Sunday, October 10th 2021
Windows 11 TPM Requirement? Bypass it in 5 Minutes
So you have a $2,000 Core i7-6950X HEDT processor, which you thought would last forever, but Windows 11 Setup stands in your way with its steep system requirements that include TPM and Secure Boot. What do you do? With Windows 11, Microsoft introduced new requirements for compatible hardware, and these are purely software-only checks—nothing really requires it. Besides the much-talked about TPM 2.0 spec compatible hardware Trusted Platform Module as a system requirement, there's also new requirements for UEFI Boot, and installation on a GPT partitioned drive (no more MBR boot for Windows 11).
While these requirements do make some sense going forward, this walls off a lot of potential users, i.e. everyone without a TPM 2.0 add-on card, or those with processors older than 7th Gen Intel Core "Kaby Lake," or AMD Ryzen 2000 "Pinnacle Ridge" series. We have discovered a quick and easy way to defeat these checks during Windows 11 Setup, including for that nagging TPM 2.0, and Secure Boot. Here's a step by step guide for fresh installations.
Update Oct 7th: At the end of this article, which is focused on "clean installation", we added a method that lets you perform the upgrade of an existing installation to Windows 11, without any TPM. For this same scenario Microsoft offers a method that downgrades the TPM requirement from 2.0 to 1.2, our method works without any TPM and also relaxes other requirements, like memory size, UEFI and MBR.
Update Oct 10th: Improved the steps for the "upgrade" installation, to mention that updates to the updater should be turned off.
Step 1: Create the Registry Modification
After preparing your installation media (on another PC), open Notepad, paste the text below, save this file as "bypass.reg" on the bootable USB flash drive that's serving as installation media for Windows 11. You can also put just this file alone on a separate USB stick, the Windows installation environment will show it as additional drive.
Step 2 Boot from that Installation Media USB Flash Drive
Now, simply boot from that USB flash drive, run Windows 11 Setup, and proceed until you hit the screen that says "This PC can't Run Windows 11."
Here, click on the "back" button of the wizard (top left of the window), which takes you back to the previous screen.
Step 3: Invoke a Command Prompt
Press "Shift+F10" on your keyboard. This opens a Command Prompt window. Type "regedit" and hit Enter.
Step 4: Get Registry Editor to Pick Up that Registry File You Made
With Registry Editor open, get it to import the "bypass.reg" file that's been sitting on your USB flash drive.
Step 5: Proceed with the Installation
That's it! Close all windows, and proceed with the installation.
What Happened Here
The Windows 11 installation media, much like that of Windows 10 and Windows 8 before it, is essentially a bootable "live CD" of a Windows environment, with a singular purpose of installing Windows, or attempting to Repair your Windows installation. Logically, this environment needs the tools for such repairs, including a Registry Editor and a Command Prompt. It also has its own Windows Registry, which tells it how to go about installing Windows. With this Registry mod, you're making the installer overlook multiple system requirements, meeting, including "TPM Check," which checks for a TPM 2.0 compliant module (or Firmware TPM), whether Secure Boot (and its dependency of a disabled CSM) are met.
If you need additional help, let us know in the comments,
Bypass TPM and other requirements for Update from within Windows
Start the Windows 11 update software, click "Change how setup downloads updates" and select "not right now", or disconnect from the Internet before pressing "Next". The reason is that there's now a new version of the updater that disables the "back" button on the "Unsupported Hardware" screen. Click "Next", after some checking, a screen "This PC doesn't currently meet Windows 11 system requirements" appears.
Now open the folder "C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources" and look for the file "appraiserres.dll", delete the file. Make sure to delete the correct file, there's several "appraiser" files in that folder.
Return to the Windows 11 updater (no need to restart it), click "back", and "next", done.
While these requirements do make some sense going forward, this walls off a lot of potential users, i.e. everyone without a TPM 2.0 add-on card, or those with processors older than 7th Gen Intel Core "Kaby Lake," or AMD Ryzen 2000 "Pinnacle Ridge" series. We have discovered a quick and easy way to defeat these checks during Windows 11 Setup, including for that nagging TPM 2.0, and Secure Boot. Here's a step by step guide for fresh installations.
Update Oct 7th: At the end of this article, which is focused on "clean installation", we added a method that lets you perform the upgrade of an existing installation to Windows 11, without any TPM. For this same scenario Microsoft offers a method that downgrades the TPM requirement from 2.0 to 1.2, our method works without any TPM and also relaxes other requirements, like memory size, UEFI and MBR.
Update Oct 10th: Improved the steps for the "upgrade" installation, to mention that updates to the updater should be turned off.
