Question Clean install of Windows 11 possible with a 4th Gen CPU?

[Fun Guy]

The boot/system SSD in my 8-year-old computer finally died, with it the Windows 7 GUI that far surpassed the fiasco of Windows 8 (that made everyone move table tiles around on their desktop with a mouse... shudder.)

Now armed with a new M.2 SSD and 2TB HDD, I am ready to put it all back together. MB is an Asrock Z97M OC Formula, CPU is an i7-4790K, and RAM is 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3.

Question - Can I somehow get a clean install of Windows 11 on this machine, and if so, how?

 

[Tech Junky]

rufus - https://pureinfotech.com/create-windows-11-bootable-usb-unsupported-pc-rufus/

 

[catkicker]

rufus - https://pureinfotech.com/create-windows-11-bootable-usb-unsupported-pc-rufus/

have you tried this out?

 

[Tech Junky]

@catkicker

I've used rufus before, yes. To install W11 on ancient HW? no.

 

[Shmee]

FWIW, I did a test upgrade to Windows 11 on my Hawell EP based X99 system. CPU is a Xeon E5 1660v3. The workarounds to get Windows 11 to install on older hardware tend to work from what I have seen.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Schmee -- I'm facing the same uncertainty about Win 11 and old hardware. So what are the workarounds? I might want to install Win 11 on a 6th or 7th generation Intel CPU . . . .

 

[Shmee]

The one I used was basically to use a Windows 10 installer USB drive, but replace the install.wim file with the one from Windows 11.
https://geekflare.com/install-windows-11-on-unsupported-pcs/ it is method 3 in this article. Note that since then, Rufus has made this much easier.

I would be a bit wary about going to windows 11 just yet, rumors say they may require an MS account in the near future, even for Pro version. Not something I would want.

 

[tcsenter]

I would be a bit wary about going to windows 11 just yet, rumors say they may require an MS account in the near future, even for Pro version. Not something I would want.

Also rumors of a watermark nag on the desktop, like 'Activate Windows' watermark, but might become even more intrusive than just on the desktop background.

https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11-hack-removes-watermark-from-desktop-but-should-you-do-it

 

[Shmee]

Also rumors of a watermark nag on the desktop, like 'Activate Windows' watermark, but might become even more intrusive than just on the desktop background.

https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11-hack-removes-watermark-from-desktop-but-should-you-do-it

Sounds like a good reason to stick with Windows 10 or Linux for a while. Hopefully Windows 12 is better.

 

[tcsenter]

Sounds like a good reason to stick with Windows 10 or Linux for a while. Hopefully Windows 12 is better.

It's all a bunch of nonsense. I have tested Windows 11 (21H2 public) on AMD system that is equivalent generation as Intel 6th gen Core, officially unsupported by Windows 11 but installed using bypass of the hardware requirement checks (registry edit). It run great I actually liked some things about Windows 11 but am leery of keeping it because of Microsoft might decide to break something in the future or do something more than an easily ignored desktop watermark.