How to create Windows 11 bootable USB for unsupported hardware

• To install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, you can create a special bootable USB using tools like Rufus or Ventoy.
• Rufus allows bypassing TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, RAM, and Microsoft account requirements during media creation.
• Ventoy lets you boot directly from an ISO while skipping hardware checks, making it easy to install Windows 11 on incompatible PCs.

On Windows 11, if you plan to install the operating system on an older computer with unsupported hardware, you will have to create a special USB bootable media using third-party tools, such as Rufus and Ventoy, to bypass the hardware requirements, as Microsoft restricts it to modern hardware.

Rufus is perhaps the most popular tool to create a USB bootable media for Windows 11, which also includes an option to bypass the TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and memory requirements for unsupported hardware. In addition, you can use the tool to create a custom installation media that bypasses the internet and the Microsoft account requirements to create a local account. You can even prevent the system from enabling BitLocker or Device Encryption automatically.

Ventoy is actually an app that makes virtually any USB flash drive bootable. Once you install the software, you can upload the Windows 11 ISO file without extracting it. When you start the computer with the flash drive, the Ventoy environment will load, where you can select and launch the Windows setup, and by default, the software will apply the necessary configurations to bypass the requirements to install the operating system on unsupported hardware.

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Alternatively, you can use other methods. For example, you can use Tiny11 Builder, which is a script to create a custom ISO file of Windows 11 without bloatware, and this image also strips out the hardware requirements for installation on incompatible devices.

Furthermore, you can also create an unattended answer file that you can upload to any regular USB bootable media to install the operating system without bloatware and on unsupported hardware.

In this guide, I’ll explain two of the methods to create a Windows 11 USB installer that you can use on computers that do not meet the minimal hardware requirements.

• Create a Windows 11 USB installer for unsupported hardware using Rufus
• Create a Windows 11 USB installer for unsupported hardware using Ventoy

Create a Windows 11 USB installer for unsupported hardware using Rufus

To create a Windows 11 USB bootable media with Rufus for unsupported hardware, follow these steps:

1. Open the Rufus website.

2. Click the link to download the latest version under the “Download” section.

3. Double-click the Rufus executable file to launch the tool.

4. Click the Settings button (third button from the left) at the bottom of the page.

5. Choose the Daily option in the “Check for updates” setting and under the “Settings” section.

   Quick note: This particular step is only required if you don’t have the down-arrow button to select the “Download” option.

6. Click the Close button.

7. Click the Close button again.

8. Open Rufus again.

9. Choose the USB flash drive under the “Device” section.

10. Click the down-arrow button (on the right side) and select the Download option.

    

11. Click the Download button.

12. Select the Windows 11 option.

13. Click the Continue button.

14. Select the latest version of the operating system (if applicable).

    

15. Click the Continue button.

16. Select the Windows 11 Home/Pro/Edu option.

17. Click the Continue button.

18. Select the installation language.

19. Click the Continue button.

20. Select the x64 architecture option.

21. Click the Download button.

22. Select the location to save the Windows 11 ISO file automatically.

23. Continue with the default Rufus settings after the download.

24. (Optional) Confirm a name for the drive (for example, Windows 11 Setup) under the “Volume label” setting.

25. Click the Start button.

26. Check the “Remove requirements for 4GB+ RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0” option to bypass the hardware requirements.

27. (Optional) Check the “Remove requirement for an online Microsoft account” option to create a local account during setup.

28. (Optional) Check the “Create a local account with username” option and confirm the username to create the local account (without a password) automatically.

    

29. Click the OK button.

30. Click the Yes button to confirm the process.

Once you complete the steps, the tool will create a bootable media with the Windows 11 installation media that you can use on unsupported hardware.

Create a Windows 11 USB installer for unsupported hardware using Ventoy

To create a Windows 11 bootable USB for unsupported PCs with Ventoy, connect a flash drive with enough space (at least 8GB) and follow these steps:

1. Open the Ventoy GitHub page.

2. Click the ventoy-x.x.xx-windows.zip file and download it to your computer under the “Assets” section.

   

   Quick note: You may need to force and keep the file, as the browser may detect it as malicious.

3. Open File Explorer.

4. Open the Zip folder location.

5. Double-click to open the ventoy-x.x.xx-windows.zip file.

6. Click the Extract all button from the command bar.

   

7. Click the Browse button.

8. Select a location to extract the files.

9. Click the Select Folder button.

10. Click the Extract button.

11. Open the ventoy-x.x.xx folder.

12. Double-click the Ventoy2Disk.exe file to launch the installer.

    

13. Choose the USB flash drive from the “Device” setting.

    Quick tip: If you have any important files in the flash drive, it’s recommended to create a backup, as this process will erase everything on the external drive.

14. Click the Install button.

    

15. Click the OK button.

16. Click on This PC from the left pane of File Explorer.

17. Open the Ventoy drive.

18. Open the Microsoft Support website.

19. Select the Windows 11 option under the “Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices” section.

    

20. Click the Confirm button.

21. Select the installation language.

    

22. Click the Confirm button.

23. Click the “64-bit Download” button to download the Windows 11 ISO on the device.

    

24. Copy and paste the ISO file into the Ventoy USB flash drive to make it bootable. 

    

After you complete the steps, you can use the bootable USB flash drive to start a computer with hardware that doesn’t meet the minimum requirements to launch the setup.

Since Ventoy can make any ISO file bootable, you can upload multiple ISO files from virtually any platform, including Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 7, and Linux. The best part about this software is that when a new version of Windows becomes available, you don’t have to reformat the flash drive. You can simply upload the new ISO file to make it bootable.

Only remember that installing Windows 11 on incompatible hardware isn’t supported by Microsoft, and your device will remain in an unsupported state. While you may be able to download system updates, they’re not guaranteed to work, and the overall experience may not be the same as a supported system.