Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

hsehestedt · Feb 17, 2026

LASTBOOMER66 said:
At some point during the install this is no longer available, and newer versions change when this is available. But not clear about when ALSO I am guessing that autounattend.xml does the same thing but in a different way.

Correct. The autounattend.xml is effectively doing the same thing. The nice thing is that there are multiple ways to do this so use what works best for you.

garlin · Feb 17, 2026

LASTBOOMER66 said:
At some point during the install this is no longer available, and newer versions change when this is available. But not clear about when ALSO I am guessing that autounattend.xml does the same thing but in a different way.

You're thinking of OOBE. Shift-F10 is always available right after you boot from the Windows ISO, unless you have an unautounattend.xml present.

cheaterslick · Feb 17, 2026

LASTBOOMER66 said:
At some point during the install this is no longer available, and newer versions change when this is available. But not clear about when ALSO I am guessing that autounattend.xml does the same thing but in a different way.

For my system, I had to hit Shift + Fn + F10 in order for it to work. The Fn key is needed in order to open that command prompt. That's something that missing from the tutorials.

Bree · Feb 17, 2026

cheaterslick said:
For my system, I had to hit Shift + Fn + F10 in order for it to work. The Fn key is needed in order to open that command prompt. That's something that missing from the tutorials.

Where the function keys serve two purposes you usually have a choice in the bios which one you want as the primary function and which you get when you hold down the Fn key. I like to set mine so that F1-F12 is the default action, and their other uses requires the Fn key.

cheaterslick · Feb 18, 2026

Bree said:
Where the function keys serve two purposes you usually have a choice in the bios which one you want as the primary function and which you get when you hold down the Fn key. I like to set mine so that F1-F12 is the default action, and their other uses requires the Fn key.

Yeah, I probably need to do that. It seems the "other uses" is the default and the F numeric keys are secondary, when sometimes I want them the other way around.

However since I use the volume keys a lot, I like it the way it is without having to remember holding down the Fn key

Jorgen E · Feb 18, 2026

I have just installed Win 25H2 on unsupportet PC (Z170) with ISO just made with MCT.

I made an autounattend.xml from link below and it worked fantastic

Just did my own
deleteing of patitions on install drive and then did nothing before it finished with all my
settings and was ready to use

My ISO from MCT has more versions of Windows and I was asked which to use, as no key in
BIOS but ir has digital licence.

Generate autounattend.xml files for Windows 10/11

spapakons · Feb 18, 2026

This happens if there is no embedded Windows key in BIOS. You just select the appropriate version and it will activate automatically once it detects the associated digital license at Microsoft Servers. Keep the USB you created just in case you need to repair Windows some time. I keep one and I replace it after each new version upgrade.

PS: For those that have a Windows Home key embedded in BIOS but want Windows 11 Pro, let Setup automatically install Windows 11 Home and then change the key to the generic Windows 10/11 Pro key to upgrade. As long as you have a digital license for Windows 10/11 Pro, it will activate automatically

Generic Windows 10/11 Pro key: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

garlin · Feb 18, 2026

spapakons said:
PS: For those that have a Windows Home key embedded in BIOS but want Windows 11 Pro, let Setup automatically install Windows 11 Home and then change the key to the generic Windows 10/11 Pro key to upgrade. As long as you have a digital license for Windows 10/11 Pro, it will activate automatically

A more generic method is to create a "\sources\EI.cfg" file on the install USB. This allows you to select any Windows edition on the ISO, rather than auto-selecting whatever OEM product key that might be present in your BIOS.

\sources\EI.cfg

Code:

[Channel]
Retail

[VL]
0

PatrykP · Feb 19, 2026

Longs2517 · Feb 23, 2026

Windows Update 25H2 Repair Version appearing in "Windows Update". I successfully updated an old Acer laptop to Windows 11 25H2 back in October using Rufus (more info in post 2951). On December 17, Windows Update listed a Windows 11 25H2 (Repair Version) which tries to download and install, then stops when it detects the incompatible issues that I bypassed with Rufus. I was having trouble getting other updates to install.

