How to Install Windows 11 on Unsupported Hardware (Bypass TPM, Secure Boot, RAM)

To install Windows 11, your computer must meet these minimum system requirements: a TPM 2.0 chip (Trusted Platform Module), UEFI firmware + Secure Boot enabled, 4+ GB RAM, a minimum 64 GB hard drive, and a compatible 1 GHz dual-core 64-bit CPU (note that not all processors are supported). Microsoft restricts the installation of Windows 11 to non-compatible devices by performing some pre-installation hardware requirements checks. In this article, we will show you how to install Windows 11 build 25H2 on unsupported hardware by bypassing the minimum requirements for the CPU, TPM, Secure Boot, memory, and disk space.

Computer Doesn’t Meet Windows 11 System Requirements

If your computer doesn’t meet the minimum Windows 11 hardware requirements, you will see the following error during the OS installation:

This PC can’t run Windows 11. 
This PC doesn't currently meet Windows 11 system requirements. For more information, visit aka.ms/WindowsSysReq

Below you will see a list of the minimum system requirements that your computer doesn’t meet. In this case, the computer has an incompatible CPU, lacks a TPM 2.0 chip, and has less than 4 GB of RAM:

• The processor isn't supported for this version of Windows
• The PC must support TPM 2.0
• There must be at least 4 Gb of system memory

The CPU system requirements for Windows 11 version 24H2 have been updated to include support for the full SSE4.2 and PopCnt instruction sets. If your computer’s CPU is fairly old (dating from around 2007–2011) and doesn’t support these instructions, the installation of Windows 11 25H2 will be blocked, and an error message will appear:

• This PC's processor doesn't support a critical feature (PopCnt)
• This PC's processor doesn't support a critical feature (SSE4.2)

2022-02-02 08:17:57, Error VerifyRAMRequirements: System has INSUFFICIENT system memory: [2048 MB] vs [3686 MB]

How to Bypass Windows 11 ‘s TPM, CPU, and RAM System Requirements

However, you can still proceed with the Windows 11 setup process, even if your device doesn’t meet all the minimum hardware requirements.

1. Open the command prompt on the Windows 11 Setup screen by pressing Shift+F10
2. Run the Registry Editor regedit.exe
3. Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup registry key and create a new key with the name LabConfig
4. Create a DWORD registry parameter with a value of 1 for each compatibility check that you want to skip during installation.

The following options are available for installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware:

• BypassCPUCheck – for incompatible CPUs
• BypassTPMCheck – without a TPM 2.0+ chip
• BypassRAMCheck – to skip the minimum RAM check
• BypassSecureBootCheck – for Legacy BIOS devices (or UEFI firmware with Secure Boot disabled)
• BypassStorageCheck – skip the check for the minimum system drive size requirement

For example, in order not to check the TPM module during installation, create the BypassTPMCheck registry parameter with the value 1. You can do this either using the graphical Registry Editor or by entering the following command:

reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassTPMCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1

In the same way, create other registry parameters for the checks you want to skip when installing Windows 11:

reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassTPMCheck /d 1 /t reg_dword /f
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassSecureBootCheck /d 1 /t reg_dword /f
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassRAMCheck /d 1 /t reg_dword /f
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassStorageCheck /d 1 /t reg_dword /f
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassCPUCheck /d 1 /t reg_dword /f

Then get back to the Windows 11 Setup wizard, go one step back, and continue with a typical Windows installation without compatibility checks.

To avoid entering these commands manually, save them in a batch file named skip_hw_req_w11.bat and copy it to the root directory of your Windows 11 installation USB stick.

This BAT file can be executed during Windows 11 installation:

1. Open a command prompt from the Setup screen ( Shift+F10 ):
2. List the drive letters to find out which one has been assigned to the flash drive: wmic logicaldisk get name
3. Run your BAT: D:\skip_hw_req_w11.bat (in this case, the USB stick was assigned the drive letter D:)
4. This action adds registry parameters that instruct the Windows 11 installer to bypass hardware compatibility checks.

Alternatively, you can automate bypassing TPM, Secure Boot, disk, memory, and CPU hardware checks during Windows 11 installation by adding specific registry entries to an answer (unattend) file, which are applied automatically.

To do it, create a text file named AutoUnattend.xml containing the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="windowsPE">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS"
xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/StateMachine"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<RunSynchronous>
<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<Order>1</Order>
<Description>BypassTPMCheck</Description>
<Path>cmd /c reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassTPMCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f</Path>
</RunSynchronousCommand>
<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<Order>2</Order>
<Description>BypassSecureBootCheck</Description>
<Path>cmd /c reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassSecureBootCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f</Path>
</RunSynchronousCommand>
<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<Order>3</Order>
<Description>BypassRAMCheck</Description>
<Path>cmd /c reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassRAMCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f</Path>
</RunSynchronousCommand>
<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<Order>4</Order>
<Description>BypassStorageCheck</Description>
<Path>cmd /c reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassStorageCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f</Path>
</RunSynchronousCommand>
<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<Order>5</Order>
<Description>BypassCPUCheck</Description>
<Path>cmd /c reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassCPUCheck /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f</Path>
</RunSynchronousCommand>
</RunSynchronous>
</component>
</settings>
</unattend>

Copy the AutoUnattend.xml file to the root directory of your Windows 11 installation USB stick, or add it to your ISO image.

Now, no compatibility checks will be performed when installing Windows 11.

When upgrading to Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, you can bypass the system requirement checks by adding the AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU parameter:

reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup /f /v AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMorCPU /d 1 /t reg_dword