By Nermeen Nabil Khear 
We’re in the final days of Microsoft’s free software updates for Windows 10, and a lot of people with perfectly good computers still cannot upgrade to Windows 11. When Microsoft released the latest version of Windows, it put some stringent minimum system requirements in place, the toughest of which was TPM 2.0. This small “Trusted Platform Module” chip (whether virtual or physical) aids with encryption and other security related tasks, but plenty of people have PCs with older TPMs or good gaming machines that lack TPM entirely. Officially, Windows 11 is out of their reach. However, if that sounds like you, there’s an easy way to bypass TPM checks and install Windows 11 on your PC.
The risks of installing Windows 11 on an unsupported PC
Let me state the obvious right up front: it’s not a good idea to upgrade extremely low-end PCs to Windows 11. Microsoft requires a minimum of 4GB RAM and 64GB of free space to install Windows 11, and if your PC doesn’t meet those standards, you should avoid this upgrade. This guide is primarily for those who have perfectly capable PCs, but can’t upgrade to Windows 11 due to TPM restrictions.
Microsoft’s main reason behind pushing for TPM 2.0 is to increase security. PCs with a TPM are more resilient against malware and ransomware attacks, and are able to store sensitive data locally in a safer way. While you can bypass this, it’s worth noting that Microsoft warns that installing Windows 11 on an unsupported PC may introduce compatibility issues and weaken performance. You also may not receive support from Microsoft, and any damage to your PC won’t be covered under warranty.
If your PC is under warranty, it’s recommended that you don’t mess with it. However, if the warranty has expired, you might want to consider upgrading it to Windows 11 anyway. That’s because Microsoft has announced that it’ll be discontinuing free security updates for these computers starting on Oct. 14, 2025.
What happens after the last Windows 10 security update
Once the last security update is issued, it’s strongly recommended that you don’t use your PC on the internet. You’ll be vulnerable to new types of malware, viruses, and other threats from the internet, and there’ll be no real security patches to protect you.
You do have the option to pay for updates as part of Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, but that is an expensive proposition. It is priced at $61 per device for the first year, and the price doubles with each subsequent year. If you’re a part of an educational institution, the pricing is $1 per device per year, which goes up to $4 per year by the third year.
However, if you have a working Windows 10 license, the upgrade to Windows 11 is free and comes with free security updates for many years to come.
How to upgrade your unsupported PC to Windows 11
Before you proceed with your upgrade, back up your PC. You don’t want to lose all your data during the upgrade, and backing it up ensures that your photos, videos, and documents are all safely stored elsewhere.
When that’s done, you can start the upgrade process. First, download a Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft’s website. On that page, scroll down to Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices, select the edition you want (usually the most recent one) from the drop-down menu, and click Download Now. Follow the directions and click 64-bit Download once it appears. The ISO file is over 6GB and it’ll take a short while to download.
While that’s underway, download the latest version of Rufus, which is a free tool that lets you create bootable USB drives. I’ll mention other methods for upgrading later on, but this is my favorite, and arguably the simplest, way to do it. Don’t use older versions of Rufus, as Microsoft periodically blocks ways to bypass TPM checks, and the latest version usually has a workaround. You’re also going to need a USB drive with at least 8GB of free space. Take a moment to back up any important data on this drive, because it’ll be erased as we proceed.
Credit: Pranay Parab/Rufus
Once your Windows 11 ISO is downloaded, plug in the USB drive and install and launch Rufus. With this app open, go to the Device drop-down menu and select the correct USB drive. Click the big SELECT button next to Disk or ISO image and pick the Windows 11 ISO that you just downloaded. Now, click the START button.
You’ll see a pop-up asking if you want to customize your Windows installation. Ideally, enable the following options:
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Remove requirement for 4GB+ RAM, Secure Boot and TPM 2.0
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Remove requirement for an online Microsoft account
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Create a local account with username
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Disable data collection (Skip privacy questions)
The first option is crucial if you want to install Windows 11 on unsupported PCs. The rest are good to have, but not necessary—they let you skip the online account sign-in process that Microsoft keeps trying to push, and they also skip a few annoying setup questions about data collection. With all this selected, click OK and wait for Rufus to do its thing.