I am not really using the laptop so I shut it down in December, tried it today thinking that if there were some problems with the update that they may have been corrected by now. The Repair Version option still appeared. I was able to stop it, and to get the other available updates that appeared to install.

Under settings on the Home screen, Windows Update shows "up to date". Under System > About the version is 25H2 OS Build 26200.6901.

I have Windows Update paused. If I click "Windows Update" it prompts to "Reinstall your current version of Windows to repair system files and components". I have run DISM check health and restore health and SFC /scannow which do not identify any issues.

How can I either 1) get this "Repair Version" to stop showing up, or get it to run successfully given the incompatibility issues?

Bree · Feb 23, 2026

Longs2517 said:
Windows Update listed a Windows 11 25H2 (Repair Version) which tries to download and install, then stops when it detects the incompatible issues that I bypassed with Rufus. ... How can I either 1) get this "Repair Version" to stop showing up, or get it to run successfully given the incompatibility issues?

The 'repair version' through Windows Update will check for compatibility after about 10% has downloaded. This, and any other in-place upgrade, can be run successfully on an unsupported device by first applying the registry mods from this tutorial by using either Option Two or Three. These are the same registry mods that Rufus uses.

Bypass Windows 11 System Requirements on Unsupported PC

This tutorial will show you how to bypass the Windows 11 CPU, RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0 system requirements allowing you to clean install or upgrade to Windows 11 on a unsupported PC that doesn't meet these requirements. Installing Windows 11 on a device that does not meet Windows 11...

www.elevenforum.com

spapakons · Feb 24, 2026

Bree said:
The 'repair version' through Windows Update will check for compatibility after about 10% has downloaded. This, and any other in-place upgrade, can be run successfully on an unsupported device by first applying the registry mods from this tutorial by using either Option Two or Three. These are the same registry mods that Rufus uses.

Bypass Windows 11 System Requirements on Unsupported PC

This tutorial will show you how to bypass the Windows 11 CPU, RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0 system requirements allowing you to clean install or upgrade to Windows 11 on a unsupported PC that doesn't meet these requirements. Installing Windows 11 on a device that does not meet Windows 11...

www.elevenforum.com

That's exactly why I always recommend to download the respective ISO and upgrade unsupported computers DISCONNECTED from the internet. I learned that the hard way when I tried to upgrade an unsupported computer from 21H2 to 23H2 without disconnecting from the internet. I was smiling that once again I bypassed compatibility check and the unsupported computer proceeded to upgrade. As you know the first stage is to copy Setup files to hard disk and then restart to begin upgrading. At about 75% of copying files I got an error and the upgrade stopped. Thankfully the system was not affected since it was at the first stage, but waiting for over 15 minutes to fail is not very convenient. Trying again, this time disconnected from the internet could not do that hidden online compatibility check and it proceeded to 100% and restarted. The rest of the process completed successfully and I was at 23H2. So I cannot emphasize it enough to ALWAYS disconnect from the internet when upgrading an unsupported computer. In fact it is not a bad idea to download the ISO and disconnect from the internet even for a Windows 11 compliant PC. Windows Update won't be able to install any updates that may cause conflicts or BSODs or mess with your perfectly working drivers. So your system will upgrade faster and safer. You can install any drivers and updates in the new version. This also improves compatibility,

spapakons · Feb 24, 2026

Longs2517 said:
Windows Update 25H2 Repair Version appearing in "Windows Update". I successfully updated an old Acer laptop to Windows 11 25H2 back in October using Rufus (more info in post 2951). On December 17, Windows Update listed a Windows 11 25H2 (Repair Version) which tries to download and install, then stops when it detects the incompatible issues that I bypassed with Rufus. I was having trouble getting other updates to install.

I am not really using the laptop so I shut it down in December, tried it today thinking that if there were some problems with the update that they may have been corrected by now. The Repair Version option still appeared. I was able to stop it, and to get the other available updates that appeared to install.

Under settings on the Home screen, Windows Update shows "up to date". Under System > About the version is 25H2 OS Build 26200.6901.

I have Windows Update paused. If I click "Windows Update" it prompts to "Reinstall your current version of Windows to repair system files and components". I have run DISM check health and restore health and SFC /scannow which do not identify any issues.

