Workarounds for Windows 11 on Incompatible Hardware

sapphirescales said:
The problem with installing Windows 11 on unsupported systems is you won't get any build updates. For example, if you installed 23H2, it will never update past that and support for 23H2 ends in 2025. You can manually create a Windows 11 flash drive with Rufus to bypass the requirements and manually update to 24H2 but you have to do that every year. I have a couple of clients who I've explained this to and they're willing to come back every year and pay me $99 to upgrade them to the latest build. I keep these clients on a list and I call them once a year as soon as a new build comes out and I verify that it's actually stable so they can come in and have me upgrade them. It's not ideal but I have some clients who just refuse to upgrade. I'm one of them.

I have a 7th gen i5 HP EliteBook that I paid $2,500 for. I'm not replacing it just because Microsoft made ridiculous requirements for Windows 11 so they can force encryption and try to strongarm you into using a Microsoft account. It's not very fast anymore but it's a laptop. I'm not running my business off of it. It has 16GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD so it will be usable for probably another 5 years. I scored an open box 12th gen i3 laptop with a touchscreen from Microcenter for $160 that's better in almost every way but one of the things I like about my EliteBook is the privacy screen button. That feature is incredibly rare because 99% of businesses weren't willing to pay extra for it. I think it was like an extra $450 because I also had to get the screen with the 1,000 nits brightness so you could still see it through the privacy screen.
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If you disabled defender it would work much faster.
 
I'm trying to get caught up on this thread and I'm having trouble deciphering between discussions on Win11 installs on old but "blank" machines and those that are upgrading a working but old Win10 machine in place without data or program loss.

Can a Win11 install created by Rufus only be used on a fresh install or on in-place upgrades also?
 
Diggs said:
Another warning from MS on Win11 compatibility.

www.xda-developers.com

Microsoft sends a warning to anyone using Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

Things are going to be rough.
www.xda-developers.com www.xda-developers.com
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Eh, standard MS saber-rattling, which will be summarily ignored like earlier warnings have been. So long as Windows 11 can be made to run on incompatible hardware by those who want to use the tricks to make that happen, there will be a base of users doing just that.

Yesterday I fired up my partner's old laptop, which is running Windows 10, for the first time in some months and was surprised to receive a full screen warning about Win10 EOL and the need to get a replacement computer before October 2025. I didn't have my smartphone handy at the time so didn't take a photo and also failed to take a screenshot, which I should have done.
 
Diggs said:
Can a Win11 install created by Rufus only be used on a fresh install or on in-place upgrades also?
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And as this has been answered in the affirmative (and I did it on my one machine that's Win11 incompatible but running Win11) that pretty much ensures that anyone running Win11 on incompatible hardware will continue doing so for as long as they wish.

Microsoft would have to come up with a way that cannot be bypassed and I suspect doing that would be way more trouble than it's worth.

For myself, I've already acquired Windows 11 compatible machines as daily drivers. My one experiment with incompatible hardware is just that - an experiment - to see just how long this little trick can be kept up. It gives me a much better idea of what may be going on "in the wild" with users determined to keep their older machines.
 
It will be forced, people are expecting Microsoft to blink... they won't.

Windows is a marketplace to deliver M365 services, which is where their money comes from. Every time something happens, they get hit with legal action from hordes of people. They're DONE playing games, and they're done holding the bag. The world has decided they are the bad guy, so they are playing the part.

And for once... I can't even blame them. Microsoft tells people what they need to do to be supported going forward, then we have ecosystems of idiots running around to subvert the process. The scheduled time has been set, it's not going to move, ESUs are available but only if you're licensed for them, ESU is VERY expensive for SMB / home users. (They don't have a Windows license compatible for one)

Any and all upgrade paths for all other platforms include the TPM or a functional equivalent.

All of this compresses into a very simple reality, upgrade or die. And I for one cannot wait, because I'm done watching my customer's money vanish into the hands of fraudsters. It's time to put Windows 10 to bed, just like it was time to put XP and 7 to bed. Their time has passed, we've moved on for a reason. There are zero legitimate reasons left to not upgrade.
 
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Sky-Knight said:
It's time to put Windows 10 to bed, just like it was time to put XP and 7 to bed.
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Indeed, and on this we agree. But that doesn't matter one whit. There has been a long tradition of working around Microsoft's restrictions, and I have almost zero doubt that's going to keep happening for a very long time, and definitely in regard to getting Windows 11 running on incompatible hardware. It's already happened.
 
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You can take Windows 8.1 from my cold dead hands...oh wait..it's already dead. Sorry about that.

