Can you write a topic that explain the exact steps to do that.
From what I’ve read, the only upgrade path to Windows 11 is from Windows 10. I’ve seen nothing online to indicate that upgrading from earlier versions is supported; of course I could be wrong on that. I’m running Pro, and Pro does not require a Microsoft account for the Windows 11 upgrade; Home does.
This procedure implies no guarantees, and if you follow it, bear in mind that you are doing so at your own risk. I don’t have a Windows Home version, so I haven’t tried this with Windows Home. If you don’t have an issue with using a Microsoft account, this procedure may still work with Home. Again, no guarantees, use at your own risk. Note the first and most important step in bold below.
In order to upgrade from Windows 10 on unsupported hardware, you will need Windows 10 installation media (DVD, USB or ISO) and Windows 11 installation media (DVD, USB or ISO). The first and most important step is to create a complete drive image set of your entire current installation of Windows, including the EFI partition, in case something goes south on you. The upgrade will re-write the EFI partition, and your PC could likely become unbootable should something go amiss with the upgrade and you want to regress to Windows 10. It is much simpler and easier to restore a drive image set than to jump through a bunch of hoops just trying to get your PC to boot.
The second important step is to create copies of your Windows 10 installation media and Windows 11 installation media, so that you can work off the copies, and leave you existing installation media in its pristine condition. It isn’t necessary to burn DVD’s or recreate USB’s. This procedure can be used from a folder in a separate partition on a separate drive. I ran it from a folder named “Edited Win 11 Pro RTM”. You can name it whatever you like, just don’t put it on the C: drive. This may mean that you will need to use a DVD or USB if your PC/laptop has only one accessible partition. If you have an accessible partition other than C:, that will do. Just create the folder you will be working on/from; name it whatever you like. This is your working folder.
If your Windows 10 installation media is an ISO, mount it, then copy all the contents to your working folder. Once that is complete, you can unmount the ISO. If your installation media is on DVD or USB, plug it in, and copy all the contents to your working folder, then eject your DVD or “Safely remove hardware” in the case of USB. Then in your working folder, open the “sources” folder and look for a file named either “install.esd” or “install.wim”. It’s a big file. Delete whichever file you find; you won’t find both, only one or the other will be there.
Next you’ll need your Windows 11 installation media. Mount it, navigate to the “sources” folder. Again, inside the sources folder will be a file named either “install.esd” or “install.wim”. Copy that file, then navigate to your working folder. In your working folder, paste your copied file in the “sources” folder. Your working folder is now ready for the upgrade.
I suggest restarting to close any open system files and relaunch a fresh Windows 10, then log into an account in the Administrators group. In Windows 10 Home, this needs to be a Microsoft account for the upgrade. Navigate to your working folder and double-click on “Setup.exe”. Acknowledge the UAC prompt if it pops up, and relax. When it’s looking for updates, click Next and let it. These are Windows 10 updates it’s looking for, and you just might need something to make the upgrade work properly. My upgrade took an hour and six minutes. When it gets to the blue screen and is copying files, you will see “Installing Windows 10”. You can ignore that, it’s part of the outer wrapper of the installation media. The files that are being copied are coming from the “install.wim” (or “install.esd”) that you pasted into the working folder, and it’s actually installing Windows 11.
If I recall correctly, there were four restarts before the OOBE said, “Hi”. The OOBE took another three minutes before the desktop appeared.
And as always, YMMV.
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- This topic was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by .