Solved MS Surface Pro for 2500 EUR (at least) in 2018 cannot be upgraded to Win11 due to inadequate processor.

In 2018 I bought Surface Pro (slim tablet with large screen, produced by Microsoft ).
I bought the top end model, with everything at highest possible spec.
I don't remember the exact price but it was over 2500 EUR. Not exactly a bargain for a tablet, right?
I ended up using it only very rarely.

Now, I wanted to upgrade it to Windows 11 and found that it is not possible due to insufficient processor... i7, 4 core.
This is a very high spec processor only 4 years ago, in a premium product.
What kind of a rip off are we talking about here?
This is MICROSOFTS OWN product?

My Surface Pro has years of life left in it. It's fast, it's pretty nice and it's hardly even used.

What am I missing here, or has Micro$oft ripped me off?

(I'm guessing I could force the update, clone my regular drive over to the Surface C drive or some other funny business... Is it worth it?)

Hannele2 said:

Now, I wanted to upgrade it to Windows 11 and found that it is not possible due to insufficient processor... i7, 4 core.
This is a very high spec processor only 4 years ago, in a premium product.
What kind of a rip off are we talking about here?

Click to expand...

The minimum processor requirements for Windows 11 compatibility are an 8th generation Intel processor or the equivalent from AMD. Microsoft's justification for this cut-off point is that 8th gen and above natively handle core isolation instructions that W11 uses by default, while 7th gen and earlier will have to emulate those instructions, leading to a loss of performance. Seems MS started using 8th gen with the Surface Pro 6 which came out 2018, but you may have bought the Surface Pro 5 with its 7th gen processor earlier in 2018.


Having said that, there are known workarounds that will allow W11 to be installed on almost anything. I have it running well on a machine with a 1st gen i5, System Two in my computers below.

Bree said:

The minimum processor requirements for Windows 11 compatibility are an 8th generation Intel processor or the equivalent from AMD. Microsoft's justification for this cut-off point is that 8th gen and above natively handle core isolation instructions that W11 uses by default, while 7th gen and earlier will have to emulate those instructions, leading to a loss of performance. Seems MS started using 8th gen with the Surface Pro 6 which came out 2018, but you may have bought the Surface Pro 5 with its 7th gen processor earlier in 2018.

Microsoft Windows Surface Pro 2017 | iGotOffer

Windows Surface Pro 2017 is an entry-level iteration of the next-gen hybrid tablets designed and manufactured by Microsoft.

igotoffer.com

Microsoft Surface Pro 6 (2018) – Full Information, Tech Specs | iGotOffer

Microsoft Surface Pro 6 (2018) is the 2-in-1 laptop made by Microsoft, the successor of the Surface Pro 5 (2017), a carbon copy of it.

igotoffer.com

Having said that, there are known workarounds that will allow W11 to be installed on almost anything. I have it running well on a machine with a 1st gen i5, System Two in my computers below.

Click to expand...

Oh yes, that's right - I bought it in Q1 2018 (recall it as a cold snowy day), so it's possible it could have been a leftover from the previous year.

Thank you for the explanation! It was perfect and now I understand what happened.

I'm not quite sure what core isolation instructions are, and how relevant it really is to performance...

However as somebody working in IT (manager, not hands on anymore) I know perfectly well that most people's home computers are significantly higher spec than they actually need. That is true for myself too - I keep buying top end spec, expecting to do stuff I never really do... And even if I ended up doing those things, it doesn't matter if compilation takes 1 minute or 2 minutes...

The purpose of this tablet was to have good performance and large screen in a highly portable device with no learning curve and no software restrictions. It still meets those requirements and I don't see any reason to shell out a fresh new 3000 EUR (inflation considered) to get the same thing, with Win 11.

If I cloned my laptop hard drive over to the Surface OS partition, do you reckon it would boot?
I typically do that for any upgrades, however I've never tried it with something as different as a Surface tablet!

