Let's install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware

Just installed Windows 11 on an HP Elitebook 801 Revolve G1, which I just bought used. It's 13 years old. It's a nice small laptop to have as a spare, although bigger than my 10" netbook which won't run the latest windows. So it's an 11.6" laptop with backlit keyboard, Core i5 and 8gb ram, and spillproof keyboard (which appealed to me ). Much more capable than a 10" atom netbook.

Only issue I've had really was I updated the bios to the latest one, while it was still on Windows 10, and after that, the touchscreen developed ghosting at the right hand side. Messed about trying to see if I could fix that and a few things worked but it keeps coming back occasionally. So might just disable the touchscreen. I didn't want a tablet or touchscreen - just a small laptop.

It's running very nicely on 23H2. Touchscreen working but has the occasional blip so I'll see how it goes. I tried various graphics drivers which all made the screen worse so I've stuck with the one Windows decided to install which seems stable.

I tried 24H2 first but it was a bit glitchy - especially the mouse, although that might have partly been me messing about with drivers and trying fixes for the touchscreen, I'll try 24H2 on it once I've done an image now it's all up and running well on 23H2.

The laptop, apparently, has legacy bios/mbr - my rufus W11 stick wouldn't work. So I had to make two more usb sticks of 23H2 and 24H2 using the MBR option in Rufus and they worked fine. Couldn't see anywhere in Bios to make it uefi.

One strange thing though, is it won't boot a Windows 10 usb. Only Windows 11. Tried a couple of times with a couple of different usb sticks and burned with MBR in Rufus. It just flashes the Blue window momentarily and then black screen and flashing cursor. But no issue at all installing Windows 11.

I like the small touchpad and it has good key travel. Not as small and light as my 10" netbook though. It has a very nice screen as well.

Edit: Installed 24H2 now and it's running fine - all settled down. Very occasionally I still get a bit of minor ghosting on the right hand side of the screen. I think it may be power related as it seems to happen when windows is doing a few updates and then settles again. Restarting got rid of it and I also turned off fast start up (saw that was a fix somewhere) and it seems fine now. All working.

Anyway. Having done all that - and I suppose I like a challenge - I have now worked out how to set uefi in the bios. And now Windows 10 boots as well. But also, having typed on the laptop for an hour or so I don't like it lol. It is a horrible keyboard to type on and made my arms ache. So I won't be keeping it after all.

All I want is Windows 11 on my 10" netbook! Even if it is slow. And yes I can run 22H2 on it I guess and take a risk.

You won't notice any difference in performance or compatibility between UEFI boot mode and CSM (Legacy BIOS) boot mode. UEFI is only useful if you want to use Secure Boot. Otherwise, just forget about it. Also UEFI used the GPT partition scheme with a couple more system partitions reducing your precious disk space. I would install in MBR on purpose to save whatever disk space I can.

Very good points thank you. It wouldn’t boot windows 10 when on mbr though. It would boot anything else! As I'm selling it on as it is, I'd need to sell it with Windows 10 on it probably.

I think I'll just have to accept my netbook is beyond Windows now - with Windows 10 ending in October. I don't like running unsupported systems. Just as my 701sd had to be relegated to not being able to run Windows any more when Windows 10 came out. It still have two of the 701sd's that work really well! They will only run Linux now. I did have Windows 7 on one of them.

I'll just stick to my main laptop and my phone. It's a shame they don't make small laptops with proper keyboards any more. I write/type a lot and a keyboard is important.

Although I did see this on Amazon! Some unheard of make but people seem happy with them.

10" Netbook 8gb ram

Well G-Anica have a website. My antivirus blocked it saying it was a dangerous web page.

I bet the new owner will appreciate it more if you bypass compatibility check and install Windows 11, rather than Linux. Linux fans may disagree, but you CANNOT replace Windows ease of use and compatibility with everything with Linux. Have you tried to make a sweet and replace the sugar in the recipe with artificial sweetener? The result will be as tasteless as eating $h!t. Yes, you can do some basic stuff with Linux but NOT everything.

