Windows 11 & Hardware

 Windows 11 has several hardware requirements that if they are not met, one cannot install the operating system.   Or can you? 

  
Windows 11 requires the following minimum requirements:

-TPM 2.0 modules (Trusted Platform Module (encryption))

-1ghz 64bit CPU

-64gb hard drive

-4gb RAM

-Graphics card compatible w/ DirectX12 and WDDM 

-720p or better display

Seems more than reasonable, except, the real bugger for most of this is the TPM part.  That rules out basically any machine that is older an Intel I-series generation 8.   So let's say one has a computer with an Intel i7-7700? Let's say one has a Dell PowerEdge r640 server running VMware ESXI v7 with Intel Xeon 414r CPU's?  Well those machines are more than fast enough, but they doesn't pass the TPM check; so Microsoft says: "Go pound sand, and then go buy a new PC.  Also what if one is doing virtualization?    

Well on can bypass this hardware check. There is no downside to this; the machine will run Windows 11 without problems.  It isn't going to BlueScreen, it isn't going to be slow, it isn't going to blow up; well at least not because of pseudo hardware requirements.  I have done it probably a dozen of times and have yet to run into any issues related to the hardware requirements.  One machine has even been running for since early 2022.

After booting to the Win11 ISO, at the very first screen where it asks about Language, time/currency, and Keyboard.  Hit "shift" and "F10".  This will bring up a Command Prompt.  

In that Command Prompt window, type: "regedit"

In RegEdit,navigate to : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup

Create a new key named: "LabConfig"

In LabConfig create the following keys of DWORD value set to "1"

-BypassCPUCheck

-BypassRAMCheck

-BypassSecureBootCheck

-BypassTPMCheck

Close the Regedit and Command Prompt windows and install Windows as normal.  

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement

Bonus:  If one is using a USB key to install Windows, make the changes, and those settings will stick on the install media, as it is "writeable".

Bonus #2: If one doesn't want to deal with associating the machine to a Online Microsoft Account, simply don't have the machine connected to the internet.