Last version of Rufus (or another utility) that bypasses Win11 requirements

britechguy

britechguy

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First, let me make clear that I am asking this strictly on my own behalf and to do some experimenting with Windows 11 on a machine not intended to support it. This is just for fun, so all warnings about this not being a good idea are unnecessary. I would never do this on a client computer.

There was a time when Rufus would allow you to check checkboxes that allowed you to burn the Windows 11 ISO but bypass the TPM checks and/or need for a Microsoft Account along with a couple of other options related to privacy options under Windows. That seems to be gone in Rufus versions 3.20 and 3.21 (portable).

Yet I swear that recently when I burned the Windows 11 ISO that these options were still presented. What is the last version of Rufus that offered these choices, or is there another utility that can neuter certain Windows 11 requirement checks when it burns the ISO media?
 
@nlinecomputers: Thanks.

After playing with 3.19 and finding them, I discovered that they were still there in 3.21, but not where I'd thought for either release. I had remembered, incorrectly, that they were in the main Rufus dialog. But they only appear as a standalone dialog if the ISO you have selected is a Win11 ISO and after hitting the START button on the main dialog.
 
@cypress

The sad thing is that there is no upgrade path from 10 to 11 on older hardware that is running Windows 10. It's a "nuke and pave" to get Windows 11 with no trace of your Windows 10 world left.
 
@nlinecomputers

Thanks very much. I had not, even once, heard that an "upgrade path" workaround had been discovered for unsupported hardware. I've long been aware that you can create bootable media that allows Windows 11 to be clean installed, but not that an upgrade path existed. This is really handy to know for experimentation purposes.

It makes me half tempted to try this on my "daily driver" laptop, which meets all the requirements for Windows 11 except for the processor in the machine.
 
@Larry Sabo

If that works to allow a direct Windows 10 to Windows 11 upgrade path using the ISO as downloaded from Microsoft, that's about the simplest way I can possibly think of. Adding a registry key is not difficult.
 
britechguy said:
@Larry Sabo

If that works to allow a direct Windows 10 to Windows 11 upgrade path using the ISO as downloaded from Microsoft, that's about the simplest way I can possibly think of. Adding a registry key is not difficult.
Click to expand...
His method is the same as what I posted. I used the bat file that automatically makes the registry changes and then undos them. My main system that is a 7 th gen CPU is running Windows 11. The only probable drawback is that it is unlikely to upgrade to another new build of Windows 11. You’ll probably have to make the same registry changes and manually launch the upgrade when the time comes.
 
If I take this step, I won't bother undoing the registry addition, and for precisely the reason you mention. If I have to manually do feature updates I'd rather the key needed to do them via ISO update is still sitting therre.
 
By the way, I created my media using Rufus 3.21 with the RAM/Secure Boot/TPM requirement elimination option checked, and did no registry edits prior to running it, and when the typical What do you want to keep dialog appeared, I had the option to Keep Files and Apps, and it was checked, just like a typical feature update using an ISO under Windows 10 goes.

I was not expecting this.
 
Porthos said:
This [the need to manually apply feature updates to Windows 11 on unsupported hardware] not just probable it is true. Many have found this out since 22h2 in October.
Click to expand...

There are quite a few people who might consider this a feature, not a bug. Since the feature update cadence has now been set to one time per year, I definitely would not find that a burdensome thing.
 
nlinecomputers said:
The only probable drawback is that it is unlikely to upgrade to another new build of Windows 11.
Click to expand...
It wont upgrade to a newer version and if you try to run the upgrade from inside Windows it will only do a clean install. It wont allow you to keep your files/settings etc.
Also you wont get certain security updates. You'll get "Failed to install update" every time.
 
GTP said:
It wont upgrade to a newer version and if you try to run the upgrade from inside Windows it will only do a clean install. It wont allow you to keep your files/settings etc.
Click to expand...

-
Well, it wasn't supposed to be able to upgrade from within Windows 10 on non-compliant hardware, but it does. As of this morning, my former Windows 10 box with an A6 APU is now a Windows 11 box.

We'll see when 23H2 arrives whether the same workaround that allowed the original 10 to 11 upgrade allows manual Feature Updating with the ISO file as well.

I did this as an experiment, so I'll be monitoring and reporting back on any irregularities I enounter. Based on what @Larry Sabo has said, I don't expect many. And I read what @Porthos offered earlier as saying that while Windows 11 Feature Updates will not automatically download on incompatible hardware, that you can (nay, must) apply them manually from either the ISO or install media you create (I'll also have the previously noted registry key in place, too).
 
So far I have gotten all updates.

I think this is one of Microsoft’s empty threats of stating that they will not support such configurations yet providing a discrete method to do so.
 
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