How to Install Windows 11 23H2 on Unsupported Hardware Devices
UPDATE: The article has been updated to include instructions for the latest Windows 11 2023 Update, version 23H2.
If you have an old, incompatible or unsupported computer system and want to install Windows 11 operating system in your device but not sure how to do this, this article will help you. In this FAQ article, I’ll try to answer all frequently asked questions about Windows 11 installation on unsupported hardware devices. Ever since Windows 11 has been released by Microsoft, lots of readers are asking me similar questions regarding installation of Windows 11 on old machines which are not supported by Windows 11.
That’s why I decided to publish this FAQ article to address all those queries.
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Let’s start the article:
Table of Contents
- What is an Incompatible or Unsupported Windows 11 Device?
- What are Hardware Requirements of Windows 11?
- How to Check Whether My Computer is Compatible with Windows 11?
- Can I Install Windows 11 on My Unsupported Computer System?
- How to Install Windows 11 on Unsupported Devices?
- Should I Install Windows 11 on Unsupported Devices? Any Risk or Disadvantages?
- Can I Use Windows 11 as Primary OS on My Unsupported Device?
- Will My Unsupported Device Receive Updates If I Install Windows 11 Using Workarounds?
- How to Go Back to Windows 10 After Upgrading to Windows 11?
What is an Incompatible or Unsupported Windows 11 Device?
First of all, let’s understand which devices are incompatible or unsupported by Windows 11.
Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 11 comes with higher hardware requirements and most of the existing or old devices don’t meet these requirements. When a device doesn’t meet hardware requirements of Windows 11, the device can be said as incompatible or unsupported.
In other words, when a machine doesn’t fulfill system requirements to install and use a software, the device is referred as incompatible or unsupported by the software.
What are Hardware Requirements of Windows 11?
Microsoft has published an official list of all hardware requirements which a device must fulfill to be able to install Windows 11.
Mainly a device must contain TPM 2.0 chip, Secure Boot feature in BIOS and compatible processor to be able to install Windows 11.
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Following article contains full list with details of Windows 11 hardware requirements:
Windows 11 System Requirements or Hardware Specifications
How to Check Whether My Computer is Compatible with Windows 11?
Microsoft provides an official tool “PC Health Check” which can be used by Windows 10 users to check whether their device is compatible with Windows 11 or not.
You can download and install the tool and it’ll assist you in checking your device eligibility.
Following article contains full details and instructions about how to download and use the official tool:
Download PC Health Check App to Know Whether Your PC Meets Windows 11 System Requirements
Can I Install Windows 11 on My Unsupported Computer System?
By default, if you try to install Windows 11 in an unsupported device, the setup wizard will show error message like “This PC doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements to install Windows 11” and you’ll be unable to install or upgrade to Windows 11.
[Fix] This PC can’t Run Windows 11 Error Message on Upgrade
But there are ways or workarounds to bypass these hardware requirements and install Windows 11 on unsupported devices.
How to Install Windows 11 on Unsupported Devices?
The easiest and quickest way to install Windows 11 on incompatible devices, is creating a bootable USB drive with all hardware requirements checks disabled. The USB drive will automatically skip or disable all system requirements check (such as TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, processor, RAM, etc) by Windows 11 setup and you’ll be able to install Windows 11 in your device even if it’s unsupported or incompatible.
Following article contains step-by-step instructions for creating the bootable USB drive to install Windows 11 in any computer system:
How to Create Windows 11 Bootable USB Drive with Hardware Requirements Check Disabled
Microsoft has also shared an official method which helps users in bypassing all hardware requirements check and installing Windows 11 on an incompatible device. There are also a few other working methods available to force Windows 11 installation on old or unsupported devices. These methods will help you in installing or upgrading to Windows 11 on incompatible/unsupported devices whether you have launched Windows 11 setup from a running Desktop or you are trying a clean installation by booting your computer with Windows 11 USB drive or DVD.
Following article contains all possible solutions to install Windows 11 on unsupported devices:
[Fix] This PC doesn’t Currently Meet Windows 11 System Requirements
Should I Install Windows 11 on Unsupported Devices? Any Risk or Disadvantages?
Now the question comes should you install Windows 11 on your unsupported device or not?
In my opinion, if your computer doesn’t meet system requirements of Windows 11, you should skip Windows 11 and stay on Windows 10.
Although the workarounds and official methods allow you to install Windows 11 on your old incompatible computer but you’ll face performance and stability issues while using Windows 11 as it requires high-end devices. You might face bugs and issues while using Windows 11 as you forced Windows 11 installation on your incompatible device.
Windows 10 will be supported by Microsoft till October 14, 2025. So you can keep using Windows 10 for at least 4 years and then you can decide whether you should upgrade your computer or purchase a new machine. If you purchase a new computer in future, it’ll already come with Windows 11 installed.
More Details: Should You Install Windows 11 on Unsupported Hardware Devices?
There is not much difference between Windows 10 and Windows 11. Both share same code and features. Windows 11 comes with a redesigned UI (User Interface) but internally it’s quite similar to Windows 10.
Also Windows 11 lacks a few essential features at the moment. For example, Start Menu and Taskbar are very restricted, you can’t move the Taskbar to top/left/right areas of screen, etc. In future, Microsoft will add more functionality to Windows 11 via regular updates and feature updates.
So you can wait for some time and then decide.
Can I Use Windows 11 as Primary OS on My Unsupported Device?
I’ll not advise to use Windows 11 as primary OS if you forcefully installed or upgraded to Windows 11 on an incompatible device due to above mentioned reasons.
The best option for an incompatible device is to make it a dual-boot device. Keep Windows 10 installed and install Windows 11 on a different partition to make the device dual-boot. In dual-boot system, you get a choice to select which operating system you want to use at startup.
