2025 Windows 11 upgrade thread. It's coming!!

[The_Doc]

So all the computers in my life are badgering me constantly, like a wife with a Tropic catalogue, for money and stuff.
Principally Windows 11 upgrade.

It's October 2025 for the big Windows 10 death bell, although I appreciate no computers will self combust on the big day.
And then my mother (aged 80, but very tech savvy for a 1940's child) rang me today and asked " shall we upgrade the home PC to Windows 11?"

So, as it's 2025 and the problem is now this year, can we pool knowledge and options?

1. If I don't upgrade any computers by Oct 14th 2025, can I keep them safe with 3rd party anti-virus (which I haven't bought in about 20 yrs)

2. Can I hack my way around the MS requirements and install Windows 11 on a "cannot be upgraded" computer ?

3. For a home PC, used for light browsing, some internet banking (although that's all on smartphones now really), and some MS Word and MS Powerpoint, do I really need Windows 11?

4. Please, no replies using any of these kill words: APPLE, LINUX, MacOS, I will simply skip your keyboard hammerings and move on

Current home PC bought last year cost £200, runs 32Gb of RAM through a £100 25" monitor, but has an i5 6500T chip which obviously is far too outdated to be allowed, I mean come on!
It does however boot up in 2 seconds, run faultlessly, is stable as hell, plays 4k videos on the onboard GPU (!) and THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH IT GODDAMIT, WHY DO I HAVE TO THROW IT AWAY?

I am tech savvy too (it's genetic) I run Mint and Mate on all the old laptops when they end their Microsoft lifes, one upstairs that the kids are streaming films on in HD right now is 11 yrs old.

Thanks in advance etc etc

[geeks]

The_Doc said:

So all the computers in my life are badgering me constantly, like a wife with a Tropic catalogue, for money and stuff.
Principally Windows 11 upgrade.

It's October 2025 for the big Windows 10 death bell, although I appreciate no computers will self combust on the big day.
And then my mother (aged 80, but very tech savvy for a 1940's child) rang me today and asked " shall we upgrade the home PC to Windows 11?"

So, as it's 2025 and the problem is now this year, can we pool knowledge and options?

1. If I don't upgrade any computers by Oct 14th 2025, can I keep them safe with 3rd party anti-virus (which I haven't bought in about 20 yrs)

2. Can I hack my way around the MS requirements and install Windows 11 on a "cannot be upgraded" computer ?

3. For a home PC, used for light browsing, some internet banking (although that's all on smartphones now really), and some MS Word and MS Powerpoint, do I really need Windows 11?

4. Please, no replies using any of these kill words: APPLE, LINUX, MacOS, I will simply skip your keyboard hammerings and move on smile

Current home PC cost £200, runs 32Gb of RAM through a £100 25" monitor, but has an i5 6500T chip which obviously is far too outdated to be allowed, I mean come on!
It does however boot up in 2 seconds, run faultlessly, is stable as hell, plays 4k videos on the onboard GPU (!) and THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH IT GODDAMIT, WHY DO I HAVE TO THROW IT AWAY?

I am tech savvy too (it's genetic) I run Mint and Mate on all the old laptops when they end their Microsoft lifes, one upstairs that the kids are streaming films on in HD right now is 11 yrs old.

Thanks in advance etc etc

1. No, well sort of, AV won't stop you being vulnerable to some exploits.

2. Nope

3. No

4. Fair

Short TLDR type version for the unnumbered question, because. Good news is its really only a motherboard and processor replacement if all you need is an updated processor and TPM

[Ozone]

I've done this on about about 6 systems bypassing the TPM, processor and memory checks to install Win 11 and had no issues.

I download the normal Windows 11 installer from MS:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/...

Then follow the steps in the link below:

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

I haven't used the Rufus method, the first 7 steps have worked for me, including on MAC Intel hardware

[grumbledoak]

If you don't want to, just leave it on Windows 10 and be careful what you click!

If you do want to you can install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. It will almost certainly work. You would need to use "Rufus" rather than the standard "Windows Media Creation Tool" to create a bootable USB. There is a guide here -
https://www.xda-developers.com/install-windows-11-...

