' to see if/when MS may block updates to unsupported devices. So far it has received every cumulative update that a supported device would get. The only thing it doesn't get through Windows Update is the offer of a Feature Update to the next version, for those a manual upgrade with a workaround was required.

spapakons · Oct 15, 2025

Just a reminder. If you bypass compatibility check, you can install:

Windows 11 21H2, 22H2 and 23H2 at ANY 64-bit CPU with at least 2GB RAM and 40GB HDD, including the very first generation Intel Pentium 4 64-bit socket 775 CPUs! The only exception are the first generation AMD 64 CPUs that lack a certain instruction and are limited to Windows 7 64-bit or Windows 10 32-bit.

Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 at any 64-bit CPU with SSE4.2 instructions (1st generation Core-i3 or higher) and 2GB RAM and 40GB HDD.

I don't know for 26H2, but if Microsoft doesn't demand an NPU or some higher instruction set, such as AVX2, hopefully our current PCs will be able to upgrade once more.

PS: By the way the minimum CPU with AVX2 is 4th generation Core-i3, so my good old 3rd generation would be excluded. That's also the minimum requirement to install Mac OS 13 or higher, so in my case I could only install Mac OS 12 Monterey in VMware. Yes, Apple is far worse when it comes to backwards compatibility. Ideally they want to replace your precious Mac every 2-3 years! Thank God Microsoft are not that greedy.

spapakons · Oct 15, 2025

Bree said:
I do have more powerful supported devices, look at 'My Computers' below, in 'Other Info'

This 1st gen i5 has been running Windows 11 since launch in 2021 as a 'test machine' to see if/when MS may block updates to unsupported devices. So far it has received every cumulative update that a supported device would get. The only thing it doesn't get through Windows Update is the offer of a Feature Update to the next version, for those a manual upgrade with a workaround was required.

I have a Core 2 Duo laptop (1st system specs) which I used to test compatibility of various Windows versions, including Windows 11. Up to Windows 11 23H2 it was fine. Unfortunately it doesn't support SSE4.2, so I cannot upgrade it to 24H2 or 25H2, but it is much better running Windows 11 23H2 than Windows 7 or 8. Also it is faster than running Windows 10 22H2 32-bit. I don't think the difference in available RAM, 3.25GB vs 3.9GB is that important between the two Windows versions. I believe that Windows 11 has better resource management than Windows 10 and hence better performance, provided one is not lazy and installs all proper drivers. I don't trust Windows Update, since its drivers are usually of basic functionality, not the best.

Bree · Oct 15, 2025

spapakons said:
I don't know for 26H2, but if Microsoft doesn't demand an NPU or some higher instruction set, such as AVX2, hopefully our current PCs will be able to upgrade once more.

Any new requirements would first appear in the Insider Canary builds, as did the PopCnt/SSE4.2 one with:
Windows 11 Insider Canary Build 26052.1000 and Dev Build 26052.1100 (24H2) - Feb. 8

Bree said:
MS first raised the CPU requirement in February 2024 with Insider build 26052 the initial requirement was just for the POPCNT instruction, which first appeared with SSE4a. The minimum requirement was very soon raised to the full SSE4.2 instruction set though.

In addition to 25H2 I multi-boot Insider builds on my System Two with its 1st gen i5, including the latest Insider Canary build 27965.1. So far, so good....

spapakons · Oct 15, 2025

For testing compatibility, I created a virtual machine with Legacy BIOS (I chose Windows 10 64-bit to let me, not Windows 11), without TPM, without Secure Boot and with MBR single partition NTFS disk and I managed to install Insider's version 26220.6772. The good old registry hack from 21H2 to bypass compatibility check still works. The only difference is that you cannot use the old workarounds (bypassnro and localonly) to create a local account. But, if you have kept the file C:\Windows\System32\oobe\bypasnro.cmd from an older Windows installation (including 25H2) and you run it from USB IT WORKS.