Now you can keep using Windows 10 as primary OS and can test drive Windows 11 any time without worries.
Will My Unsupported Device Receive Updates If I Install Windows 11 Using Workarounds?
According to Microsoft, the device should not receive future updates if you try to forcefully install Windows 11 on your unsupported device.
Following is the official statement by Microsoft:
This PC doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements for running Windows 11 – these requirements help ensure a more reliable and higher quality experience. Installing Windows 11 on this PC is not recommended and may result in compatibility issues. If you proceed with installing Windows 11, your PC will no longer be supported and won’t be entitled to receive updates. Damages to your PC due to lack of compatibility aren’t covered under the manufacturer warranty.
But at the moment, unsupported devices are receiving all Windows 11 updates.
It’s possible that Microsoft is not checking for unsupported devices to deliver updates but the company might start checking the device eligibility in future and may stop providing updates to these unsupported devices.
How to Go Back to Windows 10 After Upgrading to Windows 11?
After upgrading to Windows 11, if you don’t like the new OS and decide to restore Windows 10, following article will help you:
[Tip] How to Go Back to Windows 10 After Upgrade to Windows 11
Also Check:
[Tip] How to Complete Windows 11 Setup Without Internet Connection
[Tip] How to Install Windows 11 With Local User Account
How to Restore or Enable Classic Taskbar in Windows 11 (All Versions)
How to Restore or Enable Classic File Explorer in Windows 11 (All Versions)
How to Restore or Enable Classic Context Menu in Windows 11 (All Versions)
Details from a post on a forum:
Using WD_BLACK 1TB SN750 SE NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive – Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, WDS100T1B0E for a boot drive ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming ATX Motherboard, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core, and 32GB DDR4 RAM. Decided to be lazy and not put a video card in to see if it would post and install Windows 10 to the M.2 drive. I’d put my old 8TB HDD in later. Nothing on screen and error code 02. Found a video from ASUS support that mentioned the bootup check lights by the 24-pin power cable and it was stopping at video. It said one reason it might hang up there is if your CPU didn’t support on-board video. I popped an old video card in and connected the monitor to that. Got a message on the screen something about BIOS setting compatibility mode, but after building and rebuilding I was just glad to get it working. I put everything back in and used a Windows 10 install flash drive and it installed fine to the M.2 drive. An app from ASUS that would get all my drivers and install them for me popped up (Armoury Crate) and I let it. I put my old HDD in and it worked fine too.
No problems until I decided to go ahead and let PC Health check my computer to see if I could get Windows 11 even though I’m not upgrading to it anytime soon. The only problem listed was secure boot. Looking at the BIOS, the compatibility message I saw at first boot must have been that it was setting it to UEFI and CSM/Legacy BIOS for the M.2 drive. It says to be compatible with secure boot I need to disable CSM. When I do though it says “Notice Due to Microsoft Secure Boot regulations, ensure the Microsoft signed UEFI driver is contained in the plugged PCI-E based storages including M.2 SSD before set the Launch CSM to [Disabled]. Otherwise, the PCI-E based storages will be only available for the data drive usage. Contact the PCI-E storage vendor for the UEFI driver availability details.”
Tried it anyway and just blank screen. Went back to previous BIOS settings and all worked again. Checked out Western Digital’s website, but the only thing they have for download is their dashboard with tools to check version, SMART status, and firmware. Also Acronis True Image. Couldn’t find anything about Microsoft signed UEFI drivers in their forums or google.
Now would be a good time to get them and even do another fresh install if needed as I haven’t done that much setup. Might as well, if I can. Any idea what I should do to get the drivers or are they just something Microsoft wants that Western Digital hasn’t gotten around to? Didn’t have this problem using SSD drives had for years.
So advice, and help please. Is this a problem with the MS install/setup process and the new drives awaiting a correction from MS ? Or a reason to be careful in the selection and use of new storage devices ? or is there something that was done, or not done that caused the problem?
^^ As far as I understand, you’ll need to delete existing partitions and re-create new partitions if you want to change to UEFI mode.
I have a Lenovo Yoga 720-15IKB. Windows 11 tool says I can’t upgrade to Windows 11 because my CPU is not supported. The CPU is a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz. I looked on the approved list of processors on the Windows 11 compatibility page and the i7-7700HQ is listed as being compatible. Everything else has a green check on it when the Windows 11 tool runs on my computer. It looks like my computer can upgrade to Windows 11 but reading this article, it says it will not be supported. I am really confused on this issue. Please, do you know why my CPU is not compatible even though it is listed on the approved compatibility list of CPUs? Am I missing something? I do not know what to do, except by a new computer in 2025, unless the compatibility changes. Thank you.
^^ If the CPU is listed on supported processors page, it might be a bug in the tool. Did you try to run the upgrade? If the CPU is not supported, the setup wizard will display unsupported message in the beginning.
@Matthew: Sadly, your i7-7700HQ is NOT on the Microsoft supported CPU list for Windows 11.
docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors
Basically you need an Intel Core ix-8xxx or later, or an AMD Ryzen x 2xxx, with some exceptions.
The i7-7800X, i7-7820X and i7-7820HQ (select devices/drivers only) are on the list. They are the only ones from your CPU generation.
Hi, VG. I found another way (from gh**s) to upgrade to Windows 11 2023 Update on unsupported hardware:
1. install October 2023 Preview update from HERE:
support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/october-31-2023-kb5031455-os-builds-22621-2506-and-22631-2506-preview-6513c5ec-c5a2-4aaf-97f5-44c13d29e0d4
2. Download and Install the Enablement update for the Windows 11 2023 Update from here:
t1p.de/0s3kv
3. Restart the PC.