Microsoft released their 2024 update for Windows 11, better known as 24H2. As you probably know, Windows 11 comes with some specific hardware requirements that would prevent you from upgrading or installing Windows 11 on older hardware. In this post I will show you how you can work around these hardware limitations for the most recent 24H2 release. I’ll cover how to perform a clean installation of Windows 11 24H2 on unsupported hardware and also how to upgrade from Windows 10 or an earlier version of Windows 11, like 23H2 or 22H2.

Since Microsoft released Windows 11 in October 2021, there has been some hardware limitations. These limitations include a limited list of processor support, the requirement for secure boot and a TPM 2.0 module. In case one of these requirements on your machine is not met, you have an unsupported system and without any workarounds, you will not be able to install Windows 11 on your machine.

As I did some earlier posts on getting Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, this one is no different and covers performing a fresh installation or upgrading from Windows 10 or another Windows 11 version to Windows 11 23H2 on unsupported hardware .

Since a few weeks, Microsoft has released their 22H2 update. This update has some new features and bugfixes. With the introduction of Windows 11 also came some restrictions on supported hardware. Like the need for a fairly recent CPU, TPM 2.0 and secure boot. The 22H2 update seems to change some things that could prevent to work around the hardware checks. The original method to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11 on unsupported hardware is no longer working and also on Windows 11 installations that used any of the workarounds to overcome the hardware check, the 22H2 update will most likely not be offered through Windows update. In this article I will describe alternative and how to still upgrade Windows 11 22H2 on unsupported hardware, either running already on Windows 11 or from Windows 10.

For some time now, Microsoft has been pretty intrusive about pushing the use of a Microsoft account on Windows-based PCs. Over the time, it became harder and harder to setup or upgrade Windows using a local account or even without internet access. Although having a Microsoft account could have its advantages, many people, including myself, prefer to make that decision on their own. In this post, I’ll explain, for the various Windows 11 versions like Home or Pro, how you can work around the need for a Microsoft account and how you can switch back to a local account in case you started using one already.

After performing an upgrade to Windows 11, coming from Windows 10, it looks like some users are getting an issue with Windows Security. The symptoms are an empty Windows Security application, only displaying “Security at a glance”. When navigating to Settings – Windows Security, the menu will hang and only closing it works. This is caused by the service “Windows Security Service” or SecurityHealthService.exe that is not running and is stopping immediately when trying to start it. I’m not sure of the cause but did find a way to fix it, which I will describe in this article.

Windows 11 has been released some time ago now and comes with some new hardware requirements like the need for TPM 2.0 and secure boot. Also, some older processors are no longer supported even though they should be perfectly capable of running the OS. In case your system does not meet one of these requirements, you will not be able to install Windows 11 in a supported way. This article explains you how to work around those limitations and install Windows 11 on an unsupported machine. The methods used here also work for the 22H2 update.