PCUser · Oct 15, 2025

spapakons said:
Since you are going to replace the old mechanical 2.5" SATA hard disk with a SATA SSD, it is a good opportunity to remove dust and replace thermal paste with fresh for better heat dissipation. The shutdown issue was probably due to some software bug. You will be reinstalling Windows, so you don't care. If you mean that the computer was shutting down after some time, then this is because of high CPU temperature. Once you remove dust and replace thermal paste it shouldn't happen again.

@spapakons You are SO RIGHT.
Amazing what a difference GOOD thermal paste properly applied can make.
II know someone that took their laptop to a mobile phone small electronics repair shop. The repair shop supposedly did a fan replacement & inappropriately splattered the CPU & GPU and likely used lesser quality thermal paste. A couple months later, GPU warnings regularly appeared on boot up.

I did a quality OEM fans replacement & high quality re-paste for him and problem solved. Now it's like a whole new laptop.

AGREED, SSD will make a HUGE difference in speed.

patrickdrd · Oct 15, 2025

I'm trying to install tiny 25h2 on an old laptop,
I tried with the registry key, no success,
I tried deleting appraiserres.dll, nothing,
replaced with empty, nothing,
tpm fail all the time

Try3 · Oct 15, 2025

patrickdrd said:
I'm trying to install tiny 25h2 on an old laptop,
I tried with the registry key, no success,
I tried deleting appraiserres.dll, nothing,
replaced with empty, nothing,
tpm fail all the time

First check that your CPU has instruction set SSE4.2
My remarks about checking SSE4.2 with CPU-Z, doing upgrade - my post #27 - ElevenForum

Then use instructions from ElevenForumTutorials for Clean install & In-place upgrade [aka Repair install]. They include steps for bypassing compatibility checks but not for bypassing the need for SSE4.2.
Clean Install Windows 11 - ElevenForumTutorials
Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade - ElevenForumTutorials
Upgrade to Windows 11 - ElevenForumTutorials

All the best,
Denis

PCUser · Oct 15, 2025

patrickdrd said:
I'm trying to install tiny 25h2 on an old laptop,
I tried with the registry key, no success,
I tried deleting appraiserres.dll, nothing,
replaced with empty, nothing,
tpm fail all the time

@patrickdrd FWIW, the more details listed in "My Computer" in your elevenforum.com profile, the better people can help you.

Don't be shy, fill it out!

patrickdrd · Oct 15, 2025

it's a Toshiba satellite with Intel Celeron 1000M @ 1.80GHz,
as far as I remember it has instructions set for SSE4.2

Bree · Oct 15, 2025

patrickdrd said:
it's a Toshiba satellite with Intel Celeron 1000M @ 1.80GHz,
as far as I remember it has instructions set for SSE4.2

Yes, the Celeron 1000m is from 2013 and has SSE4.2

Intel Celeron 1000M Specs

Ivy Bridge, 2 Cores, 2 Threads, 1800 MHz, 35 W

www.techpowerup.com

patrickdrd · Oct 15, 2025

so what to do with tpm?
is there still a working method or am I stuck in 23h2?

Hazel123 · Oct 15, 2025

Is it TPM 2?

Dronix · Oct 15, 2025

patrickdrd said:
I tried with the registry key, no success,

What exactly is the registry key?

patrickdrd · Oct 15, 2025

Hazel123 said:
Is it TPM 2?

this key:
@echo off
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup" /v AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
echo Registry key added to allow upgrade on unsupported hardware.
pause

patrickdrd · Oct 15, 2025

Hazel123 said:
Is it TPM 2?

yes

Hazel123 · Oct 15, 2025

I don't know much about Tiny 11 but that might be to do with it. You could try with full Windows 11 25H2 and burn it in rufus and see if it installs fine that way - that can bypass tpm requirements anyway. And even if you don't want full Windows 11 it'll help rule out things. ie if it works ok with Full Windows 11 then the issue is probably with Tiny 11.

Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

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