Solved Upgrade from Win10 to Win11 23h2 using Rufus on unsupported hardware

hornetster · Dec 15, 2023

As above, trying to update to 23h2 on unsupported hardware, creating a USB with Rufus, V4.3.2090 (on a 22H2 Win10Pro VirtualBox), using a freshly downloaded (and checked) "Win11_23H2_EnglishInternational_x64v2.iso", but...
I don't get the Windows User Experience box, giving me the options to remove the various requirements.
Press Start, and it goes straight to the building phase.
Where am I going wrong?
Thanks.

Ghot · Dec 15, 2023

hornetster said:
As above, trying to update to 23h2 on unsupported hardware, creating a USB with Rufus, V4.3.2090 (on a 22H2 Win10Pro VirtualBox), using a freshly downloaded (and checked) "Win11_23H2_EnglishInternational_x64v2.iso", but...
I don't get the Windows User Experience box, giving me the options to remove the various requirements.
Press Start, and it goes straight to the building phase.
Where am I going wrong?
Thanks.

Hell@hornetster and welcome to ElevenForum.

I think it's automatic in the newer version of RUFUS.
I'm not sure though, cause I have no way to test.

If your version of RUFUS has the section in the RED box... then you have to choose the bypass options.
If you don't have that section... then I believe it's automatic.

MisterEd · Dec 16, 2023

The Windows User Experience options are still there. When you are ready to create the flash drive press the Start button. Only then will these options be shown. Note, I created the Windows 11 ISO using the Media Creation Tool, MediaCreationTool_Win11_23H2.exe.

UPDATE: I repeated this in a Windows 10 Pro VM in VirtualBox. The results were the same as shown below:

antspants · Dec 16, 2023

When you “press start, it goes straight to the building phase” This has also happened to me a few times, but it seemed to be random if it does or if it doesn’t. Might sound strange, but try another USB port. I did and it worked as expected, but it could of been something else that was responsible. I never really tried to figure out why.

Or try 4.2? If you still have it. Or an earlier 4.3. I think I have some saved, I’ll check. Not sure if they make older versions available on the site.

And welcome, by the way

antspants · Dec 16, 2023

Some older versions, try 4.3 again in another port, or you can get 4.2 here:

Rufus Downloads

MisterEd · Dec 16, 2023

antspants said:
When you “press start, it goes straight to the building phase” This has also happened to me a few times, but it seemed to be random if it does or if it doesn’t. Might sound strange, but try another USB port. I did and it worked as expected, but it could of been something else that was responsible. I never really tried to figure out why.

Or try 4.2? If you still have it. Or an earlier 4.3. I think I have some saved, I’ll check. Not sure if they make older versions available on the site.

And welcome, by the way

That is strange the option wasn't shown. It worked for me on both my laptop with Windows 11 Pro and the Windows 10 Pro VM in VirtualBox. Note in both cases I was using the portable version of Rufus 4.3.2090.

BTW, they have many of the old versions of Rufus all the back to 1.0.

antspants · Dec 16, 2023

MisterEd said:
That is strange the option wasn't shown. It worked for me on both my laptop with Windows 11 Pro and the Windows 10 Pro VM in VirtualBox. Note in both cases I was using the portable version of Rufus 4.3.2090.

BTW, they have many of the old versions of Rufus all the back to 1.0.

Yes, it usually works for me also, but on a few occasions, I experienced what hornetster experienced. Too many variables to know why. They might know at Rufus.

hornetster · Dec 16, 2023

Thanks for all the replies.
Yes, mine DOES have the image option.
Will try again, but will also try the install, and see if it has happened automagically... Maybe it does it automatically when you have chosen the MBR option...?
Thanks.

antspants · Dec 16, 2023

hornetster said:
Thanks for all the replies.
Yes, mine DOES have the image option.
Will try again, but will also try the install, and see if it has happened automagically... Maybe it does it automatically when you have chosen the MBR option...?
Thanks.

It’s a very smart app. Normally you shouldn’t have to select anything but the ISO. Unless of course you have specific preferences. Then the bypass options show after pressing start, as you know.

hornetster · Dec 16, 2023

OK, outcome.
Installed 4.3xx on baremetal (read: minipc, running Win11), and all has appeared to work.
So, not sure what the issue was: VirtualBox?/Win10?
Dunno.
Thanks for the clues! Will let you know if it falls over from here...

antspants · Dec 16, 2023

hornetster said:
OK, outcome.
Installed 4.3xx on baremetal (read: minipc, running Win11), and all has appeared to work.
So, not sure what the issue was: VirtualBox?/Win10?
Dunno.
Thanks for the clues! Will let you know if it falls over from here...

Very cool

hornetster · Dec 16, 2023

Back again....
Seemed to be going OK (although, didn't get far) and now have a message "sorry, we're having trouble determining if your PC can run Windows 11. Please close and try again"...
Will do!

antspants · Dec 16, 2023

That’s weird. The whole point of Rufus is to make that possible?

Megahertz · Dec 16, 2023

Why use Rufus?
To upgrade from Win 10 or Win 11 is quite simple.

How to upgrade from Win10 or Win 11 to Win 11 23h2 - A guide

As many of us has already found out, Win10 21h2 or Win10 22h2 or Win 11 21h2 or Win 11 22h2 installed on an incompatible hardware doesn't upgrade by itself to 23h2. You have to use the Repair install method or In-Place Upgrade, that is, run setup.exe from a mounted and tweaked Win 11 22h2 iso...

www.elevenforum.com

hornetster · Dec 16, 2023

Thanks for all the input.
Have tried them all at this point, and have now decided that my issue is that the machine I am trying to update, is just pushing the envelope too far!!
Continue to get: "sorry, we're having trouble determining if your PC can run Windows 11. Please close and try again"...
so will give up on this one - experiment over!
But all this info will be useful for other updates.
Thanks!

hornetster · Dec 18, 2023

OK, another update.
The issue I was having, was the machine is dual-boot (which hasn't created an issue previously, I am sure...?), and I needed to set the boot flag for the Windows partition. Doing this allowed me to successfully update to both Win10 22H2 and then Win11 23H2.
Have other issues now, but that's irrelevant!

Thanks for your help.

antspants · Dec 18, 2023

hornetster said:
OK, another update.
The issue I was having, was the machine is dual-boot (which hasn't created an issue previously, I am sure...?), and I needed to set the boot flag for the Windows partition. Doing this allowed me to successfully update to both Win10 22H2 and then Win11 23H2.
Have other issues now, but that's irrelevant!
Thanks for your help.

Good to hear!