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There have been many posts by users wanting to upgrade from W10 to W11 24H2.
The answer is pretty simple: If you have a supported processor, you can do the upgrade. If you do not, you cannot (and still be supported).
I am against registry hacks and unsupported configurations. But the reality is that W10 is going to be unsupported by October 2025. If you are on W10, you are already not seeing much in terms of updates and are already seeing warnings from Microsoft about the death of W10. You can learn more about the registry hack to run W11 here:
https://windowsreport.com/microsoft-back-off-requirements-windows-11/
And, unsupported configurations cause problems for support personnel, drivers, performance, and even possible damage to your PC (so says Microsoft).
So, if you feel as though you must upgrade to W11 24H2, you can (but only if you are 64-bit Windows 10). Just be aware of the potential problems, and if you contact support, whether Microsoft, Intel, or your system manufacturer, make sure to tell them what you have done to make the job a little easier for the support technician. Be aware that they may or may not help you.
We all know about the supported processor list from Microsoft:
For Intel:
For AMD:
Note that I am only addressing Intel processors in this post.
There are two key issues here – the processor and TPM/PTT. TPM is “Trusted Platform Module” and PTT is “Platform Trust Technology”. Basically, these are security features. You can refer to PTT as being a "soft TPM" and as a chipset-based capability (not hardware or processor). Without discussing this any further, you can read https://www.thewindowsclub.com/tpm-vs-ptt-differences for more information.
So, if you have an 8th gen or greater processor (with a few 7th gen processors allowed), you meet the requirements for the W11 Upgrade, as you already have PTT. However, a lot of users do not meet this requirement. Many have tried using Microsoft registry hack, only to be blocked by the absence of TPM or PTT. Also, a quick check for TPM/PTT can be done by running TPM.MSC from the RUN command. You may also want to make sure TPM/PTT is enabled in your BIOS.
I am not going to talk about the importance of performing a backup prior to any upgrade.
To upgrade from W10 to W11 and specifically 24H2, follow these steps:
If you have an 8th gen or later processor, download the 24H2 upgrade from Microsoft:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
Follow the instructions on this page to make your install media and do the upgrade.
If you have a processor that is not on the supported Microsoft list that has PTT, or a motherboard that has TPM, download the upgrade from Microsoft as above and make your install media as directed on that page. But before you do the upgrade, you must make the Microsoft registry hack, which I have provided as an attachment on this post (MoSetup.zip). Then do the upgrade. You will get a warning, part of the scare tactic from Microsoft. Do with it as you want, but if you want to upgrade, you will need to accept the risk.
If you are unsure about how to do this, follow the instructions in Option 1 from this ZDNET link:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-upgrade-an-incompatible-windows-10-pc-to-windows-11-two-ways/
If you do not have a supported processor and do not have any TPM/PTT, the registry hack will not help you. But you can still upgrade. Many of you know about the Rufus utility. By downloading the 24H2 ISO from the Microsoft link above, and using the Rufus 4.6 utility to make your install media, you will be presented with the same warning as above when you do the upgrade. You can get the Rufus utility here:
To make the install media, follow the instructions in Option 2 from this ZDNET link:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-upgrade-an-incompatible-windows-10-pc-to-windows-11-two-ways/
Then, do the upgrade.
There are two other important issues: As in the ZDNET link, you must be UEFI and not Legacy in your BIOS, and you must have Secure Boot (which should be on). To convert from Legacy to UEFI mode, look on the net. There are plenty of examples of how to do this. You can determine your BIOS MODE by using the MSINFO32 utility on the RUN command. You must have adequate space to perform MBR2GPT as part of this process.
Now that you have upgraded to 24H2, take another backup.
Now, the disclaimers:
There is no support on this site for doing this upgrade. I have provided the links that will help you. I have upgraded a good number of machines, the oldest having a 3rd gen processor to W11 24H2 and have not seen any problems. Well, that is not entirely true. Microsoft continues its annoying process of installing older graphics drivers. So, to help with this if you do get caught in this loop, use the Microsoft wsShowHide utility I have attached to block the older driver from Microsoft Windows Update.
Microsoft has a very nasty habit of TURNING OFF RESTORE POINTS. This is a very bad practice, as many users may depend on them. If you had them enabled in W10, do not count on them being enabled in W11. You must check this yourself.
If you have very low storage on your machine, there may not be enough space to do the upgrade. So, have a portable USB hard drive or other storage available BEFORE you start the upgrade. Note that having a SD card may or may not work, as it may not be recognized during the reboots during the upgrade/install. And, since we are talking about storage, after the upgrade and you are satisfied that all is ok, take a backup, and do a storage cleanup to reclaim the temp space used by the upgrade process and OLDER OS INSTALLS.
If you had toolbars on the taskbar in W10, well, Microsoft, in their wisdom, has removed that capability. However, if you rely upon toolbars (as I do), you can use the StartAllBack utility found here. After installing it, make sure to “unlock the taskbar” to see the toolbars option in the taskbar properties:
It will cost you $4.99US, and is the best $4.99 I have spent. Interesting that a $3.2T company removes code that has been in use for almost a quarter of a century, probably using "security" as a cover. There are other apps that can also provide you the toolbar capability. Look on the web.
- Any other customizations to W11 are your responsibility.
