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
Almost done with verifying 11's system image
Bad thing it's on my m.2 hell I don't use 10 that much at all anyway so guess I'll leave 11 on it for giggles until ms kills it for the other three 11 violations :D
WIN10LTSC on IDE Laptop HDD
WIN10 on 120GB mSata
WINBETA on 240GB mSata
WiNDeV on 256GB mSata
As stated before I do this for FuN kinda "Testing"
I was at first just going to install 11 on my z490 build on sata ssd but I'm busy on it atm and for the next couple weeks so it will have to wait.
I can't work nor drive but at least I'm here. I buy used parts on eBay so
I attempted a removal and reinstall, it didn't fix it. When I went to remove the AMD drivers with the AMD uninstall tool, and then reinstall them, my system could no longer boot into windows after the restart from uninstalling the AMD drivers. I continued to get a hard drive inaccessible error. I had to perform a clean install of Windows 10 to get my system back up and running.
I will be holding off on Windows 11 for the time being.
I found a separate method by using a script through powershell. But it does require me to download a windowsmediacreationtool.bat that automatically modifies some system files/settings but i will use this method again as i would like to have a clean install without having to download 3rd party tools, as you can never be too safe, or at least modify those files myself (as shown here). I will take the picture once i get the error measage again.
One question before i try it again though, should i copy and paste exactly as it is shown (which i did) just copy and paste or should i get rid of the quotes around the title of each first new line of code, e.g.,
BypassTPMCheck=dword:00000001
Instead of
"BypassTPMCheck"=dword:00000001
Also i tried clean installing on a windows 10 drive, should i format the drive first and have deleted the partitions first?
I will try formatting the entire drive and deleting all partitions first.Yep saved as bypass.reg
www.google.com/amp/s/www.tomshardware.com/amp/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement
Creation tool on github:
gist.github.com/AveYo/c74dc774a8fb81a332b5d65613187b15#file-mediacreationtool-zip
It really got me thinking because using microsoft official tool, the boot drive was about 30 gb, and using the unofficial modified tool the flash drive is 4 gb. So looking up file size for usb boot drive for windows 11, its at least 5 gb, so my 30 gb boot drive really got me thinking.
No idea why you're getting 30 GB with Microsoft's MCT, the Windows 11 ISO file is 5.3 GB.
You should just be able to recreate the bypass.reg file on your USB stick, and you're good to go, no need to download everything again.