Surprisingly easy time installing on unsupported hardware

I'm having some surprising results upgrading unsupported hardware to Windows 11. Some machines I would expect success on, but I have a lot of "unsupported" systems as well where I would have expected at least a small amount of resistance. Here is breakdown of the unsupported systems:

1 Machine that will never run Win 11 as it is BIOS based, and has no TPM (very old machine. At least 10 years old.)
1 Machine is a 7th Gen mobile i7 making it unsupported, but it does meet all other requirements (TPM, Secure Boot, etc.)
1 Machine is a 6th Gen mobile i7. Like the i7, the CPU is the only technically unsupported item.
1 machine is a 4th Gen desktop i7. Is has a TPM module but it is a 1.2 version, not 2.0.
1 machine is a 3rd Gen i5 (!). Does have a TPM 2.0 module.

I was able to successfully install Windows 11 on each and every one of these systems except the first one (the BIOS based system), without making ANY changes whatsoever. Just took a 100% unmodified Windows image on a thumb drive and do a clean install from it. I was a bit surprised at how easy this was.

My point here is that if you have some old hardware, don't be discouraged. At least give it a try and you may be surprised at the results. A couple of notes:

1) I would suggest making a backup of your current installation so that you can revert back easily.
2) Note that you will need at least a version 1.2 TPM. At least I had that going for me. I equip every machine I've built in the last decade with a TPM.
3) Expect this to work only with a clean install, NOT an upgrade.

All four have tpm of some kind. I am surprised your 3rd gen machine has tpm2. What is it?

Many are running Eleven on BIOS based hardware including myself (11 yr old Dell Vostro early i5 laptop) I can also honestly say that at this point it has been the slickest OS to date, super rapid and zero glitches. Even Windows Update managed to install the correct drivers for the old Intel HD3000 graphics.

This was a clean install, not an upgrade.

Please update the thread when there are Windows 11 updates:

a) Will Windows 11 update automatically?


b) Will Microsoft defender update automatically?


The Microsoft link indicated that this is uncertain.

Maybe some will work without problems?

My initial install was on the 6th and I got cumulative update KB5005635 on the 8th. I would have had updates paused after the install and then when all sorted I ran an update check.

SIW2 said:

All four have tpm of some kind. I am surprised your 3rd gen machine has tpm2. What is it?

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It's an HP Elitebook 8470p. It may be that it originally shipped with a 1.2 TPM module but was upgraded via FW to 2.0. I know for a fact that was the case for one of my other HP systems.

zbook said:

Please update the thread when there are Windows 11 updates:

a) Will Windows 11 update automatically?


b) Will Microsoft defender update automatically?


The Microsoft link indicated that this is uncertain.

Maybe some will work without problems?

Click to expand...

Today is patch Tuesday so I will know today. In fact, I have a pre-canned response to that very topic all typed out already :). It my belief that anyone who thinks updates won't roll out to unsupported machines is not living in the real world. Of course, I could be wrong. Look for follow-up from me in about 7.5 to 8 hours.

Edit: I can answer this in part already: I have been getting the defender updates almost daily so far.

Mooly said:

Many are running Eleven on BIOS based hardware including myself (11 yr old Dell Vostro early i5 laptop) I can also honestly say that at this point it has been the slickest OS to date, super rapid and zero glitches. Even Windows Update managed to install the correct drivers for the old Intel HD3000 graphics.

This was a clean install, not an upgrade.

Click to expand...

I am not suggesting anything. But MS have several million Dollars of shares in Dell.

Mooly said:

Many are running Eleven on BIOS based hardware including myself (11 yr old Dell Vostro early i5 laptop) I can also honestly say that at this point it has been the slickest OS to date, super rapid and zero glitches. Even Windows Update managed to install the correct drivers for the old Intel HD3000 graphics.

This was a clean install, not an upgrade.

Click to expand...

hsehestedt said:

Today is patch Tuesday so I will know today. In fact, I have a pre-canned response to that very topic all typed out already :). It my belief that anyone who thinks updates won't roll out to unsupported machines is not living in the real world. Of course, I could be wrong. Look for follow-up from me in about 7.5 to 8 hours.

Click to expand...

Tend to agree. The real 'risk' of update problems will probably materialise at sometime in the future if/when MS begins to deliver W11 updates/features that are dependent on directly addressing some of of the non-existent, but specified, hardware/firmware requirements that have been bypassed by users to get an install on non-compliant hardware.

LeLibran said:

Tend to agree. The real 'risk' of update problems will probably materialise at sometime in the future if/when MS begins to deliver W11 updates/features that are dependent on directly addressing some of of the non-existent, but specified, hardware/firmware requirements that have been bypassed by users to get an install on non-compliant hardware.

Click to expand...

And I agree with you about the real 'risk'.