[Neil_Sc]

I thought I would post my experience as it should be helpful to others.

I had two computers running Windows 10, requiring upgrade

• A Z170N wifi running a i6300 with 16 GB RAM
• A Z270N wifi running a i7100 with 16 GB RAM.

I did not want to upgrade to a brand new PC as it felt like £500 or so per computer wasted so I did some research, this revealed the following key points

• A TPM 2.0 module seems to be required for Windows 11. Both the Z710N and Z270N had this labelled in the BIOS as "Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT)". I therefore expect that most 6th and 7th gen motherboards will have this.
• Secure Boot is listed as required, but you can work around this if you really need to, I am typing this on Windows 11 booted without secure boot, but have it working both ways. In my BIOS it is necessary to switch legacy booting off to reveal secure boot options, the option to disable is labelled "CSM Support".
• I'm not convinced the CPUs necessarily matter, but I did interrogate the supported CPU list and found that several 7th gen processors are supported. The i7820HQ for example, this processor is supported as Microsoft did not want to lose face by not allowing Windows 11 to run on Microsoft Surface Studio, which uses this processor.
• As the i7820HQ is supported, I made the conclusion that the code base must be being tested on 7th gen architecture, I therefore decided to upgrade the Z170N wifi to an i7700 processor, simply to move it to 7th gen. I found one on ebay for £54.
• I did upgrade the Z170N wifi to 32GB, but have upgraded both computers now to Windows 11 and both work fine, one on 32 GB and one on 16 GB.

What you need to do is to get hold of "Rufus". With Rufus, create a bootable Windows 11 USB installation stick. When you create that you can change options like allowing Windows 11 to boot without secure boot enabled.

• https://rufus.ie/en/
• https://theideaplace.net/using-rufus-to-install-wi...
• Worth reading this article too about problems building Windows 11 USB sticks using certain versions of Windows 11 https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/27/microsoft_w...

I've been running Windows 11 without fault for 3 months now. Both computers run perfectly and they feel very fast and responsive, even faster than Windows 10.

• Also to further note, the latest Intel graphics driver pack has a graphics driver for the i7 Intel HD630 graphics chip from late 2024, so Intel are still providing drivers. I did note Windows being Windows kept trying to downgrade the driver, so to stop this I enabled a system policy to stop Windows modifying device drivers.

Edited by Neil_Sc on Saturday 4th January 19:00

[wombleh]

Someone sent me an article that they’ve removed the TPM requirement now, which should let it run on a whole lot more hardware. There’s also the workarounds linked above.

[hiccy18]

The_Doc said:

So all the computers in my life are badgering me constantly, like a wife with a Tropic catalogue, for money and stuff.
Principally Windows 11 upgrade.

It's October 2025 for the big Windows 10 death bell, although I appreciate no computers will self combust on the big day.
And then my mother (aged 80, but very tech savvy for a 1940's child) rang me today and asked " shall we upgrade the home PC to Windows 11?"

So, as it's 2025 and the problem is now this year, can we pool knowledge and options?

1. If I don't upgrade any computers by Oct 14th 2025, can I keep them safe with 3rd party anti-virus (which I haven't bought in about 20 yrs)

2. Can I hack my way around the MS requirements and install Windows 11 on a "cannot be upgraded" computer ?

3. For a home PC, used for light browsing, some internet banking (although that's all on smartphones now really), and some MS Word and MS Powerpoint, do I really need Windows 11?

4. Please, no replies using any of these kill words: APPLE, LINUX, MacOS, I will simply skip your keyboard hammerings and move on

Current home PC bought last year cost £200, runs 32Gb of RAM through a £100 25" monitor, but has an i5 6500T chip which obviously is far too outdated to be allowed, I mean come on!
It does however boot up in 2 seconds, run faultlessly, is stable as hell, plays 4k videos on the onboard GPU (!) and THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH IT GODDAMIT, WHY DO I HAVE TO THROW IT AWAY?

