Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

spapakons · Friday at 6:35 AM

Celery said:
Are your system specs up to date? For example, you have "Internet Speed: 10mb" listed.

An internet connection with a download speed of 10 Mbps is considered slow by today's standards.

Unless it is not 10Mbps but 10MB/sec which it 8 times faster, but still slow by today standards.

NormanF · Friday at 7:38 AM

spapakons said:
From Google AI:

The main difference between Windows 11 Consumer and Business ISO files lies in the editions of Windows included inside the disk image and the type of license they require for activation. [1, 2]

Included Editions

Consumer ISO: Contains Windows 11 Home, Home N, Home Single Language, Education, and Pro (along with Pro for Workstations). It is meant for retail, OEM, and direct consumer use via tools like the Media Creation Tool. [1, 2]

Business ISO: Contains Windows 11 Enterprise, Enterprise N, Education, and Pro (along with Pro for Workstations). It excludes Home editions and is typically sourced from Volume Licensing or Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center for corporate and IT deployment. [1, 2]

Licensing and Activation

Consumer ISO: Uses standard Retail or OEM product keys (tied to individual Microsoft accounts or hardware motherboards).

Business ISO: Designed for Volume Licensing (MAK or KMS activation) used by organizations to deploy Windows across many corporate PCs at scale using management tools like SCCM or WDS. [1]

(Note: Both ISOs share the exact same installation files for common editions like Pro, meaning you can install Windows 11 Pro from either ISO, and the edition that unlocks depends on the product key or digital license you enter)

I run Windows Education on my Ultrabook workstation with an installed MAK volume licence key. The only difference from Windows Pro is the support life cycle: 36 months. I get an additional year of support over and above Pro.

spapakons · Friday at 9:21 AM

I just upgraded my main PC (see 2nd system specs) to Windows 11 26H2 26300.9818. After restart File Explorer would conflict with Explorer Patcher utility and crash/restart all the time. The solution was to press CTRL+ALT+DEL and start Task Manager. Then from there execute msedge to open Microsoft Edge so I could download Explorer Patcher and install it again to do an in-place upgrade/repair. Classic Explorer Bar from Open Shell still is visible and works, so the respective Registry fix wasn't cancelled by the upgrade. If I encounter any other issues, I will let you know.

gaffar · 2026-10-31T12:22:08-0400

I will buy ups, but what part have MS policies and plans to have its installers protect its users or help its users in these kinds of situations.Other OSs don't do it. It's a big advantage for MS.

spapakons · 2026-10-31T13:15:00-0400

If you refer to Linux, as far as I know it downloads each component separately and then installs them in order. So, in theory, you have a bigger chance to avoid damage if the power fails when installing the components. You might be lucky enough to just fix that component and a few dependencies. However, I was running Ubuntu on a virtual machine and I was in the process of installing the components when the power failed turning off the host computer and interrupting the upgrade. I had too many errors while trying to repair the packages that the tool quit! I even tried to do an in-place upgrade/repair which also failed. I ultimately decided it's not worth the effort to fix it and just deleted the specific virtual machine. I have a Zorin OS virtual machine, so I will keep experimenting with that.

I told you that experience to understand Linux is not the magic OS suitable for every case and of course is not invincible. It can be damaged too and unlike Windows 11 that you can repair it with an in-place upgrade/repair, if Linux is damaged and you are not a Guru, just forget about it and reinstall. Not worth your effort and time unsuccessfully trying to fix it for hours.

gaffar · 2026-10-31T13:28:12-0400

That's why I am sticking with Windows, and MS is integrating more and more Linux into windows to make it as long lasting for runnind servers.

SlicEnDicE · 2026-10-31T15:54:02-0400

Not that this has anything to do with Win11 on unsupported hardware...but...

It is very easy to recover from a powerloss on Linux during package updates, even after a powerloss during a full distribution upgrade and a completely unbootable system. It's the power of Linux and any unix-like architecture, which lets you do things Windows can't do easily.

spapakons · 2026-10-31T18:30:24-0400

Contrary to Linux, Microsoft integrates all the components in q large cumulative update instead of downloading them

SlicEnDicE said:
Not that this has anything to do with Win11 on unsupported hardware...but...

It is very easy to recover from a powerloss on Linux during package updates, even after a powerloss during a full distribution upgrade and a completely unbootable system. It's the power of Linux and any unix-like architecture, which lets you do things Windows can't do easily.

I followed all the Google AI instructions when my Ubuntu virtual machine was damaged. Nothing worked. I was telling the AI about the error messages and asking what to do next, nothing worked. I had already wasted more than an hour without making any progress, so I just deleted the virtual machine to free my valuable disk space. Of course, if I was some Linux Guru, I could probably fix it without any AI assistance, but I am a little more than a novice, so I couldn't. Like I said it wasn't worth my effort and time. I always use Windows as my daily OS. I only use a Linux virtual machine for experimentation. It's not suitable for anything more as it can do less than half of what I do in Windows, so it is USELESS to me for everyday use. Sorry, Linux fans, but I'm trying to protect inexperienced users from doing the big mistake to switch to Linux and then regret it.

