One of the headaches with installing Windows 11 on an older PC is that it checks for some hardware requirements. For example, the computer must have a minimum of 4 GB of RAM, it should have TPM 1.2 or TPM 2.0 chip, and the UEFI should support Secure Boot. While we can upgrade the RAM and install a new fast performing SDD, we cannot install TPM and Secure Boot. If an older PC lacks these two (TPM and Secure Boot) Windows 11 installation fails without any options left other than to shut down the PC.
We have explained how to clean install Windows 11 on any computer using DISM. But now Rufus has made it much easier as they now allow creation of Windows 11 installation media that bypasses these system requirements. We can use these Windows 11 installation USB drives on any PC even the ones that lack any kind of TPM.
Here is how we can use Rufus to create Windows 11 installation USB drive for bypassing TPM and Secure Boot check:
- First of download Windows 11 ISO and save it to your PC (how to download Windows 11 ISO).
- Download latest version of Rufus from https://rufus.ie/downloads/. At the time of writing this, the latest available version is Rufus 3.18 BETA.
- Connect a USB pen-drive that has 8 GB or more capacity, preferably a USB 3.0 drive, to your PC.
- Launch Rufus, select your USB pen-drive from the drop-down list. Check twice that it is the correct drive.
- Click on SELECT button and select the Windows 11 ISO file that you downloaded in step 1 above.
- Under Image Option, choose Extended Windows 11 Installation (no TPM / no Secure Boot).
- Finally click on the START button to start the creation of the Windows installation USB drive.
After it has finished creating a Windows 11 installation USB drive for you, you can use that drive for installing Windows 11 on any PC – old or new. What Rufus does is that it mounts boot.wim and creates some registry keys inside it in order to bypass TPM and Secure Boot check. The result is an almost untouched Windows installation media using which we can clean install Windows 11 on any PC.