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Bottom line: Microsoft surprised the entire PC ecosystem by introducing strict hardware requirements for installing and using Windows 11. While there are various methods and tricks to bypass these restrictions, the company has now removed one of the simplest options.

The recently released Canary Build 27686 of Windows 11 contains an unwelcome surprise for those looking to run the OS on older PCs. A popular and straightforward method for installing Windows 11 on machines with unsupported hardware no longer works, although users still have several alternative options to achieve the same result.

Windows 11 Build 27686 introduces official improvements, including increasing the size limit for FAT32 file systems from 32GB to 2TB, easier HDR content access on compatible displays, and more. However, the preview OS also removes the ability to bypass system requirement checks using the "setup.exe /product server" command, which previously allowed users to install the OS on older hardware.

Microsoft has faced significant criticism for blocking Windows 11 installations on systems without a TPM 2.0 chip. While the core experience of Windows 11 isn't vastly different from Windows 10, the new hardware requirements have led many users with functional Windows 10 systems to avoid upgrading to the new OS.

Over time, many methods have been discovered to bypass the installation requirements of Windows 11 on hardware designed for Windows 10 or even older systems. The "/product server" trick was one of the quickest and easiest, but the upcoming Windows 11 (24H2) release will likely compel resourceful users to find new ways to run the OS on unsupported machines.

Microsoft is also introducing new "hard" compatibility blocks in recent Windows 11 versions, such as the inability to run the OS on CPUs that don't support SSE4.2 instructions. SSE4.2 technology was first introduced by Intel with its Nehalem-based processors in 2008, so any x86-64 CPU manufactured after that year should still be able to load the OS if the setup process is successful.

The number of undocumented or unofficial tricks to force Windows 11 installation continues to dwindle, but Microsoft still offers certain OS editions that effectively bypass the TPM 2.0 requirement. The IoT editions of Windows appear to completely skip the hardware compatibility check, and Windows 11 LTSC 2024 can be installed on systems with less than 4GB of RAM.

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Microsoft patches out single-command trick to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware

 
That must be why Linux is so much faster than Windows these days... Microsoft's priority will never be to create the most efficient OS possible.
 
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Well it's not like someone could sue Microsoft for forcing people on upgrading hardware in order to run their latest OS... otherwise Apple would have been sued 100 times over for running the same scam with the excuse of "better security and comparability"
 
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WhiteLeaff said:
That must be why Linux is so much faster than Windows these days... Microsoft's priority will never be to create the most efficient OS possible.
Click to expand...
Well for starters Linux has always been better than any other OS and not just windows... Microsoft is just learning from Apple that they can always get away by forcing people in ditching their semi-older equipment so they can sell more hardware.
 
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I see microsoft is really dedicated to going green, reducing waste by clearing out those warehouses of unsold systems! Good on them, all the current PCs should be thrown in landfills, so environmental!
The Talking Tech said:
Well for starters Linux has always been better than any other OS and not just windows... Microsoft is just learning from Apple that they can always get away by forcing people in ditching their semi-older equipment so they can sell more hardware.
Click to expand...
Linux is entirely dependent on free software, whose labor is currently being hamstrung by groups ban-hammering core devs for wrongthink, no different then what MS does. Hell, the linux community cant even agree on a package manager.
 
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This bypass method has already been removed a year ago in build 25977.

"setupprep /product server" still works though.

I wish tech "journalists" would make at least half-hearted attempts to verify the information they take from each other.
 
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Theinsanegamer said:
Linux is entirely dependent on free software, whose labor is currently being hamstrung by groups ban-hammering core devs for wrongthink, no different then what MS does. Hell, the linux community cant even agree on a package manager.
Click to expand...


Oh boy… I’m getting legit 2004 vibes reading this comment. Like you haven’t tried it in the past 5 years, or, you’ve only tried Ubuntu or Mint.

All major web browsers run on Linux, even Edge, without wine! That alone takes care of 97-99% of users’ workloads in 2024. Unless you have to have Offline M$ Office, or just have to play some Activision DRM crapsterpiece, Linux can run just about anything else Windows can with ease.

And at least Linux HAS built-in package managers! How’s that clunky Windows App Store working for you? Or the hit-or-miss WinGet, which, irony not lost here, currently only runs via powershell? Come on now… Flatpak and Snap have streamlined Linux app development and deployment like you wouldn’t believe! The last half-decade has been great, I promise. Even if you still have to pull a few levers and flip a couple of switches, you, and I, and everyone else here, definitely already do that with Windows anyways!
 
The Talking Tech said:
Well it's not like someone could sue Microsoft for forcing people on upgrading hardware in order to run their latest OS... otherwise Apple would have been sued 100 times over for running the same scam with the excuse of "better security and comparability"
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We'll see. Of course no manufacturer owes the customer any new features, or the "latest OS". The issue if any would be defect liability for security holes left unpatched in Windows 10. As far as I know, no manufacturer has been held liable for this to date. However, Microsoft will really be pushing the boundaries on this one in ways that will be tempting to plaintiffs like never before:

- they are leaving behind hundreds of millions of devices still in active use
- those devices will be perceived by many as otherwise still perfectly useful and usable
- many of those devices were sold as coming with the last / only / perpetual version of Windows ("Win 10 is the last"), which will make it hard for Microsoft to shift blame to these customers for not buying a newer version now.
- MS will likely have provable, actual knowledge of serious defects to come (because so much shared code with Win 11+ and other still-supported products)
- MS may be perceived as having easily been able to mitigate these defects/harms, including having actual fixes already developed (see above), and having intentionally chosen to withhold them for reasons that may not be sympathetic to a judge or jury
- Every lay person now has a much greater understanding of the serious harm that unpatched Windows bugs visits not just on the device owner and the economy at large, which may affect their view on whether Microsoft's behavior is reasonable or negligent.

And yes, lawyers could try to sue Apple too, but it's all a matter of judgment and degree, and at least so far Apple devices have not been advertised as coming with the last version of an AppleOS, are causing less mayhem at least as reported in the mainstream press, and their customers seem more accepting/willing to upgrade when the device finally drops off the support list, perhaps because there is a much more obvious difference between the retired device and the new device (that last part will change for them too at some point.)
 
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