I recently needed to do a clean install of Windows onto some specialised hardware – a PC that was custom built as a controller for some industrial equipment and the onboard SSD had died.

As it turns out, the onboard SSD didn’t helpfully go into read-only mode and just up and died instead. I was then a bit behind the eight-ball when it came to reinstall Windows.

I wasn’t even sure if this device ran Windows 10 or Windows 11, so after determining it had an 8th generation Intel CPU, I decided to go ahead with Windows 11. The BIOS on the Gigabyte motherboard said it supported TPM, but didn’t have a hardware TMP however, and didn’t seem to have the option to activate a software TPM.

I knew that there are a number of different ways to bypass the checks, but most of the searches I did referred to making a modified USB installer. This wasn’t an option for me as I already had a Windows 11 installer on USB and no spare PC to modify it, other than the one in front of me with no operating system installed.

I came across this thread however which got me up and running.

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement

The procedure was as follows:

Boot into the unmodified Windows installer on the USB.
As soon as you get into the installer, hit Shift+F10 to open a CMD window.

From the CMD window, run Regedit.

In Regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup

Create a new registry key under Setup called LabConfig

Within this new registry key, LabConfig, create two DWORD values and set them both equal to 1
BypassTPMCheck
BypassSecureBootCheck

If you also want to bypass the RAM requirement (although I’d suggest that your experience running Windows with low RAM is definitely going to be less than optimal), add another DWORD value for BypassRAMCheck.

Quit out of Regedit and continue with installer – you should be good to go.

Edit: Seems I’m trying to get Windows 11 on a few devices now that don’t support a TPM.

I’m now attempting to get Windows 11 installed on a late-model Intel-based Mac mini. The Mac mini has an 8th gen Intel Core i3 CPU, 8GB RAM and 250GB SSD. It supports everything Windows 11 needs, including secure boot, with the exception of TPM 2.0.

I can’t use Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 11 directly as it’s not supported and the Boot Camp app can’t find the necessary drivers to download from Apple. As such, I’ve had to first install Windows 10 and then upgrade to Windows 11.

This complicates matters as I’m not then booting directly into the Windows installer, I’m having to first run the PC Health Check app to verify system requirements (which fails, of course) and then run the Windows 11 Installation Assistant.

The Windows 11 Installation Assistant then refuses to upgrade to Windows 11 as the PC Health Check app doesn’t pass.

Fortunately there’s a workaround for this too. After running the PC Health Check app, it will set a registry key that determines the upgrade eligibility. You may be able to set this key directly without first downloading and running the PC Health Check app, I haven’t tested this however.

After running the PC Health Check app, open Regedit once more and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\PCHC

Set UpgradeEligibility to 1

Then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup and set AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU to 1

In my case, the MoSetup key didn’t already exist so I created it and then created a DWORD value for AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU and set it to 1.

You can then run the Windows 11 Installation Assistant and proceed with the upgrade.