The thing i ABSOLUTELY don't want to do, is a fresh install from scratch - it simply takes too long to re-install and configure all software.
What's my best bet for upgrading and avoiding that?

Hannele2 said:

The thing i ABSOLUTELY don't want to do, is a fresh install from scratch - it simply takes too long to re-install and configure all software.
What's my best bet for upgrading and avoiding that?

Click to expand...

You need to be aware that MS make no guarantees that they will continue to provide updates for Win11 on an unsupported device. So far every unsupported device has received every cumulative update, just like a supported device. If you are comfortable with that, then it is easy to do an in-place upgrade from W10 to W11.

You'll need to download the W11 ISO from Microsoft. If you mount the ISO you can start the upgrade by running the Setup.exe you'll find there.

You must disconnect from the internet before attempting to upgrade an unsupported device to 22H2.
Second, you must choose how Setup checks for updates as 'not for now'.

Setup will run and check for compatibility. It will fail on the CPU. At this point you need to replace C:\Windows.~BT\sources\appraiserres.dll with a dummy file of zero length. Make a 'New Text Document' on your desktop, rename it, and put that in place of the original one.

In Setup click the Back button, then Next to retry. This time it should pass the checks and continue with the upgrade.

Bree said:

You need to be aware that MS make no guarantees that they will continue to provide updates for Win11 on an unsupported device. So far every unsupported device has received every cumulative update, just like a supported device. If you are comfortable with that, then it is easy to do an in-place upgrade from W10 to W11.

You'll need to download the W11 ISO from Microsoft. If you mount the ISO you can start the upgrade by running the Setup.exe you'll find there.

You must disconnect from the internet before attempting to upgrade an unsupported device to 22H2.
Second, you must choose how Setup checks for updates as 'not for now'.

Setup will run and check for compatibility. It will fail on the CPU. At this point you need to replace C:\Windows.~BT\sources\appraiserres.dll with a dummy file of zero length. Make a 'New Text Document' on your desktop, rename it, and put that in place of the original one.

In Setup click the Back button, then Next to retry. This time it should pass the checks and continue with the upgrade.

Click to expand...

Thank you soooo much for the clear instructions!
I started doing this, but I think it wants to do an install from scratch (meaning, I'd have to install all programs anew).
This happened by mistake when I updated my laptop... I don't want to risk it happening with the Surface Pro.
I already had a Win 11 Pro on a USB stick, so I was going to do use that. Clicked on Setup.exe inside of Windows 10.
Do you know how I can be sure that it's just UPGRADING, rather than doing a brand new install?

EDIT: Oh I just figured out what the problem might me. US vs UK English on the Operating system.
If your system is UK (which I think my Surface is, since that's my preference), it will only update if my iso file is also UK English.

Microsoft calls this INTERNATIONAL.

I think I got my existing installation from somewhere else, and it might be UK English.
It's currently downloading but taking forever since I'm in a hotel.

Anyway, I'm trying this. I honestly can't remember how this Surface was set up. I bought it in Sweden but I think I changed the language into UK English. It's the Pro version of Windows.

Hannele2 said:

I already had a Win 11 Pro on a USB stick, so I was going to do use that. Clicked on Setup.exe inside of Windows 10.
Do you know how I can be sure that it's just UPGRADING, rather than doing a brand new install?

Click to expand...

If you are using a USB to do the upgrade, then you are following the steps in this tutorial from Step 5 onwards. See this tutorial for the screens to expect. Remember, to be able to apply the workaround you must be disconnected from the internet, and mus choose ''Not right now' at Step 10 (else the 'Back ' button you'll need for the workaround will be missing).


If all is done correctly you should see this as the final screen before committing to the install, clearly showing that this will be an upgrade, keeping you files and apps. If it says anything else, click the Close X at top right to cancel the install.

Hannele2 said:

I honestly can't remember how this Surface was set up. I bought it in Sweden but I think I changed the language into UK English. It's the Pro version of Windows.

Click to expand...

