If you have already made sure that indeed Windows 11 is not compatible with your computer , you can still do some things if you really cannot install it because you have some option to have it on your PC, although it is incompatible and you can take advantage of that opportunity.
A tool was launched some time ago that allowed users to check if their computer met the minimum requirements of Windows 11 , otherwise they had no choice but to stay in Windows 10 or enforce that parameter for which their PC was not compatible .
One of the “damn” requirements is the need to have something called TPM 2.0 , something that you can easily check if your PC has various forms, a necessary element to be able to install Windows 11, although it can be skipped in one way or another today in day.
In practice, the reality is that Windows 11 can be installed on incompatible computers , the most curious thing about the matter is that it is Microsoft itself who gives the details of how it can be done, although they hold the user responsible for any problem that may arise in these equipment.
That is, they give you a possible solution to be able to install the new system, but they exempt themselves from any incident that this may cause on your PC. By changing some registry keys, they make the Windows 11 installation ignore the processor model of your computer, but make it necessary to have at least TPM 1.2 .
Activate the TPM on your motherboard
Not all is lost, it is possible that your computer has TPM 2.0 , but it is disabled and the TPM can be activated through UEFI , within there you will have to look for a parameter related to the TPM, which may be different depending on the manufacturer of your motherboard.
The option can be called ” TPM Support ” in the case of ASUS boards or ” Security Support Device” if you have an MSI board, in all cases you have to enable these parameters if they are disabled. Typically this parameter is in the advanced UEFI settings .
How to check if your PC has UEFI or BIOS
Clean install of Windows 11
You could first download the Windows 11 ISO , save it to a USB and perform a clean installation of the system, you probably won’t get any errors in the installation, but if you decide to do this remember to first backup your files just in case.
- Download ISO Windows 11
In this case, Microsoft mentions that such an installation should ignore the processor requirement, but will request TPM 1.2 instead of TPM 2.0 . If you notice, it still needs TPM 1.2, something that you could not fulfill either, so it can keep testing more things.
Modifying the Windows 10 registry
Microsoft also raises the possibility of creating keys in the system registry that, if not done to the letter, can cause operational problems. However, while this is something that can be done, the company ignores what it may cause.
It is a new Windows Registry key that ignores the Windows 11 installation of your PC’s processor (which may be the case of being incompatible with Windows 11), but at the same time requires that you have at least TPM 1.2 . After that, run the PC Health Check tool to see if your PC is now compatible or not.
As you can see, performing an installation from scratch or creating the corresponding registry key, Windows “skips” the processor requirement , but still needs the TPM 1.2 as a minimum (computer prior to 2016 and above 2011), easier to comply with than the TPM 2.0.
With this registry procedure, an update would be supported by preserving the files or from scratch, and in neither case, once the keys are created, should you have problems installing Windows 11.
Buy a TPM module and insert it into the motherboard
With TPM 1.2 you should be able to install Windows 11 by doing any of the things we showed you in the previous point. If your PC is older than 2016 and older than 2011, it should have at least TPM 1.2. If not, you could, for example, check if the motherboard model of your tower PC has this connector to buy said TPM module .
You can download the HWiNFO utility that allows you to know the motherboard model you have, once obtained, search for it in Google and enter the manufacturer’s page, then you will have to search among the specifications of the motherboard if something like 1 x Trusted Platform appears Module (TPM) header, it means that your board has a connector and you can buy the module.
- Download HWiNFO for Windows
Once purchased, you will have to open your PC tower once you have turned it off and with the appropriate security measures (for example, antistatic gloves) and connect the TPM module that you have purchased , to later verify that Windows 10 detects it again. a check if your computer has TPM.
Be careful because, even if you buy the TPM module, activate it through UEFI or have TPM 1.2 and try to perform a clean installation or creating the keys in the registry, your PC could still be incompatible with Windows 11 because it is not the only requirement to meet, hence the need to run the PC Health Check tool to see if your computer can install it.
Apart from the TPM 1.2 as a minimum, you must have, among other things, the right processor and a few other things. It may happen that you meet one of the requirements, but you continue to fail the other or others, so it is vitally important to run the utility we are talking about to see if in fact you fail only the TPM requirement or others.
Therefore, you would have to analyze the situation to see if it is worth it. In short, if they are requirements that you can easily meet, it would be worth enforcing them .
Stay on Windows 10
The verification tool to see if you meet the requirements of Windows 11 is clear, it will analyze certain aspects of the system to verify if you can proceed with the update, in case you get the notice that it is not possible, one option is to stay in Windows 10 .
Even this warning can come out within Windows Update, and it is precisely Windows 11 will arrive via Update or you can also download the Windows 11 ISO to do a clean installation from scratch, which is always the best option for a generation change.
If you want to avoid touching system parameters and any type of problem, it is advisable to stay in Windows 10. There will be support at least until 2025 , so Microsoft will not leave users of this system lying around, when that time comes maybe it will be time to consider other things. But you can keep trying more things.
With the information available right now, you could install Windows 11 on a Windows 10 computer that has TPM 1.2 despite not having a compatible processor by performing the clean installation or by creating new keys in the Windows registry.
However, you must check that you meet the rest of the requirements , that your PC has UEFI, a minimum of 4 GB of RAM and other things, only then can you ensure that, although you can skip certain requirements (that of the TPM 2.0 and the processor doing the installation from scratch or with the registry keys), you can perfectly install Windows 11 on a computer, a priori, which should be incompatible with the possibility that later it may give you problems.
The best thing is to have a PC with the appropriate processor, TPM 2.0 and meet all the requirements that Windows 11 asks for , as we already mentioned, although Microsoft allows some of them to “skip”, in the long run they can give you problems, error in updates and others for which the company will not be responsible, something that makes it very clear.