There are exactly two honest families of bypass - media prepared so Setup never asks, and a registry value that tells an in-place upgrade to skip two of its checks. Everything else online is one of these two wearing a costume. Here is what each one really does, and what neither of them can do for you afterwards.
Search for a way past the Windows 11 requirements and you will find a hundred tools, scripts and modified ISOs all claiming to be the method. Strip away the packaging and there are only two underlying mechanisms, both documented and both years old: prepared install media, and the MoSetup registry value used with an ordinary ISO upgrade. This page describes both at the level you need to choose between them - and the deep step-by-step guides for each live elsewhere on this site, next to the video above, which shows a full install working.
Two doors into the same room. The install that results is identical either way - including its unsupported status.
Rufus is a free, open-source USB-writing tool with a long public track record. Recent versions offer, at the moment you write a Windows 11 ISO to a USB stick, a set of setup customisations - including removing the requirements for TPM 2.0, Secure Boot and 4 GB of RAM from the installer itself. Boot from that stick and Setup simply never raises the requirements screen. This is the natural route for a clean install on a wiped or new drive. Two rules keep it safe: download Rufus only from its official site, rufus.ie, and start from a genuine Windows 11 ISO downloaded from Microsoft. Every click of this route is spelled out in the dedicated Rufus guide on this site.
For an in-place upgrade - Windows 11 installed over your running Windows 10, keeping files, apps and settings - Microsoft documented a support valve of its own: a registry value named AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU. Set it, mount the official ISO, run Setup, and the upgrade will proceed past the TPM and CPU checks. The whole change is one command, run in an administrator Command Prompt or PowerShell:
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup" /v AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Know its limits precisely: this value relaxes the TPM and CPU checks for an upgrade started from inside Windows. It is not a master switch for every check, and it does nothing for a clean install booted from media - that is the Rufus route's job. The full upgrade walkthrough, including the backup discipline around it, is in the upgrade guide on this site.
Whichever door you use, Microsoft has the last word before the install begins. On hardware that fails the requirements, Setup presents a disclaimer: the PC does not meet the minimum requirements, it will no longer be supported and will not be entitled to receive updates, and damage from lack of compatibility is not covered by the manufacturer warranty. You proceed by pressing Accept. Treat that click with the seriousness of a signature, because functionally that is what it is - the moment the arrangement stops being Microsoft's problem and becomes yours.
The decision is simple because it follows the job, not the tool. Wiping the machine or installing to a fresh drive? Rufus media. Keeping a working Windows 10 setup exactly as it is, only newer? The registry-plus-ISO upgrade. Not sure you want Windows 11 on this hardware at all? Then neither - read the ESU guide first and let a supported Windows 10 carry the machine until 2027 while you decide. What all three answers share: use official sources, take a backup, and never download a "pre-bypassed" Windows ISO from a file-sharing site - modified installers are one of the oldest malware delivery tricks there is.
Every screen of a real install on an unsupported PC - including the warning, the Accept click, and the first boot into Windows 11.
▶️ Watch Full VideoNo. The MoSetup value relaxes the TPM and CPU checks only for an in-place upgrade started from inside a running Windows 10. A clean install booted from media still runs the full checks - removing those at the media stage is what the Rufus route does.
Rufus itself is a long-standing free and open-source tool and is safe when downloaded from its official site, rufus.ie. The danger in this area is never Rufus - it is pre-modified Windows ISOs from unofficial sources, which should never be installed.
Yes. The bypass skips hardware checks only. Windows 11 still needs a genuine licence to activate, and an in-place upgrade normally carries the PC's existing Windows 10 licence forward.