After preparing your installation media (on another PC), open Notepad, paste the text below, save this file as "bypass.reg" on the bootable USB flash drive that's serving as installation media for Windows 11. You can also put just this file alone on a separate USB stick, the Windows installation environment will show it as additional drive.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00Copy and paste the text, including the "Window Registry Editor Version 5.00" part, it should look like in the screenshot below. Also, make sure to save as "bypass.reg" and not "bypass.reg.txt", which can happen if you use notepad and have "Show file extensions" turned off in Explorer (the default).
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig]
"BypassTPMCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassSecureBootCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassRAMCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassStorageCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassCPUCheck"=dword:00000001
Now, simply boot from that USB flash drive, run Windows 11 Setup, and proceed until you hit the screen that says "This PC can't Run Windows 11."
Step 3: Invoke a Command Prompt
Press "Shift+F10" on your keyboard. This opens a Command Prompt window. Type "regedit" and hit Enter.
With Registry Editor open, get it to import the "bypass.reg" file that's been sitting on your USB flash drive.
That's it! Close all windows, and proceed with the installation.
The Windows 11 installation media, much like that of Windows 10 and Windows 8 before it, is essentially a bootable "live CD" of a Windows environment, with a singular purpose of installing Windows, or attempting to Repair your Windows installation. Logically, this environment needs the tools for such repairs, including a Registry Editor and a Command Prompt. It also has its own Windows Registry, which tells it how to go about installing Windows. With this Registry mod, you're making the installer overlook multiple system requirements, meeting, including "TPM Check," which checks for a TPM 2.0 compliant module (or Firmware TPM), whether Secure Boot (and its dependency of a disabled CSM) are met.
If you need additional help, let us know in the comments,
Bypass TPM and other requirements for Update from within Windows
Start the Windows 11 update software, click "Change how setup downloads updates" and select "not right now", or disconnect from the Internet before pressing "Next". The reason is that there's now a new version of the updater that disables the "back" button on the "Unsupported Hardware" screen. Click "Next", after some checking, a screen "This PC doesn't currently meet Windows 11 system requirements" appears.
261 Comments on Windows 11 TPM Requirement? Bypass it in 5 Minutes
Many people still believe that plugging expensive stuff in an overpriced 'gaming' ASUS or Netgear (or whatever) makes it all right in the world.
Edit: for the curious - put all 'smart' gadgets in their own isolated network. There is no reason for your vacuum robot to have access to your NAS.
Like you said, let's not try to fix it here, it's off topic. And I've long given up on it. I bought a Chromecast, it handles streaming better than Win10 on Skylake.
Intel Celeron 420
512+256mb ddr2 (tried up to 4gb no difference)
Asus P5q-e
Tried various GPUs including a gt740
40gb ide HDD
Every time I try to install it tells me my PC can't run Windows 11.
Any clue what's causing it?
I'm more than well of what Microsoft says they are, but what Microsoft states as the minimum requirements and what it will actually run on are 2 different things.
I've run it on an AM2 Athlon 64 3800+ single core before, for example.
Conroe "should" be able to run it as it has the applicable instructions.
I know that this is below the requirements, but I'm asking how to make it work.
That's how those work. You're not guaranteed anything below specs. It doesn't have to be consistent across various systems below specs either. They don't state it will never launch on any system below spec in existence, but that it's not supported either way and you're on your own.
Maybe it is 2 physical cores are needed to install it, but it definitely runs on a single core after installed.
ATM I'm installing it on a pentium d 925, 768mb ram, and 40gb ide drive with those things bypassed. Just changing the CPU made it work.
It is now installed and is in the initial setup phase. It doesn't actually need 64gb, it only uses around 20, it just wants 64.
Ill have to check. Could just throw some voltage at it
I've been told sometimes old hardware can cause it to install improperly and it might be corrupted, which would explain this. I'm going to throw it into a newer PC if possible and install, then do the setup on the older PC.
Since I'm using an ide drive, ill try my MSI am3 board with FX support that also has an ide port, I think that barely might be new enough.
After reading the following posts... pretty sure you need more RAM for the initial install, but can survive with less later
Turns out the 40gb ide drive is indeed too small as I could not get it working with that no matter what I tried. I plan on trying with less ram and a larger ide drive at some point. I don't want to kill this SSD with swap by reducing what ram is in here.
Apparently it will boot with far less but just he completely unusable.
This happened when the discussion had turned towards the Task Manager and during this, Claton Hendricks, who is a Program Manager at Microsoft, was seen sporting an Core i7-7660U processor, which is not on Microsoft's official list of supported CPUs.