[SOLVED] Installed W11 on system with unsupported CPU

[clutchc]

Not sure if this is news... or just news to me. But, I took an older Win 10 PC I had; Asus Prime Q270M-C w/i7-6700, M.2 drive... I added a SATA SSD, downloaded Win 11 to flash drive, and installed it on the SATA SSD just to see what would happen. It installed from beginning to end and never balked at the unsupported CPU. In fact, it even activated itself. Booted to the new W11 desktop ready to go.

Do you suppose that was because it saw my W10 installation on another drive and considered it 'like' an upgrade even tho it was on a different drive? BTW, I now have to choose which OS I want at boot before it eventually goes to W11 on its own.

 

[hotaru.hino]

It's not news that it's somewhat trivial to bypass Windows 11's CPU check. However, Microsoft did warn that if the OS detects you're using an unsupported CPU, you may not get updates.

 

[TerryLaze]

I now have to choose which OS I want at boot before it eventually goes to W11 on its own.

Type msconfig into the start bar (now system configuration) go to the boot tab and select windows 11 and click on the set default button, you can also reduce the timeout to only a few seconds, if you want to boot into 11 all the time you can put the timeout to 0.

 

[clutchc]

It's not news that it's somewhat trivial to bypass Windows 11's CPU check. However, Microsoft did warn that if the OS detects you're using an unsupported CPU, you may not get updates.

Yeah, agreed. But the point is that there was no tweaks I had to do. None. It just installed itself like the CPU was supported. That was what surprised me. And btw, this was just a test... not going to use W11 on the machine.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, agreed. But the point is that there was no tweaks I had to do. None. It just installed itself like the CPU was supported. That was what surprised me. And btw, this was just a test... not going to use W11 on the machine.

Not surprising that functions and possibilities have changed since initial release.

First, it was "No way, no how"
Then, "well, with some hardcore tweaks"
Then, "Some trivial tweaks"

Now...."Just do it" (?)


The underlying subsystem is little different from Win 10 to 11.
Just the TPM requirements, and the checking of that during the install.

Win 10 really spoiled us regarding old hardware compatibility. It was far more workable with old systems than previous versions.
Possibly MS saw the pushback on Win 11, and relented.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The biggest concern I have is when there's a vulnerability on Windows 11 that is mitigated with TPM functionality, how much Microsoft is going to be sued/fined/whatever the heck out of by people who didn't meet the TPM requirement.

Well, not really a concern, but it's more like me going "well they warned you so..."

 

[USAFRet]

The biggest concern I have is when there's a vulnerability on Windows 11 that is mitigated with TPM functionality, how much Microsoft is going to be sued/fined/whatever the heck out of by people who didn't meet the TPM requirement.

Well, not really a concern, but it's more like me going "well they warned you so..."

No different than running Win 10 without the TPM thing.

 

[Viking2121]

I've had Windows 11 on a Core 2 Quad Q6600 system before just to see how it does, works perfect actually, even picked up all the drivers. I have a Windows 11 currently on a Lenovo M63 Tiny I think it is, I put a i5 4570 in it and I know it doesn't support win 11, it works fine with it, and has been for the better part of the year so far.

 

[clutchc]

I've had Windows 11 on a Core 2 Quad Q6600 system before just to see how it does, works perfect actually, even picked up all the drivers. I have a Windows 11 currently on a Lenovo M63 Tiny I think it is, I put a i5 4570 in it and I know it doesn't support win 11, it works fine with it, and has been for the better part of the year so far.

That is basically what I was doing. More or less just to see if the install balked or not. How many 'hoops' I had to jump thru, etc.
But in fairness, I did install with another OS already on another drive. In fact, the W11 installation put its boot sector on the M.2 drive! (my bad for not removing it) So my next test will be to remove the M.2 drive and try again. Maybe the installation won't be so trouble free.
If all goes well like it did for you, I may test it on one of my antiques next.

Update: the W11 install on the SATA SSD w/o the M.2 being present went just as smooth as before. Like last time, it even let me install with an "offline account". It activated itself again too. So...
I put the M.2 back in and booted right to W10 on it. Fortunately, it hadn't lost its activation. But here's where it gets weird...
Now (in W10) my SATA SSD showed empty. Recognized, formatted, usable but with a totally empty volume. Disk management shows the same.
Yet, when I examined it under Partition Wizard, it still showed all four W11 partitions(?!).

 

[Viking2121]

Yeah, the only thing I don't know if it will do on older systems is doing build updates, ever since I installed Win 11 on the Lenovo, there hasn't really been any major updates yet, its done some bigger updates.

I know I followed Tech YES City's guide on how to get Windows 11 on older systems, I even remade an Win 11 iso for myself with the work around and have it on my Flash drive with Ventoys, I haven't had any issues yet, but I also haven't kept Win 11 on any unsupported hardware for long, most of it was just to see if it worked. The Lenovo is my grandmothers PC, she uses it every day, and its still on the same build as my primary machine so it might be alright.

If I do have an issue with it and I remember, I will post back here with an update though.