Credit: Pranay Parab/Rufus
Once that’s done, double-check that your data is backed up. It’s now time to start your upgrade. There are a couple of ways to proceed here. The most straightforward is to open the newly created bootable USB disk and run the Setup.exe file. This should launch the Windows 11 installer, and you can follow the on-screen steps through the end of the process.
Alternatively, you can do what I did—boot Windows off the USB drive to install Windows 11. On your Windows 10 PC, go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery and click Restart now under the Advanced startup section. This will reboot your PC and start the Windows 11 setup process from your USB drive.
I used this method to successfully upgrade my PC to Windows 11 and ran into just one hiccup. When the PC restarts for the first time during the upgrade, you should remove all USB drives from the computer (including the one with Windows 11). Otherwise, the installation may get stuck. Other than this, the upgrade went smoothly and I’m now happily running Windows 11. I didn’t need to do anything to activate it either. I skipped the step asking me to type the product key and noticed that Windows 11 had activated itself after installation. My Windows 10 Pro key automatically activated Windows 11 Pro after the upgrade.
Alternative method 1: use a registry key modification
If Rufus isn’t working for you, there’s a few alternative methods you can use to upgrade an unsupported PC to Windows 11.
Up until recently, Microsoft used to tell users about a registry key modification that can bypass TPM checks and install Windows 11 on an ‘unsupported’ PC. That method has since been removed from Microsoft’s support pages, but you can still use it by following these steps.
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Open Registry Editor on your Windows 10 PC.
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Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMSetupMoSetup.
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Create a new registry key here with these values:
Name: AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
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Visit Microsoft’s Windows 11 download page and go to the Create Windows 11 Installation Media section. Click Download Now. This will save the Media Creation Tool file to your computer. Run the Media Creation Tool, follow the on-screen prompts, and it’ll create a bootable Windows 11 USB drive for you.
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Open the USB drive and run Setup.exe. Follow the prompts and your Windows 11 upgrade should proceed while bypassing TPM checks.
Microsoft may choose to block this method at some point in the future, but until that happens, you can still use it to get the job done.
Alternative method 2: create an automated Windows 11 installer
You can also create an unattended Windows 11 installer to complete the upgrade to the OS, even if your PC has been labelled ‘unsupported.’ An unattended installer is basically a way to automate the install process. It lets you configure many aspects of Windows 11, allowing you to remove bloatware, change taskbar settings, etc. Follow these steps:
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Go to the Unattend Generator website.
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Select Install Windows 11 Using These Language Settings and choose your preferred language, keyboard layouts, and home location (country you live in).
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Below that, choose the correct processor architecture for your computer. You can choose one of Intel/AMD 32-bit, Intel/AMD 64-bit, or Windows on Arm64. If you’re unsure what your architecture is, check it on your Windows 10 PC by navigating to Settings > System > About.
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The next section is called Setup Settings, and this is the most important one for our purposes. Choose the option that let you bypass TPM checks.
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Go through the remaining setup options. This includes deciding whether you want to partition the drive automatically or manually, whether you want to remove bloatware from Windows 11, and choosing your key settings.
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With your choices selected, scroll to the bottom and select Download .xml file. This will download a file called autounattend.xml to your computer.
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Create a bootable Windows 11 USB drive by visiting Microsoft’s Windows 11 download page and navigating to the Create Windows 11 Installation Media section. Click Download Now. Then, run the Media Creation Tool and follow the on-screen prompts.
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Paste the autounattend.xml file from earlier into this drive and boot from the USB drive to complete setup.
This should take care of upgrading your ‘unsupported’ PC to Windows 11, and also apply all of your preferred settings to the computer.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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