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How to upgrade your “incompatible” Windows 10 PC to Windows 11

Pau Barrena/Bloomberg via Getty Images

On October 14, 2025, Microsoft will stop providing security updates for your Windows 10 PC unless you are willing to pay an exorbitant price to participate in the Extended Security Updates program.

Also: What is a TPM and why does Windows 11 need one?

If you try to upgrade to Windows 11 on a PC that's more than a few years old, you'll be told in no uncertain terms that your old PC doesn't qualify because its CPU isn't on the official list of compatible processors. Microsoft has made it clear that it won't revise these requirements. You'll also run into roadblocks if your PC doesn't have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0.

This may be the official policy, but as with everything Windows-related, it's worth reading the fine print.

These annoying limitations prevent you from automatically upgrading to Windows 11 using Windows Update or the Windows 11 Installation Wizard. However, there are fully supported workarounds, as I document in ZDNET's Windows 11 FAQs.

Also: Yes, you can upgrade your old PC to Windows 11, even if Microsoft says no. These readers proved it

An important note: To take advantage of the workaround described in Option 1 below, your computer must still meet all other requirements for Windows 11.

  • It must be configured to boot with UEFI, not an older BIOS configuration.
  • Secure Boot must be enabled.
  • Also, a TPM must be enabled. Version 1.2 is fine, but a system without a TPM or with the TPM disabled will fail.

To check these details on a PC you're planning to upgrade, run the System Information utility (Msinfo32.exe) and look at the System Summary page. Pay special attention to the BIOS mode value. If it says “Legacy,” you'll need to reconfigure your system to UEFI mode (and reformat your system disk) before you can install Windows 11.

If you can't (or don't want to) upgrade from legacy BIOS to UEFI, or if you have an older PC that doesn't have a TPM option at all, you'll need to use an undocumented hack to complete the upgrade. For more information on using the free Rufus utility to perform this upgrade, see Option 2 at the end of this post.

Also: Still have a Windows 10 PC? You have 5 options before support ends

If you want to perform a clean install of Windows 11, you can boot from the installation media and run Windows Setup. This option skips the CPU compatibility check entirely (but still requires TPM and Secure Boot support). After the installation is complete, you'll need to reinstall all your apps, restore your data files, and tweak settings to personalize your system settings.

Want to avoid all the hassle? Follow these four steps.

Option 1: Use this simple registry edit to bypass CPU checks and accept an older TPM

You'll need to make a small change to the Windows Registry, as documented in this Microsoft support document. This change tells the Windows 11 setup program to skip checking for compatible CPUs and allow installation on a PC with an older TPM (version 1.2). Of course, the usual warnings apply when working with the registry, and I recommend you make a full backup before proceeding.

Open Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup

If the MoSetup key does not exist, you must create it. Right-click the node for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup in the left navigation pane, and then select New > Key. Name it MoSetup and press Enter.

Also: Why “deblocking” Windows is not a good idea (and what you can do instead)

Select the MoSetup key and then right-click in any empty space in the right pane. Select the option to create a new DWORD value. (Do not select the QWORD option!)

Replace the default name for this key by typing the text AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU and then press Enter. Then double-click the new value and change the Value data field to 1. The result should look like this:

Override Windows 11 compatibility check.jpg

Use this registry tweak to override Windows 11's CPU and TPM compatibility checks.

Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET

Click OK to save your changes and then restart your PC.

Once the download is complete, open File Explorer and double-click the ISO file. This will mount the file as a virtual DVD drive in its own folder.

In File Explorer, locate the Setup.exe file and double-click it to begin the upgrade. You'll get a stern warning about compatibility issues, but after clicking OK on this dialog, your upgrade should proceed without any serious issues. You have three options: you can keep your apps, settings, and files (Full Upgrade); you can keep your data files but start over with apps and settings (Keep Data Only); or you can start over from scratch (Clean Install).

Also: The best Windows laptops you can buy: Tested and rated by experts

Option 2: Use the free Rufus utility to bypass compatibility checks completely

On older PCs without a TPM and on PCs that don't support Secure Boot, you'll need to use an undocumented hack to bypass the compatibility check. You can do this manually by replacing the Appraiserres.dll file (found in the Sources subfolder on the Windows 11 installation drive) with a zero-byte version, but it's easier to use the free, open-source Rufus utility to create a USB drive containing this file.

Also: Still have a Windows 10 PC? You have 5 options before support ends next year

To get started, you'll need to download the Windows 11 ISO and prepare a USB stick of at least 16GB in size. You'll be reformatting this stick as part of the process, so back up all the data on this stick first.

  1. Download Rufus from the developer site or from the Microsoft Store and run the app.
  2. Select the USB drive and then select the “Disk or ISO image” option.
  3. Click the Select button, select the Windows 11 ISO you downloaded earlier, and then click Launch.
  4. In the Windows User Experience dialog box, select the first check box to remove the hardware requirements, as shown in the following screenshot.
  5. Click OK to start creating the drive.
Rufus Windows Compatibility

Be sure to check the top box here to bypass the compatibility check for the Windows 11 upgrade.

Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET

After Rufus has successfully created your installer, open the USB drive in File Explorer and double-click “Setup”.

My ZDNET colleague Lance Whitney describes the other options available with Rufus in more detail in “How to install Windows 11 the way you want (and bypass Microsoft's restrictions).”

If you've tried this upgrade, I want to hear about your experience. If it worked, please share the details with me. If there are any issues, email me so we can figure out what's going wrong. Be sure to include details like the make and model of your PC, and screenshots of any error messages. I've set up a special inbox just for this feedback: Win11Upgrade [at] realworldwindows.com.

This article was originally published on April 9, 2022, but has been updated several times since then. It was last updated on September 10, 2024.


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