I am tech savvy too (it's genetic) I run Mint and Mate on all the old laptops when they end their Microsoft lifes, one upstairs that the kids are streaming films on in HD right now is 11 yrs old.

Thanks in advance etc etc

1. No.
2. Yes, by lowering security.
3. You mentioned internet banking, so yes (see 4).
4.

You can add TPM2.0 to older equipment, many 6th and 7th gen Dell and HP computers came with them as standard and will install and run Windows 11.

You can keep running Windows 10, but everytime a vulnerability is patched in Windows 11 that is also present in 10 MS are publishing an instruction set to hack you.

Edited by hiccy18 on Saturday 4th January 20:20

[richhead]

Ive been pondering the same recently,
What is likely to happen if i dont upgrade?
Or is it just a ruse by microsoft to sell computers.
Im sure that if you are careful what you click on then there isnt much risk, or am i being daft.
I havnt had an antivirus for 15 odd years apart from the inbuilt microsoft one and ive not even died once.
so is it something we really need to worry about.

[xeny]

richhead said:

Im sure that if you are careful what you click on then there isnt much risk, or am i being daft.

You'er being daft. How do you know in advance where a link will ultimately lead, what scripts may be running on that site and what ads (with compromised ad networks) are hosted there.

It's the equivalent of if I am careful who I marry there is no chance I'll end up getting a divorce.

[C69]

Consumer pricing for the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates programme has been announced. $30, but it only lasts a year.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/...

[markiii]

I have no interest in Windows 11,

it insists on you having a Microsoft account to install and phones home way too much personal info

[wibble cb]

I bypassed the whole issue, i bought a cheap mini pc, it’s already running W11, 140 quid all in, job jobbed.

Might not be the last word in pc’s but it will do what I need it to do

https://a.co/d/11irICl

[Colonel Cupcake]

markiii said:

I have no interest in Windows 11,

it insists on you having a Microsoft account to install and phones home way too much personal info

I'm running Windows 11 and I don't have a Microsoft account.

[markiii]

when did you install because they seem to have stopped new builds?

[hiccy18]

No they haven't, oobe\bypassnro if you use the "new" installer, and you still have the option to use the old one anyway.

[markiii]

I assume thats a switch when you build an installer?

I tried the standard usb download before xmas and it flat refused to install without an account

[Hub]

Timely thread. I have a perfectly good fairly high spec laptop that isn't used a huge amount but used for photo storage and editing, Spotify and music storage, MS word, and some general internet use. It has a CD drive and useful other connections. I don't really want to bin it yet. It meets every criteria except the processor chip isn't on the approved list so I am interested to know if there is any way around this or if it will be landfill!

[Feetup]

I am in a similar position. I have just bought a SSD and caddy, swapped it with the CD drive in our laptop and installed Linux Mint on it. Doing it this way means I don't go anywhere near the existing SSD. I'm quite keen to try out Linux and have so far been surprised how easy it is to set up and use.

Peter

[C69]

Hub said:

Timely thread. I have a perfectly good fairly high spec laptop that isn't used a huge amount but used for photo storage and editing, Spotify and music storage, MS word, and some general internet use. It has a CD drive and useful other connections. I don't really want to bin it yet. It meets every criteria except the processor chip isn't on the approved list so I am interested to know if there is any way around this or if it will be landfill!

There's a Registry edit you can do to get around the unsupported processor issue.

https://www.pcguide.com/windows-11/how-to/install-...

[Matty_]

markiii said:

I have no interest in Windows 11,

it insists on you having a Microsoft account to install and phones home way too much personal info

Unfortunately, if you want to remain secure and use Windows, moving to Win11 is the only choice.

Windows 10 phones home with loads of info too. There are various "mods" you can use to remove this from Windows 11, and you don't need an MS account either - but lets be honest, even if you jump through all the hoops, MS are a small drop in the ocean of information so many companies hold on you.

I've got friends who've moved to Linux, or Chromebooks (!) because they're worried about M$ and all the information they gather, then have mobile phones with Google/Apple accounts, Ring doorbells and all kinds of other tech that's monitoring every day.

Heck, if you're driving a modern car, that's doing it too