Windows 11 Upgrade – non compliant machines.

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Windows 11 Upgrade – non compliant machines.

This topic has 6 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 3 March 2025 at 10:01 by Howi.

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

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2 March 2025 at 12:59 #786853
Peter Cook 6
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@petercook6
In case this is of use to anyone.

With the impending withdrawal of free support for Win 10 in October, as the user of several perfectly functional machines which Microsoft says are non compliant, I have been considering my options. I have thought about going to Linux (but have several apps that would need Wine to keep working) or buying replacement hardware.

However last week I decided to try a forced upgrade to Win 11 on a couple of machines using a freeware product called Rufus to create an upgrade package that bypassed the compliance checks.

Both machines are Microsoft branded tablets, one from 2013 and one from 2015. Neither have processors considered compliant. The 2015 machine does have compliant TPM V2.0 capability, but the 2013 machine is only TPM V1.2.

Using the upgrade kit created, both machines successfully upgraded to fully activated Windows 11, although the newer machine needed me to dig around and remove a rogue device driver which caused the installation to hang. The older machine went through with no issues (albeit slowly). During the upgrade process you get a warning that you will not be entitled to updates, but as far as I can see the licence conditions don’t entitle you to them in any case.

Both work just as well (and as quickly) as they did under Windows 10, so for those machines the upgrade was the solution. I have a bigger desktop machine from the same era which has no TPM capability and a none compliant processor – when we get nearer to October I may try the same trick on that.
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2 March 2025 at 13:33 #786867
Roderick Jenkins
Participant
@roderickjenkins93242
If the fix to get W11 stops you getting updates, is there is there any point in changing from non-updatable W10 come October?

Rod
2 March 2025 at 13:54 #786880
David Jupp
Participant
@davidjupp51506
I must be missing something – apart from directing traffic to their web site, how does a link to a tool for making bootable USB sticks explain anything about updating to Win11 on non-supported hardware?

Perhaps it is assumed that we are all familiar with whatever method is being discussed….
2 March 2025 at 14:45 #786884
peak4
Participant
@peak4
On 2 March 2025 at 13:54 David Jupp Said:

I must be missing something – apart from directing traffic to their web site, how does a link to a tool for making bootable USB sticks explain anything about updating to Win11 on non-supported hardware?

Perhaps it is assumed that we are all familiar with whatever method is being discussed….

There’s various articles in the press; try this one from PCMag

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-upgrade-to-windows-11-for-free

Bill
2 March 2025 at 14:54 #786891
Peter Cook 6
Participant
@petercook6
Rod, there is no suggestion that upgrading a non compliant Win 11 machine will stop you getting updates. Currently both machines update as they should. The interweb suggests that they will not get major feature upgrades, only security and bug fixes etc. However MS support feature upgrades for 2 years, so at worst I have security updates up to December 2026 which is beyond the 1 years paid for updates to Windows 10 currently on offer at $30/machine. Perhaps I will have to repeat the exercise in 18 months or so.

David, I was not (and never will) explain how to do it. There is plenty of information out there should people wish to do it – or not – as per their personal choice.

I was merely reporting – to anyone on here who might be interested – that the Rufus based method does work. But for clarity; if you download Rufus and use it to build a bootable USB stick using a Windows 11 ISO, one of the options offered during the build process is to bypass the constraints. And it works.

PS the Windows update page now says ” Windows update is committed to helping reduce carbon emissions” but clearly is committed to increasing electronic landfill!
3 March 2025 at 09:28 #786997
Mike Hurley
Participant
@mikehurley60381
IMHO I would try to avoid W11 anyway at present if you possibly can.W10 used to work quite nicely and was perfectly happy with it. My Laptop is fully compliant and I was able to upgrade.

Horrendous.

The machine now is SO Slow and hesitant its pretty well useless most of the time. If you read any of the IT groups / questions on the net this is not an isolated issue but one not (aparently) admitted by MS. The last subsequent monthly update magically made thing slightly better, but performance is still so bad that I am considering having to replace my Laptop. As Peter Cook noted this makes a bit of a mockery of ” Windows update is committed to helping reduce carbon emissions” and I can only agree with his comment ‘but clearly is committed to increasing electronic landfill!’

Mike
3 March 2025 at 10:01 #787001
Howi
Participant
@howi
Rufus is indeed a good app to bypass microsoft requirements. It is easy to use and does what it says.

I upgraded an IMac that was getting slower and slower, however I wanted to install W11 on an external SSD drive to speed things up, unfortunately that is something Rufus can’t do. however a quick search soon found the right program and bob’s your uncle W11 on my old IMac is working great. I have subsequently replaced the IMac with a more modern Windows PC and while I liked the IMac the built in redundancy has put me of Apple stuff.

I also have an X2 HP mini laptop (actually a 10in tablet with a detachable keyboard) running W10 but not upgradable to W11 due to the processor that now runs Linux Mint. Faster than W10/11 and uses less battery power.
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