Two methods to upgrade incompatible Windows 10 PCs to Windows 11

ZDNET outlines two ways to upgrade Windows 10 PCs that fail Microsoft's compatibility checks so they can run Windows 11. The first method is a registry edit that tells Windows Setup to skip CPU checks and accept older TPM versions. It requires running Setup from within Windows, an x64 CPU, administrator rights, UEFI boot mode (not legacy BIOS), TPM present and enabled (TPM 1.2 is acceptable), Secure Boot support, and sufficient free space (the official requirement is 64GB but an upgrade can often work with 25–30GB).

The article gives step-by-step registry instructions (create HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup and a DWORD named AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU set to 1) and notes language mismatches can prevent keeping apps and settings. The second method uses the Rufus utility to create modified installation media that bypasses compatibility checks on systems without TPM or UEFI.

ZDNET advises using Rufus 4.6 or later, downloading the Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft first, and a 16GB USB drive (which will be reformatted). Rufus cannot overcome the newer Windows 11 24H2 CPU instruction restrictions (SSE4.2 and PopCnt), and the article warns not to boot and perform a clean install from the Rufus-created drive if the goal is an in-place upgrade.

Key Topics

Tech, Rufus, Tpm, Uefi, Registry Edit