The free upgrade, and the checks that block it
“Your PC can't run Windows 11.” Are you sure about that?
Microsoft's own checker tells you no without telling you why — and the most common reason a capable PC “fails” is a security chip that's present but switched off. Before you conclude you need new hardware, spend ten minutes finding out which check actually failed. Sometimes the fix is one BIOS setting. Sometimes the wall is real — and then you have good options too.
What Windows 11 actually requires
Four things, and they're rules about security attestation, not speed. A 2016 machine that edits video happily can fail all of them; that's the whole controversy.
| Requirement | What it is | If you fail it |
|---|---|---|
| TPM 2.0 | A security chip (or firmware feature) that stores encryption keys. | Often fixable. Frequently present but switched off in the BIOS — see below. |
| Secure Boot | Firmware feature that only boots signed operating systems. | Often fixable. Usually just needs enabling, though Legacy-boot machines need more care. |
| Supported CPU | Roughly Intel 8th generation (2017) or newer, AMD Zen 2 (2019) or newer. | Hard block. No setting changes this. This is the wall most 2015–2018 PCs actually hit. |
| 4GB RAM / 64GB storage | Bare minimums. | Fixable on desktops — and if you're this close to the line, an upgrade helps Windows 10 too. |
Step one: find out which check failed
Microsoft's PC Health Check is famous for saying “this PC doesn't currently meet Windows 11 system requirements” and stopping there. That single unhelpful sentence is why so many people wrongly conclude they need a new computer.
- Download WhyNotWin11 — free, open-source, and unlike Microsoft's tool it shows every requirement as its own green or red line. Now you know your actual situation instead of a shrug.
- Red on TPM? Reboot into your BIOS/UEFI (usually Del or F2 during startup) and look for
PTTon Intel systems orfTPMon AMD. It is frequently disabled from the factory. Switch it on, boot back up, run the checker again — a lot of “incompatible” PCs become compatible right here. - Red on Secure Boot? Also usually a firmware toggle. One caution: if your disk was set up in the old Legacy/MBR style, switching to UEFI boot involves a disk conversion — doable, but read up first rather than flipping the switch and hoping.
- Red on the CPU? That one's real. No BIOS setting, no registry trick, no waiting it out. Skip to the CPU wall below.
- Whatever you find — enrol in ESU first, today. It's free, it takes five minutes, and it keeps the PC patched while you work any of this out. There's no version of this story where being unpatched helps you.
Eligible? Here's the boring, correct way to upgrade
The upgrade is free, keeps your files and programs, and mostly just works. The steps below are less about the upgrade and more about making it consequence-free.
- Back up first. A full copy of anything you care about, to a drive you then unplug. Every OS upgrade advice column says this; the reason they all say it is the small number of times it matters enormously.
- Enrol in ESU before you upgrade. Counterintuitive but genuinely useful: it's free, and if you end up rolling back to Windows 10, you roll back to a machine that's still receiving patches instead of an unpatched one.
- Settings → Update & Security → Windows Update, and take the upgrade when it's offered.
- Offer never appears, despite being eligible? That's usually Microsoft's staged rollout being slow rather than anything wrong with your PC. Microsoft's Installation Assistant (from their Windows 11 download page) starts it on demand.
- Give it an unhurried hour or two, and expect a couple of restarts.
When the CPU really is the wall
If WhyNotWin11 shows red on the processor line, we'd rather tell you straight: this PC is never getting an official Windows 11 upgrade. Microsoft has held that line since 2021 and there's no sign of it moving. What that doesn't mean is that you need a new computer this month — that's the version of the story that sells refurbished laptops.
Your actual position: free security updates until October 2027 via ESU, which is 14 unhurried months to decide between a Windows 11 machine eventually, Linux on the hardware you already own, or a Mac if you have a positive reason to want one. Our path finder walks through which of those actually fits how you use the machine — and if Linux is on your shortlist, the two-minute hardware check flags the graphics and Wi-Fi combinations that cause install-day grief before you commit a weekend to it.
Yes, the bypass exists: Rufus, the USB-drive tool, can create Windows 11 install media that skips the TPM, Secure Boot and CPU checks, and it still works in 2026. We're not going to pretend otherwise — but you should know what you're signing up for. Microsoft doesn't support installs done this way, warns they may not receive all future updates, and guarantees nothing about stability. That's a real risk on a machine you depend on: the whole point of upgrading is to keep getting updates, and this route puts exactly that in doubt. Fine for tinkerers with backups and a second machine; wrong for the family PC. For most people whose CPU is blocked, ESU now and an unhurried decision later beats a forced install of an OS your PC was excluded from.
Deciding between staying and upgrading?
If your PC is eligible, upgrading is the path of least resistance — everything carries over, and it costs nothing. But eligible doesn't mean obligated: ESU covers you to October 2027 either way, so a machine that's working well on Windows 10 isn't wrong to stay there for now. The honest tiebreaker is time: upgrade when you have a free afternoon and a fresh backup, not because a countdown timer told you to.
Microsoft has moved the Windows 10 deadline twice already, and it broke the Rufus bypass more than once over the years. We re-verify this page's facts monthly. Leave your email and if anything here stops being true, we'll send one short note saying what changed. Nothing else, ever.
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