Yes I think a new owner would prefer Windows 11 on it. Although I'd have to explain that they would need to reinstall from scratch when there is a major feature update! What I did last time I sold it was said it has Windows 10 on but I can put Windows 11 on if you want. The buyer said he wanted Windows 11 on and I explained about having to manually reinstall if there is a big feature update. However 24H2 should be supported for at least two years now I reckon - what do you think?

Hazel123 said:

Well G-Anica have a website. My antivirus blocked it saying it was a dangerous web page.

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It seems G-Anica are genuine - they make cameras as well - and, oddly, trousers! Even if it's cheap and tacky. I would think a celeron on windows 11 would be just as slow as an atom though!

Hazel123 said:

Yes I think a new owner would prefer Windows 11 on it. Although I'd have to explain that they would need to reinstall from scratch when there is a major feature update! What I did last time I sold it was said it has Windows 10 on but I can put Windows 11 on if you want. The buyer said he wanted Windows 11 on and I explained about having to manually reinstall if there is a big feature update. However 24H2 should be supported for at least two years now I reckon - what do you think?

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Why install from scratch every time? I installed Windows 11 21H2 back in 2021 and I upgrade to each new version every year. Just see the relevant thread to bypass compatibility check. You either create a patched USB flash drive with latest Rufus and run Setup from there, or mount the ISO and use the setup /product server command. In any case disconnect from the internet untill the upgrade is complete.

Good question - I had seen something about ways of doing an in place upgrade - I guess as it was only a spare netbook I just reinstalled each time - it didn't take long. I'm wondering which method would be easier for someone who just uses computers and isn't very techminded though (ie the person buying the laptop).

I have to sell it as non touch screen as the ghosting intermittently appears still. I find it fine - it's very intermittent and goes away again. But if selling it I have to sell it as non touch screen.

Once a year you can upgrade Windows for him, unless he is just a buyer, not friend or relative.

It would just be a buyer but I would offer to do that anyway.

Even if you leave 24H2 for a couple of years, he won't notice any difference. No need to upgrade to 25H2 and then to 26H2 until 24H2 is reaching EOL.

spapakons said:

Even if you leave 24H2 for a couple of years, he won't notice any difference. No need to upgrade to 25H2 and then to 26H2 until 24H2 is reaching EOL.

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Then we can say "We had 26H2 before GTA 6".

What is GTA6?

History repeats itself... Good games come to consoles (and other computers in the 80's) but not on the PC... Not fair...

ArthurDent said:

Okay,

So without getting into Virtual Machines, is there a simple way to install Windows 11 on an elderly pc that doesn't have a CPU listed as compatable, nor does it have a TPM module.

Machine is a Dell Vostro 200 with a Core 2 Duo E4400 running at 2GHz with 4Gb RAM.

Happy to be a Guinea Pig on this!

Thanks in anticipation,

Art

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See my previous post , this method bypasses any compatibility checks and loads Win 11 .

I was just about to Install Win 11 on my Lenovo laptop that has an incompatible CPU. I was following this tutorial, but when I got to the Registry editor at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\ it turns out my Setup folder doesn't have the folder "MoSetup" so I'm at a standstill. At 9:43 in the video. Any thoughts?

CalypsoArt said:

I was just about to Install Win 11 on my Lenovo laptop that has an incompatible CPU. I was following this tutorial, but when I got to the Registry editor at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\ it turns out my Setup folder doesn't have the folder "MoSetup" so I'm at a standstill. At 9:43 in the video. Any thoughts?

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please try Rufus 4.6 which is also available from the MS store.

you can then 'tick' all the boxes before Rufus burns the Win 11 ISO to a newly created bootable USB stick.
then using your boot manager, boot from the Rufus USB and install (or upgrade) Windows from there.

best of luck, Steve ..