How can I either 1) get this "Repair Version" to stop showing up, or get it to run successfully given the incompatibility issues?

You can try to delete Windows Update cache so it doesn't try to install old unnecessary updates, but instead it searches again and downloads only newer updates. One way is to open This PC, click on the Windows disk, switch to Tools and select Disk Cleanup. After the list is populated click to also include system components. Make sure you check Windows Update. Since this might not be enough, you can manually empty the respective folder. Open Task Manager and go to Services tab. Scroll down to Windows Update Service (wuserv) and select to Stop it. Now open this folder:

C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution

Press CTRL+A to select all contents and then press DEL to delete them. Now go back to Task Manager, Services tab, click wuserv and select to start it. Search for updates again.

Longs2517 · Feb 24, 2026

Bree said:
The 'repair version' through Windows Update will check for compatibility after about 10% has downloaded. This, and any other in-place upgrade, can be run successfully on an unsupported device by first applying the registry mods from this tutorial by using either Option Two or Three. These are the same registry mods that Rufus uses.

Bypass Windows 11 System Requirements on Unsupported PC

This tutorial will show you how to bypass the Windows 11 CPU, RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0 system requirements allowing you to clean install or upgrade to Windows 11 on a unsupported PC that doesn't meet these requirements. Installing Windows 11 on a device that does not meet Windows 11...

www.elevenforum.com

I followed Bree's link and first tried Option 2, downloading the registry modification. I didn't restart the computer afterward, but the option didn't work, Windows still saw that the laptop was incompatible. I then tried the steps under Option 3 and those worked, with the following caveat.

Option 3 stated to open Windows Terminal as an administrator, so I searched for Terminal and opened it as administrator. I must have missed the part about "Command Prompt" within Terminal. When I pasted the commands it didn't recognize them. I closed Terminal and opened Command Prompt as an Administrator and pasted the command, and they executed.

I then rebooted the laptop, went back to Windows Update, clicked to run the "Repair" and it ran successfully. It took about 5 hours with an Ethernet connection. The system says that I'm now on 25H2, 26200.7840. This was the system listed as "System 2" under my specs here, it's circa 2010.

Thanks for the help and for the other suggestions above, they may be helpful in the future too!

Bree · Feb 24, 2026

Longs2517 said:
Option 3 stated to open Windows Terminal as an administrator ... opened Command Prompt as an Administrator and pasted the command, and they executed.

I then rebooted the laptop, went back to Windows Update, clicked to run the "Repair" and it ran successfully.

good news.

I have to do this so often that I have put those commands in a .bat file.

On an unsupported device, whether Windows Update is installing a 'repair version' upgrade or a Feature Update for an Insider build, I run the .bat file as an administrator before starting.

spapakons · Feb 24, 2026

Why loosing time doing it online when you can download the ISO once and repair as many times as required? It doesn't matter if the ISO is an older build, it can still be used to repair Windows. In worst case you might have to reinstall some updates again after a successful repair.

Bree · Feb 24, 2026

spapakons said:
Why loosing time doing it online when you can download the ISO once and repair as many times as required? It doesn't matter if the ISO is an older build, it can still be used to repair Windows. In worst case you might have to reinstall some updates again after a successful repair.

There are no official ISOs for the Insider builds, particularly the Canary channel where a full Feature Update can be a weekly event. The only practical way is to let Windows Update install it, and on my unsupported device that requires the registry workarounds.

spapakons · Feb 24, 2026

What about downloading the ISO from UPP Dump, bypass compatibility check and upgrade from it?

Bree · Feb 24, 2026

spapakons said:
What about downloading the ISO from UPP Dump, bypass compatibility check and upgrade from it?

Building an ISO with UUPdump can be hideously slow.
The Aria script can take longer to build the ISO than Windows Update does to install a Feature Update. :ROFLMAO:

spapakons · Feb 24, 2026

So, use any version you have to repair/upgrade Windows if necessary and reinstall some updates as needed. It doesn't have to be the latest version with all the latest updates embedded in the ISO.

Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

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