Microsoft just blocked a commonly-used trick to install Windows 11 on a PC that doesn’t meet the system requirements

Windows 11 can be installed on PCs that don’t meet the hardware requirements of the OS by using a few different workarounds, but one of those fudges no longer works – or at least Microsoft appears to have closed this loophole in testing.

The Register reports that as highlighted by Bob Pony on X, the bypass that Microsoft apparently intends to block, known as the ‘setup.exe /product server’ workaround, has indeed been vanquished in preview build 27686 in the Canary channel (released a week ago).

The recently released Windows 11 Insider Build 27686 (Dilithium) has patched the “setup.exe /product server” workaround for bypassing the system requirements check. 😢 pic.twitter.com/G9Q1v3O1uUAugust 15, 2024

What this particular requirement-dodging measure does is to trick the installer into thinking it is setting up Windows Server, when it is in fact installing Windows 11. As Windows Server doesn’t have the same stricter requirements – for example, you don’t need TPM 2.0 – this sneaky installation method will work on a PC that doesn’t officially qualify for Windows 11.

Whether it will run properly on such a PC is entirely another matter, and that’s why we wouldn’t recommend using a trick along these lines.

That said, people do use this, and other fudges, to install Windows 11 on hardware that is older and not officially compatible, and they manage to run it okay – but it’s a risk, obviously.

Analysis: A bug, maybe? It seems unlikely…

As The Register points out, it is possible that this is just a bug in the Windows 11 preview build. After all, this is the Canary channel, the earliest testing platform which is more bug-ridden than other builds.

However, it’s more probable that this is an intentional move by Microsoft, we’d guess. That being the case, folks do still have time to use the above fudge to install Windows 11, because as Bob Pony makes clear, it still works fine with Windows 11 24H2 (the incoming update expected to land later in the year). This is seemingly a change for Windows 11 in 2025 – but we don’t know for sure, and Microsoft could still be planning on incorporating it in the 24H2 update (it just isn’t in the mix yet).

Another well-known workaround to fudge an installation of Windows 11 on an unsupported PC is to use the utility Rufus. So, there are still options out there, although Microsoft is seemingly looking to close these kind of tricks down – perhaps due to the fact that Windows 10 comes to its End of Life next year.

Whatever the case, we should underline that we wouldn’t recommend installing any operating system on a device that doesn’t officially support it – at least not for the average user out there, anyway.