How to create a USB install of Windows 11 for unsupported PCs

Windows 10 has reached its end of life, and with it, millions of perfectly good Windows 10 PCs are at risk of turning into e-waste due to Windows 11’s heavy hardware requirements. Fortunately, whatever the reason your PC isn’t meeting the requirements, there’s a quick fix.

What do you need before you start?

You don’t need much for this method: just three things.

You don’t even need to download the ISO manually if you don’t want to, Rufus can extract it directly from Microsoft.

How does Rufus bypass Windows 11 hardware requirements?

Rufus is a free and open source program that people have used for years to create bootable media, like USB drives, from ISO files.

When Windows 11 was released, Rufus developers added to the program the ability to bypass Windows 11’s hardware and local account requirements. To do this, they used a file, “autounattend.xml”, which was implemented by Microsoft itself to allow Windows 11 to be installed quickly and automatically on multiple PCs without the need for a person to sit down and click through all the options.

Autounattend.xml may also provide a series of registry keys that tell the installation process that it can ignore some normal requirements, including TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and the Microsoft account requirement, among others.

There’s nothing “hacked” or suspicious about the way Rufus works, and you don’t have to worry that it will compromise your security in any way: everything is honest. You can even audit the code on GitHub if you want to be extra sure.

Use Rufus to install Windows 11 on an unsupported PC

To get started, download and install Rufus on your PC. You can also grab the portable version of the app if you want. You should also download the Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft if you want to keep a copy for yourself.

Once Rufus is installed, insert your USB drive into a USB port on your PC. Almost any USB port will do, but I would recommend a USB 3.0 or higher port, as it will speed up the process a bit.

Once done, open Rufus, click on the “Select” button and choose the Windows 11 ISO that you downloaded earlier.

You can also click on the little arrow and click “Download”. Rufus will ask you to make a few choices about the version and language you want, and then you’ll need to save the ISO somewhere.

You probably don’t need to change the other settings here; they will do the job for most PCs. Click “Start,” then make sure to check “Remove 4GB+ RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0 requirement” at the top. I also disabled the Microsoft account requirement and data collection.

Formatting the disk may take Rufus a few minutes, but once it’s done, you have a USB drive that you can use to install Windows 11 on almost any computer.

Just insert it, enter the UEFI (BIOS) to change the boot device to the USB stick and follow the instructions of the installer. Best of all, this solution is permanently yours: it will continue to work as long as computers are compatible with Windows 11, even if Microsoft fixes the method that Rufus relies on.

Why doesn’t Windows 11 support all Windows 10 PCs?

Windows 11 imposes a new set of hardware requirements that are very different from Windows 10. In most cases, the requirements simply double. This shouldn’t be a problem, since even most PCs from 2010 meet most Windows 11 requirements.

However, here are two main ones that you may have issues with: Secure Boot and TPM 2.0.

What does TPM 2.0 do?

Trusted Platform Module, or TPM, is a security feature built into certain processors, motherboards or dedicated chips. The main purpose is to handle certain cryptographic functions, including generating and storing security keys, authenticating your device, and helping encryption software like BitLocker ensure that no one can simply steal your hard drive and read the data.

What about Secure Boot?

Secure Boot is a feature designed to protect your PC from malware (or some sophisticated cheat tools for video games) that runs when your PC starts up. In short, this ensures that the only What can run while your Windows PC boots is Windows.

This is actually a great feature, but it can sometimes cause problems if you try to boot Windows with another operating system, such as Linux.

Is bypassing Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 a problem?

Potentially. Your computer won’t catch fire because you’re using Windows 11 without Secure Boot or TPM 2.0, but you might run into issues. Some games, like Battlefield 6 for example, require Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 to be enabled. Valuable security features, like Windows Hello and BitLocker, won’t work without TPM.

The more time passes, the more likely you are to encounter programs that rely on TPM 2.0 to function properly.

Additionally, Microsoft could crack down on unsupported PCs at any time, meaning you could suddenly find yourself with a PC that will no longer receive operating system updates.

If this happens, you’ll be forced to try to manually install updates or upgrade your hardware to something with Windows 11’s stamp of approval.