On a side note I will keep some versions of 7/8/10 alive as semi offline machines that will play period games or apps etc, but not for daily tasks etc. (I have a few Atom tablets etc that are period machines that actually hate Windows 10, that are great for media playback but not much else)

I do have a Windows 11 machine, one of the 8Th Gen NUC with a Celeron if I need to do anything basic under 11, but other than that most of my workflow is now Linux.
 
NviGate Systems said:
You can take Windows 8.1 from my cold dead hands...oh wait..it's already dead. Sorry about that.

On a side note I will keep some versions of 7/8/10 alive as semi offline machines that will play period games or apps etc, but not for daily tasks etc. (I have a few Atom tablets etc that are period machines that actually hate Windows 10, that are great for media playback but not much else)

I do have a Windows 11 machine, one of the 8Th Gen NUC with a Celeron if I need to do anything basic under 11, but other than that most of my workflow is now Linux.
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Same.
Screw Microsoft.
I don't make a living from them any longer.
I keep one windows 11 PC for gaming only. (i7 8700K, 32 GB ram, 2TB M.2 NVME, nVidia 1080 Ti)
Every other PC I own is Linux Mint and although my top 5 favorite games install and play perfectly on Linux Mint
I have some games that are unfortunately "Windows only."

Games don't play that well with WINE either.
 
britechguy said:
You mean there's someone out there who actually liked Windows 8.1?! I had no idea such a unicorn existed!!
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People complained about ME but I loved it. I really didn't have any issues with ME.
I had it slimmed down and running fast.

I wish I'd kept my ME PC, like I did with the Win 98 laptop I bought in 1999. Its in perfect working order, in its original configuration, stored in it's original box.

I still have the Windows XP machine I used but the hard drive is "dodgy" and I'm loathe to try to fix it, lest it fail entirely. (yes I could always clone it to a new drive but I don't use the PC anymore and I just keep it for sentimental reasons, so...)
 
GTP said:
People complained about ME but I loved it. I really didn't have any issues with ME.
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Same here! You had to wrestle Win98 to get it on the Internet and play nice. WinME hopped right on the net and easily played well with others (networking). I even used to run a few game servers on it as Charter has very low latency.

GTP said:
I don't make a living from them any longer.
I keep one windows 11 PC for gaming only. (i7 8700K, 32 GB ram, 2TB M.2 NVME, nVidia 1080 Ti)
Every other PC I own is Linux Mint
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+1 - My gaming PC is Win11 but all others (Windows machines) are Win10. I'm trying to decide what I am going to do this October with my daily driver (laptop). Move back to Linux. Force Win11 on to non-compliant hardware or buy new hardware. Hmmm......

GTP said:
I still have the Windows XP machine
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I had to re-read that. I still have my original XT machine (Leading Edge w/30 Mb HDD) around somewhere. My first computer was a VIC20 and that is still around somewhere also......... chuckles....
 
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Metanis said:
8 was a cautionary tale that Microsoft seemed to take to heart for the release of 10. It's utter madness they then promptly forgot the lesson.
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The sad thing is 8 was not exactly bad it was GUI failures in the forced tablet style menus and functions that were honestly good when using a tablet/touch screen interface but were not good for typical mouse and keyboard which were the dominant interface still at the time. They really just needed to have some options to set defaults and some autodetects for when it has or is being used via touch screen which I believe Win10 did have some autodetection for its Tablet mode.
 
Be warned, while Windows 11 bypasses for older hardware exist now - they will be removing the old Credential Guard entirely in future versions of Windows, to be replaced with the "TPM/UEFI/VBS Only" Credential Guard.

So, don't get stuck with a bunch of unhappy customers when the change comes. You've likely still got another 2-3 years when considering LTS and Enterprise versions, but still, time to move on.
 
Blues said:
for typical mouse and keyboard which were the dominant interface still at the time.
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And still are, if we're talking laptops and desktops, which still predominate, period, even in the residential world. Tablets can never replace anything with a real keyboard for any task where data entry is intensive, down to word processing.

I don't count either tablets or smartphones as actual replacements for a conventional computer. They're classes of their own that do certain things well, very well, and with more ease than a conventional computer. But the same is true in reverse, too.
 
phaZed said:
You've likely still got another 2-3 years
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I'm not even going to do Win11 on incompatible hardware for customers, but for a lot of them, just 2 to 3 more years would thrill them, and be all they'd be looking for. Particularly those who bought decent "last Win10 gen" machines and can get a couple more years out of them.

But I'm still willing to bet that clever little hackers will have Windows 11 running on old hardware for quite a few years, regardless of what Microsoft does in attempts to stymie that. This has always been the way, and I see no reason that history will not be repeating itself.
 
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