- Backups are your responsibility.
- Making sure you are UEFI boot is your responsibility.
- Conversion from Legacy to UEFI is your responsibility.
- This is for an UPGRADE only. A fresh install may work, but you will need the chipset, ME and other files from your motherboard manufacturer.
The upgrade process can take time. Be patient
I do not know what the long-term issues of upgrading to 24H2 on “unsupported” hardware are. That is why you have a backup of your W10 install, right?
And, as I said, there is no support here, unless some of the users want to contribute to this thread with help for the user. I will answer what I can, time permitting.
Good luck with your upgrade!!
Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Fear and the desire for control are primary motivators for shadow dwellers. ]
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An article just published with a warning on the upgrade:
At this point, who knows what will happen. It seems to be more an issue of TPM 2.0 (PTT) and not so much an issue of the processor. Just my interpretation (which is likely not correct).
Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Fear and the desire for control are primary motivators for shadow dwellers. ]
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Some discussion about Microsoft lowering hardware rquirements for W11 24H2:
and
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-upgrade-your-incompatible-windows-10-pc-to-windows-11-now/
Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[W10 is this generation's XP]
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One issue to address (before or after your upgrade) is Core Isolation, which can be seen in Windows Defender, Device Security, Core Isolation, Memory Integrity. This feature helps protect the Windows Kernel.
If you have problems with old drivers preventing you from turning Core Isolation ON, there are several ways to address this.
The easiest is to use Settings, Apps, Installed Apps, and uninstall the software that the driver came with, e.g. an old audio package or camera package. Or, update those packages to get their latest driver. Recheck to determine if the issue is cleared. You may also use Control Panel, Programs and Features to uninstall a program/package.
Another way is to use Device Manager, changing the view to show hidden devices, and perhaps evening listing by driver. If you find the driver, you might want to delete it. But this can cause issues for your system, and comes with a certain amount of risk.
Then, there is the more aggressive/serious path which should only be done by one with experience. There are a number of tools that can help you, e.g. Autoruns, and RAPR, amongst others. Using these tools presents a greater amount of risk when removing drivers.
A good 3rd party driver updater may also help with updating these old, non-compliant drivers. As always, use these programs at your own risk.
For all the machines I have upgraded from W10 to W11, whether supported or not, I have successfully used all of the methods above. The biggest problem makers for Core Isolation issues that I have found are old graphic drivers that needed to be updated, old audio packages that were installed (Creative, for example), and old camera packages (Logitech, for example), and old drivers that were probably Windows 7 remnants.
Having these drivers will prevent you from turning Core Isolation on. However, they have not stopped the upgrade from W10 to W11. At this point, it is a good practice to cleanup and update or remove those offending drivers. Doing so will improve the stability of your Windows 11 OS.
Again, taking these steps is at your risk. Know what you are doing before you attempt this cleanup. Backups and restore points are a good thing to have in case you cause problems.
Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[AI is the same as snake-oil]
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This is a link to an old Microsoft article from June 2021:
Specifically, it says:
"
- Security. Windows 11 raises the bar for security by requiring hardware that can enable protections like Windows Hello, Device Encryption, virtualization-based security (VBS), hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI) and Secure Boot. The combination of these features has been shown to reduce malware by 60% on tested devices. To meet the principle, all Windows 11 supported CPUs have an embedded TPM, support secure boot, and support VBS and specific VBS capabilities.
- Reliability. Devices upgraded to Windows 11 will be in a supported and reliable state. By choosing CPUs that have adopted the new Windows Driver model and are supported by our OEM and silicon partners who are achieving a 99.8% crash free experience.
"
Now, four years later and just shy of the Windows 10 death date, I have upgraded more than 30 machines. Some were on supported processors, some on unsupported systems that had PTT or TPM, and some with no PTT or TPM, the oldest being a 3rd gen processor.
Recently, I was curious about the recovery partition size on the systems I converted (remember the Windows 10 recovery partition debacle?). By chance, I discovered that upgrading a machine that had already been upgraded to 24H2 may increase the recovery partition size. That was an interesting finding.
But, more interesting was this: On twenty machines, I used a newly generated unmodified 24H2 install stick created by the Microsoft media creation tool. Eighteen machines had some form of TPM/PTT or TPM 1.2. These machines did the in place install perfectly. However, two machines that had no TPM or PTT of any kind failed the upgrade and rolled back to the previous Windows 11 upgrade (after the last reboot), complaining with error 0x8007042B. So, I tried again using the Rufus tool and received the same failure.
Information on the error code is vague, and seems to point to a corrupted user profile, which neither machine had. I can only assume, at this point, that it has something to do with the absence of TPM - any TPM.
So, what does this mean? I am not entirely certain, but while you can get to 24H2 with the Rufus tool (option 2 in my original post), you may not be able to upgrade further. This means, for example, if you need to do an in place install to corrtect a problem on your 24H2 machine, you will likely fail. I have no other supportive documentation. These are just rough findings at this point.
Ok, you got to 24H2 and Windows 10 is no longer supported. Are you any worse off being on Windows 11? NO is the answer at this point.
Unless someone has other data, we will have to wait and see.
Now, the good news is that, on unsupported processors, with TPM or PTT, and even TPM 1.2, things seem just fine.
Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[AI is the same as snake-oil]
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