How to Bypass Windows 11’s TPM, CPU and RAM Requirements
Microsoft has some strict hardware requirements that your PC must meet to install Windows 11, including TPM 2.0 support. This means that not only older computers, but virtual machines will refuse to upgrade from Windows 10, giving you a message that “this PC doesn’t currently meet Windows 11 system requirements.”
Fortunately, there is a simple way you can create a Windows 11 USB install disk that will bypass not only Windows 11’s TPM requirement, but also its need for 8GB of RAM and a supported CPU. Using a free tool called Rufus and at least a 16GB Flash drive, you can either perform an in-place upgrade of Windows 10 to 11 or a Windows 11 clean install while getting around these minimums. In the first section of our tutorial below, we’ll show you how to use Rufus to create a requirement-free Windows 11 install disc.
If you already have Windows 11 installed on a PC that didn’t meet the requirements (perhaps a VM), you try to update to a new build with Windows Update and you get the “doesn’t meet requirements” error message, there’s a workaround for that. As we’ll detail in the second section below, a script from AveYo’s Media Creation tool github page will allow you to bypass Windows 11’s TPM requirement even with Windows Update.
Note that Microsoft also has also created an official registry hack(opens in new tab) to bypass TPM 2.0 and CPU requirements. However, this method still requires at least TPM 1.2 so, if you have no TPM at all, it’s worthless. We’ll talk about this at the bottom, in case you want to try it.
[geo-post target=”true” id=”20663″ label=”Windows 11 clean install”]How to Bypass Windows 11 TPM Requirement Using Rufus
With Rufus, a free utility, you can create a Windows 11 install disk on a USB Flash drive with settings that disable the TPM, RAM and CPU requirements. You can either boot off of this USB Flash drive to do a clean Windows 11 install or run the setup file off of the drive from within Windows 10 to do an in-place upgrade.
For most people, this method is ideal, but there are a couple of disadvantages. First, it requires a 16GB or larger USB Flash drive. Second, because it’s on a Flash drive, it’s more difficult to use for installing Windows 11 on a virtual machine where an ISO file would be ideal.
1. Download the latest version of Rufus and install it on your machine. At the time of writing the latest version is 3.17 which includes the Extended Windows 11 Image support.
2. Insert a blank 16GB or larger USB stick then open Rufus.
3. Select the USB device that you want to install Windows 11 to.
4. Ensure that Boot Selection shows “Disk or ISO image” and click DOWNLOAD.
5. Select Windows 11 and click Continue.
6. Select the latest release and click Continue.
7. Select the edition and click Continue.
8. Select your preferred language and click Continue.
9. Select the architecture (most likely x64) and click Download. A new window will open asking where to save the ISO image. Save it to your Downloads folder. You can also download the image using a browser if you wish.
The download will take several minutes to complete.
10. Click on the Image option drop down and select Extended Windows 11 Installation to disable TPM, Secure Boot and the 8GB of RAM requirement.
11. Double check that the correct drive has been selected and click on Start to begin the installation.
12. Install or upgrade to Windows 11. Run setup on the USB drive, if you ware doing an in-place install from an existing Windows 10 installation. Boot off of the drive if you are doing a clean install. Note that you may need to disable secure boot in your BIOS if it gives you a problem.
