While unveiling Windows 11, Microsoft made a big deal of the minimum requirements to upgrade from Windows 10. It, however left a loophole open allowing anyone to be able to install Windows 11 using Media creation tool and ISO images after lots of outcry. Now, Rufus, a well-known third-party tool makes bypassing Windows 11 minimum upgrade requirements a piece of cake.

Windows 11 has minimum requirements of 8th-gen or newer Intel processors, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, TPM 2.0 UEFI and Secure Boot feature. Microsoft has cited performance gain and less BSOD errors to justify enforcing of minimum requirements to upgrade to Windows 11.

Later after revealing the Windows 11 upgrade loophole, Microsoft has posted a guide on how to bypass requirements and upgrade existing Windows 10 machines to Windows 11. But it necessitates registry modification and may not be comfortable for everyone.

Now, Rufus, a familiar 3rd party tool can be used to bypass Windows 11 upgrade requirements without any registry hack. Rufus 3.18 Beta allows one to create a bootable Windows 11 USB drive with no TPM/no Secure Boot option. This option is known as “Extended Windows 11 installation mode” and allows to install Windows 11 on PCs that don’t meet TPM 2.0 or Secure Boot requirements.

How to use Rufus to create Windows 11 bootable USB bypassing minimum requirements:

  • Download and Install Rufus 3.18 from Github
  • Download Windows 11 official ISO image
  • Insert a USB device
  • Use  “Extended Windows 11 installation mode” option and create Bootable USB bypassing Windows 11 requirements