The install USB or ISO you use for the upgrade must be for the same base language as the installed Windows, else it will not let you keep your installed apps.

Open a Command prompt (Admin) and type the command dism /online /get-intl
The System Locale tells you the language that you'll need to use for the upgrade.

Hannele2 said:

In 2018 I bought Surface Pro (slim tablet with large screen, produced by Microsoft ).
I bought the top end model, with everything at highest possible spec.
I don't remember the exact price but it was over 2500 EUR. Not exactly a bargain for a tablet, right?
I ended up using it only very rarely.

Now, I wanted to upgrade it to Windows 11 and found that it is not possible due to insufficient processor... i7, 4 core.
This is a very high spec processor only 4 years ago, in a premium product.
What kind of a rip off are we talking about here?
This is MICROSOFTS OWN product?

My Surface Pro has years of life left in it. It's fast, it's pretty nice and it's hardly even used.

What am I missing here, or has Micro$oft ripped me off?

(I'm guessing I could force the update, clone my regular drive over to the Surface C drive or some other funny business... Is it worth it?)

Click to expand...

Join the club, I sympathise, I will be keeping W10 Pro on mine.
Have another Surface laptop with W11pro

Bree said:

The install USB or ISO you use for the upgrade must be for the same base language as the installed Windows, else it will not let you keep your installed apps.

Open a Command prompt (Admin) and type the command dism /online /get-intl
The System Locale tells you the language that you'll need to use for the upgrade.

View attachment 44503

Click to expand...

Thank you!!
Default system UI language : en-GB
The UI language fallback is : en-US
System locale : en-GB
Default time zone : FLE Standard Time
Active keyboard(s) : 0809:00000809, 0419:00000419, 041d:0000041d
Keyboard layered driver : Not installed.

Ok I'm running it now... I got the "Keep apps and files" option now, thanks to having a UK iso.

This must be what went wrong when I upgraded my laptop and EVERYTHING was overwritten.
I'd downloaded an iso from some filesharing site and it was the US version.
I upgrade so seldom that I didn't understand the difference...

Instead of using the .dll file hack for passing compliancy, it turned out that some Registry key I added worked. I had to agree to voiding the warranty or something like that. What else is new...

So far so good, thanks to this awesome forum where I've been a member at the predecessor forums for a good 10 years now.

Thanks again Bree! To Narnia and beyond! (can't help but think of that when I hear your user name. What a lovely character that was!)

I assume that by "your apps" (that is a slang word!!!) Microsoft means "the installed programs, on your Windows machine"...

Hannele2 said:

Thanks again Bree! To Narnia and beyond! (can't help but think of that when I hear your user name. What a lovely character that was!)

Click to expand...

Actually I was thinking of Middle Earth - Bree, and the Prancing Pony in particular, is where I'd feel most at home

Hannele2 said:

I assume that by "your apps" (that is a slang word!!!) Microsoft means "the installed programs, on your Windows machine"...

Click to expand...

Yes, it's a 'catch-all'. To be fair some of your 3rd-party programs may actually be 'apps' if you got them through the Store...

Worked beautifully all!
Bree is the best! Thank you so much for the advice and guidance!

My Surface Pro 2017 (Model 5) is now happily running Windows 11 and all programs intact.

It's very important to keep stressing to English speaking people who are not United States Americans, to NOT USE THE US VERSION of the Windows ISO.

If you do, and you don't catch the mistake in time, you will have everything overwritten (happened to me with my laptop, it took ages to get it back how I wanted it. A complete waste of time.)

I.e. if they bought their computer with pre-installed Windows in a Commonwealth country, or they installed it and selected UK English, then they must perform the upgrade with the "INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH".... Windows 11 iso.

Hannele2 said:

Worked beautifully all!
Bree is the best! Thank you so much for the advice and guidance!

Click to expand...

Thank you. Glad I could help....

Hannele2 said:

My Surface Pro 2017 (Model 5) is now happily running Windows 11 and all programs intact.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear that.