Marie SWE · 2026-10-31T19:57:09-0400

spapakons said:
Contrary to Linux, Microsoft integrates all the components in q large cumulative update instead of downloading them

Win7 before 2015/2016ish had a lot of small ones instead of one big.. that made it easier to pick your poison and if power went out it was just one patch that was effected and a bit easier to recover from

Everything with windows started to suck when windows 10 came. *lol*

As for Linux.. i ran updates last week.. but i have not rebooted my system for 265 days..

The power of hotpatch

HeavyHemi · 2026-10-31T20:16:00-0400

The only problem I have with Linux are some of Linus Torvalds's fans.

Marie SWE · 2026-10-31T20:55:12-0400

HeavyHemi said:
The only problem I have with Linux are some of Linus Torvalds's fans.

Then you can safely exclude me, as I'm no fan of him.

I think i actually isn't a fan of anyone. :think:

SlicEnDicE · 2026-11-01T03:09:07-0500

Marie SWE said:
As for Linux.. i ran updates last week.. but i have not rebooted my system for 265 days.. The power of hotpatch

Yeah, I would be in same situation, if it wasn't for me running Linux Mint (and also dual booting). Some packages are quite out of date, especially kernel patches, which always requires a reboot. My system is usually online for months in a row.

Windows on the other hand, I have to reboot twice, every one to two weeks and wait quite a long time for it to finish. And I never know what changed, what got re-enabled or what stopped working, the next time I logon.

spapakons · 2026-11-01T04:12:24-0500

I only restart Windows when I update from one build to the next. That's once in two weeks or something. And since it installs most files in the background restarting takes less than 5 minutes. That's a mistake many do. They restart when they see the prompt to restart without looking at Windows Update progress. Usually there are still updates pending and if you restart before they finish you then have to wait for them to finish before you can login again. It takes longer if one of them is the cumulative update to the next build. I always make sure no updates are pending before I restart so it only takes a few minutes. Meanwhile I can keep using my PC. I have even set to ask me when a restart is required so I can postpone it until it is convenient to do it.

Scannerman · 2026-11-01T04:23:27-0500

spapakons said:
Contrary to Linux, Microsoft integrates all the components in q large cumulative update instead of downloading them

I followed all the Google AI instructions when my Ubuntu virtual machine was damaged. Nothing worked. I was telling the AI about the error messages and asking what to do next, nothing worked. I had already wasted more than an hour without making any progress, so I just deleted the virtual machine to free my valuable disk space. Of course, if I was some Linux Guru, I could probably fix it without any AI assistance, but I am a little more than a novice, so I couldn't. Like I said it wasn't worth my effort and time. I always use Windows as my daily OS. I only use a Linux virtual machine for experimentation. It's not suitable for anything more as it can do less than half of what I do in Windows, so it is USELESS to me for everyday use. Sorry, Linux fans, but I'm trying to protect inexperienced users from doing the big mistake to switch to Linux and then regret it.

I'm just a novice too but Linux has proven itself handy for me from time-to-time when Windows couldn't do the job. There are also Linux communities that can be quite helpful but some of those Ubuntu groups can be pretty nasty. Most folks from the LMDE7 community are friendly and helpful but this is my personal experience and experience may vary, I suppose. Since the days of Win ME Windows has always been a love/hate relationship for me. For this reason I consider myself more than just a mere fan of Windows. This is partnership of passion, spite, malice, and love. I dare say I don't have nearly as much of this with Linux. She's more of a servant girl quietly waiting in the background for the next time she is needed.

SlicEnDicE · 2026-11-01T04:45:54-0500

spapakons said:
I only restart Windows when I update from one build to the next. That's once in two weeks or something. And since it installs most files in the background restarting takes less than 5 minutes. That's a mistake many do. They restart when they see the prompt to restart without looking at Windows Update progress. Usually there are still updates pending and if you restart before they finish you then have to wait for them to finish before you can login again. It takes longer if one of them is the cumulative update to the next build. I always make sure no updates are pending before I restart so it only takes a few minutes. Meanwhile I can keep using my PC. I have even set to ask me when a restart is required so I can postpone it until it is convenient to do it.

You're pretty much re-iterating what I just said, but blame the user for the problem. That they do it wrong...

No, the problem is Windows. It keeps interrupting the workflow all the time. Changes configurations, add or remove features without consent, ignores policies, breaks things, and is a constant pain in one way or another. I want to run my apps, not fiddle with Windows all the time. It is getting more and more in the way for every update they push. Every time I start to work, I have to ensure all components are up to date, including Store Apps, before I do anything, or I can be certain to be interrupted by a sluggish workflow, or broken features.

Kojack · 2026-11-01T05:09:33-0500

Back on topic, I just updated my wife's unsupported Dell with a 4405u cpu and 16gb of ram to 26H2 yesterday. She was on 25H2. I used the updater file and it just loaded on without issue. The laptop seems to be working faster as well as I think 26H2 is lighter on resources.

SlicEnDicE · 2026-11-01T06:06:29-0500

Updated also to 26H2 on two unsupported systems. No issues to report so far.

Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

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