It happened on Windows 10 as well. Three TenForums members reported that our very old Dell Inspiron 9300 computers would not update past Windows 10 Version 1709.
[One of us, rjjones667, posted about it and followed all the guidance provided by some of TenForums most highly competent & helpful members but to no avail].
Having Windows 10 on such an old computer at all had been an unexpected bonus in the first place.

All the best,
Denis

Try3 said:

Three TenForums members reported that our very old Dell Inspiron 9300 computers would not update past Windows 10 Version 1709.

Click to expand...

That's a whole different animal. I can fully understand not being able to upgrade to a new FEATURE release because MS may add features that change the hardware requirements. In fact, when you look at the release notes for new feature updates, you will often see noted that rollout is being blocked to systems with this or that piece of hardware because of some incompatibility. So, it's entirely possible that installing on unsupported hardware as I am doing my lead to a point where I am blocked from installing some later feature update due to further incompatibilities.

hsehestedt said:

I can fully understand not being able to upgrade to a new FEATURE release because MS may add features that change the hardware requirements. In fact, when you look at the release notes for new feature updates, you will often see noted that rollout is being blocked to systems with this or that piece of hardware because of some incompatibility. So, it's entirely possible that installing on unsupported hardware as I am doing my lead to a point where I am blocked from installing some later feature update due to further incompatibilities.

Click to expand...

I'm glad we agree.

Denis

Yeah, i've had no problems installing on unsupported CPU's as long as the device has TPM option.

With secure boot, i've been able to install with it turned off. It only seems to require that the option to enable it exists, it doesn't need to be enabled.

hsehestedt said:

Today is patch Tuesday so I will know today. In fact, I have a pre-canned response to that very topic all typed out already :). It my belief that anyone who thinks updates won't roll out to unsupported machines is not living in the real world. Of course, I could be wrong. Look for follow-up from me in about 7.5 to 8 hours.

Edit: I can answer this in part already: I have been getting the defender updates almost daily so far.

Click to expand...

Hi,
Think basic updates should be offered net/....
I usually turn updates off anyway so this might be the easiest way to do that

MS already checks daily so I'd just have turn that off.

Well, I guess that we can finally put that insipid idea aside that people running Windows on unsupported hardware won't be offered security updates. Today (patch Tuesday) I received updates on ALL of my unsupported systems including 7th gen, 6th gen, 4th gen, and 3rd gen Intel core CPUs.

NOTE: I am in no way whatsoever making a case for or endorsing installation on unsupported hardware. Doing so may lead to problems, potentially even data loss events. Also, Microsoft's policies may change without notice in the future.

I'm merely pointing out that security updates are being offered to such systems and that it was unrealistic to ever expect differently. Anyone who ever thought differently, IMHO, does not live in the real world. In the real world, there are still Microsoft customers (BIG Customers!) that are 100% fully supported and receiving monthly patches for Server 2008. In the real world, Microsoft provides security updates even to unactivated, illegitimate copies of Windows. In the real world, there was no way that security updates were not going to be provided to people running on unsupported hardware.

I never post "I told you so" messages here, but for this one I had to make an exception because this was so obvious.

I told you so!

<Hope you all understand the good humor which is intended here.>

Updates make sense. Why would they put in the time and effort to make their own systems unpatched. They don't want that egg on their face. At least I wouldn't think they would.

I hadn't fired up my NUC to see if it was going to update today or not.

Got 'em. Running on i7-7700, all other requirements met.

Aaaand ...

hsehestedt said:

Well, I guess that we can finally put that insipid idea aside that people running Windows on unsupported hardware won't be offered security updates. Today (patch Tuesday) I received updates on ALL of my unsupported systems including 7th gen, 6th gen, 4th gen, and 3rd gen Intel core CPUs.

NOTE: I am in no way whatsoever making a case for or endorsing installation on unsupported hardware. Doing so may lead to problems, potentially even data loss events. Also, Microsoft's policies may change without notice in the future.

I'm merely pointing out that security updates are being offered to such systems and that it was unrealistic to ever expect differently. Anyone who ever thought differently, IMHO, does not live in the real world. In the real world, there are still Microsoft customers (BIG Customers!) that are 100% fully supported and receiving monthly patches for Server 2008. In the real world, Microsoft provides security updates even to unactivated, illegitimate copies of Windows. In the real world, there was no way that security updates were not going to be provided to people running on unsupported hardware.

I never post "I told you so" messages here, but for this one I had to make an exception because this was so obvious.

I told you so! :)

<Hope you all understand the good humor which is intended here.>

Click to expand...

My old laptop which did not meet the Win11 requirements updated as well.

Glad to see the results in this thread and one of these days when I've more time to putz I may upgrade the Skylake system to Win 11; if a later feature update (22H1?) won't install I'd just clean install 10 again as it's been a long time since I've done a clean install on that system anyway.