Will this "unsupported" PC run Win11 smoothly?

Hi @nick ,

Windows 11, like previous versions, will run on pretty much anything—it’s just more resource intensive, so older or unsupported hardware might take a performance hit. It’ll generally work just fine even on systems without TPM or with unsupported CPUs like the Ryzen 5 2400G.

Microsoft didn’t validate first-gen Ryzen chips for Windows 11 mainly because those CPUs don’t include native TPM 2.0 support. While many motherboards do include firmware-based TPM 2.0—as in your case—that technically satisfies the Windows 11 requirement, Microsoft focused validation on newer CPUs (Zen+ and beyond) that offer TPM 2.0 natively as part of the platform.

Unless this machine is mission-critical and requires official support, bypassing the CPU check should be fine, and Windows 11 will likely run without issue.

Are you doing this as a business or as a favor to friends? I ask because if doing it as a business and you ever have to go to Microsoft for any support, the first thing they are going to say is it's an unsupported config and you have to change it to a supported config before they will support it. If that is not the case, try a fresh install of windows 11 (Not an upgrade). If it has important data, back that up and save it. The best you can do is try it. If you told them years ago it needed replaced and they ignored you, try installing it, if it works great. If it doesn't work tell them so and that the hardware isn't compatible and they need to replace it. I retired from IT work in 2023 and there is only so much you can do for a customer. When someone wants to push a machine for home use that is one thing, when a business keeps trying to go on the cheap they are putting their operation and any customer data at risk.

I have upgraded 2 laptops that are ancient by today's standards.

1st, use Macrium Reflect Free to create an image of your current system. That way it is an easy restore if the upgrade doesn't work.

2nd, Make a separate backup of your files

3rd, download a W11 ISO image.

4rd, download RUFUS.

5th, Get a USB stick = I use a 16GB one. 8GB MIGHT work.

6th, follow RUFUS directions to create a bootable USB stick with the bypass fix

7th, set the computer to boot from the stick and proceed to do a clean install. You will delete the system partitions and recreate on new partition out of the unallocated space. If you have a D: partition, DO NOT DELETE IT. Just make sure the C: partition is large enough. Mine is about 100GB, but it depends on you.

8th, test the operation. If all is well, proceed.

9th, reinstall your programs

10th, Reinstall your files.

FYI, I prefer to create another partition on my drive (D:) and place all my files on it. It requires changing the location of the user folder, but it is easy.

If you do that b4 you start, You won't have to reinstall your files, since the W11 install only touches Drive C:.