Microsoft’s stance on upgrading older Windows 10 PCs to Windows 11 has been clear: the tech giant is not keen on making it easy. This has led to a series of stringent hardware compatibility requirements since the launch of Windows 11 in 2021. Users attempting to install the new operating system on machines equipped with CPUs from 2018 or earlier are met with error messages and a not-so-subtle suggestion to purchase new hardware.
This dynamic has sparked a familiar back-and-forth between Microsoft and the Windows enthusiast community. As users of “incompatible” PCs devise methods to circumvent these restrictions, Microsoft responds by tightening the screws on these workarounds.
Rufus Steps In
The latest feature update for Windows 11, version 24H2, saw Microsoft implement even stricter compatibility checks during the upgrade process. This move effectively blocked a popular workaround that utilized the open-source Rufus utility to create installation media for upgrading Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. However, this restriction proved short-lived, as the community quickly identified a method to bypass Microsoft’s compatibility blocks through manual registry tweaks.
In response, Pete Batard, the developer behind Rufus, has introduced a new beta version of the utility that automates this process. While Rufus 4.6 beta may appear similar to its predecessor at first glance, it incorporates several clever modifications to navigate the newly imposed restrictions.
One of the standout features of this update is the renaming of the official Windows Setup program, Setup.exe, to Setup.dll, while introducing a new custom program named Setup.exe. Additionally, it creates an $OEM$ subfolder within the Sources folder, which contains supplementary files necessary for the installation process.
When users double-click the newly created Setup.exe file, they encounter a permission dialog indicating that this is a Windows Setup Wrapper, duly signed by Akeo Consulting, the parent company of Rufus. This wrapper performs the essential registry edits to bypass compatibility checks before invoking the original Windows Setup program.
Batard has addressed potential concerns regarding the security of this method, stating, “Obviously, the fact that we ‘inject’ a setup executable may leave people uncomfortable about the possibility that we might use this as a malware vector.” To mitigate such fears, he assures users that the embedded executable is built using GitHub Actions and can be validated for integrity through SHA-256 validation.
Moreover, Batard emphasizes that Rufus adheres strictly to the official bypasses provided by Microsoft, avoiding any sweeping measures that would disable all hardware checks. This approach is designed to ensure that installations utilizing these bypasses remain functional in the future.
As it stands, the new workaround should enable the upgrade to Windows 11 on nearly any PC capable of running Windows 10. However, some atypical configurations, particularly those featuring very old CPUs from the Windows Vista era, may still face restrictions due to the inherent operational requirements of Windows 11.
For the time being, users can once again leverage the Rufus installer to upgrade unsupported hardware to Windows 11, leaving Microsoft to contemplate its next move in this ongoing saga.
