How to Upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11

Upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is free and, on supported hardware, mostly a matter of clicking through a wizard and waiting. The part that catches people out isn’t the install — it’s the eligibility check. Windows 11 has stricter hardware rules than any Windows release before it, and a PC that runs Windows 10 perfectly well can still be told it doesn’t qualify.

This guide covers the whole path: how to confirm your PC is eligible, how to flip on the firmware settings that usually fix a failed check, the three official ways to do the upgrade, and what your realistic options are if the hardware genuinely isn’t supported. With Windows 10 support ending in October 2025, this is a decision most people on Windows 10 need to make sooner rather than later.

The requirements that actually matter#

Windows 11 lists the usual specs — 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, a 1 GHz dual-core 64-bit processor. Almost nothing fails on those. The three checks that block real upgrades are:

The CPU list is the hard wall. TPM and Secure Boot are frequently just disabled, not missing, and you can usually turn them on yourself. The processor list is set by Microsoft, and there’s no setting that adds an unsupported CPU to it.

Step 1: Run PC Health Check#

The fastest way to get a straight answer is Microsoft’s own tool. PC Health Check tells you pass or fail and, more usefully, names the specific reason.

1. Download PC Health Check from Microsoft and install it.
2. Open it and click Check now under “Introducing Windows 11.”
3. Read the result. A failure lists exactly what’s missing — TPM, Secure Boot, or the processor.

That last point is what makes the tool worth running. “This PC can’t run Windows 11” on its own is useless; “The processor isn’t supported” versus “TPM 2.0 must be enabled” point to completely different next steps.

Check the same things manually#

If you’d rather not install the tool, Windows already exposes this information.

For TPM, press Win + R, type tpm.msc, and look at the status and Specification Version — you want 2.0.

Win + R  →  tpm.msc

Or from an elevated PowerShell window:

Get-Tpm

For Secure Boot and your firmware mode, open System Information:

Win + R  →  msinfo32

Check two lines on the System Summary page: BIOS Mode should read UEFI (not Legacy), and Secure Boot State should read On. If BIOS Mode says Legacy, Secure Boot can’t be enabled until the disk is converted to GPT and the firmware switched to UEFI — a bigger job covered below.

Step 2: Turn on TPM and Secure Boot in firmware#

This is the fix for most “incompatible” PCs that are actually new enough. Both features commonly ship disabled.

1. Restart and enter your firmware setup (usually Del, F2, F10, or Esc during boot — the screen tells you which).
2. Find the TPM setting. It’s rarely called “TPM.” Look for:
   • Intel PTT (Platform Trust Technology) on Intel boards
   • AMD fTPM on AMD boards
   • It may live under Security, Advanced, or Trusted Computing.
3. Enable it.
4. Find Secure Boot (usually under Boot or Security) and set it to Enabled. This requires UEFI mode; if Secure Boot is greyed out, your firmware is likely in Legacy/CSM mode.
5. Save and exit.

Boot back into Windows and re-run PC Health Check. A lot of failed checks turn green right here.

If you have BitLocker turned on, changing TPM or Secure Boot settings can trigger a recovery prompt on the next boot. Suspend BitLocker first, or have your key ready — here’s how to find your BitLocker recovery key so a firmware change doesn’t lock you out.

Step 3: Back up before you upgrade#

An in-place upgrade is designed to keep your files and apps, and it usually does. “Usually” is the operative word. Upgrades can stall, roll back, or leave a profile in a bad state, and a backup turns a bad day into a minor one.

Step 4: Pick an upgrade path#

There are three official routes. They install the same Windows 11; they differ in how much control and patience each requires.

Option A: Windows Update (the easy path)#

If your PC is eligible, the offer usually appears on its own.

1. Go to Settings → Update & Security → Windows Update.
2. Click Check for updates.
3. If you see “Upgrade to Windows 11 is ready,” click Download and install.

This is the lowest-effort, lowest-risk option. The catch is timing — Microsoft rolls the offer out in waves, so an eligible PC might not see it immediately. If you don’t want to wait, use one of the next two.

Option B: Windows 11 Installation Assistant#

This forces the upgrade on an eligible PC without waiting for the Windows Update offer.

1. Download the Windows 11 Installation Assistant from Microsoft’s software download page.
2. Run it and accept the licence terms.
3. It downloads Windows 11 and performs an in-place upgrade, keeping your files and apps.

Use this when PC Health Check says you’re eligible but Windows Update hasn’t offered the upgrade yet.

Option C: ISO / Media Creation Tool#

The most flexible route, and the one you need for a clean install or for upgrading multiple machines from one download.

1. Download the Media Creation Tool or the Windows 11 ISO directly from Microsoft.
2. For an in-place upgrade, mount the ISO (right-click → Mount) and run setup.exe from inside Windows. Choose Keep personal files and apps.
3. For a clean install, write the ISO to a USB drive (the Media Creation Tool does this) and boot from it. A clean install wipes the drive — back up first.

What to do if your PC is unsupported#

If PC Health Check fails on the processor specifically, no firmware setting will fix it. You have a few honest options.

Enable what you can and accept the risk. Microsoft documents a registry value that lets an ISO upgrade proceed on a PC with an unsupported CPU, provided it still has at least TPM 1.2 and Secure Boot capability. Create this value before running setup.exe from a mounted ISO:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup
Name:  AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU
Type:  DWORD (32-bit)
Value: 1

# Run as administrator, then upgrade from a mounted ISO via setup.exe
New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup" `
  -Name "AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU" `
  -PropertyType DWord -Value 1 -Force

Stay on Windows 10 until its end of support, then plan a refresh. This is the sensible choice for a production machine that can’t be upgraded. Windows 10 reaches end of support in October 2025; after that it stops getting free security updates, so use the remaining time to budget for new hardware or check whether Extended Security Updates fit your situation.

Replace the machine. If the CPU is the only blocker and the PC is old enough that the rest is showing its age too, a new machine ships with Windows 11 and clears the whole question.

After the upgrade#

Once Windows 11 is up, a few minutes of housekeeping pays off:

• Run Windows Update again to pull any post-upgrade drivers and patches.
• Check Device Manager for anything with a yellow warning, especially graphics, network, and audio.
• You have 10 days to roll back to Windows 10 if something’s wrong — go to Settings → System → Recovery to use it. After 10 days the rollback files are removed and you’d need a clean reinstall.

If the upgrade itself stalls or fails partway, the cause is usually a stuck update or corrupted system files rather than the hardware. Our guides on fixing a stuck Windows Update and repairing Windows with DISM and SFC cover those directly.

Wrapping up#

The upgrade itself is the easy part. Spend your effort on the eligibility check: run PC Health Check, read the exact reason for any failure, and enable TPM and Secure Boot in firmware before assuming your PC is out. Most “incompatible” machines that are new enough just need those two settings flipped on.

If the processor is the blocker, be realistic. The registry bypass works, but an unsupported PC isn’t guaranteed updates, so save that route for machines you can afford to gamble with. For everything you depend on, either upgrade the supported way or plan the hardware around Windows 10’s end of support.