I'm trying to upgrade my self-built PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11, but the Installation Assistant says the hardware isn't eligible. The PC Health Check app doesn't identify a specific problem either. My system has a Ryzen 7 3700X, 16 GB of RAM, a 2 TB SSD with plenty of free space, a GTX 1060, TPM 2.0, UEFI firmware, and Secure Boot enabled. The graphics card supports DirectX 12 and uses a WDDM 2.7 driver. I've also checked the display requirements, so I'm not sure what the installer is rejecting. What else should I verify?
3 Answers
If the machine is genuinely compatible but the official installer still refuses, you can create Windows 11 installation media with the hardware checks removed. That can work, but unsupported installations may not receive future feature upgrades automatically and Microsoft doesn’t guarantee long-term support. It’s better to identify the failed requirement first if possible.
Double-check that UEFI mode, TPM 2.0, and Secure Boot are all enabled at the same time. On older motherboards, CSM or legacy boot mode may still be active, which can prevent Secure Boot from actually working. Updating the BIOS may also add or improve Windows 11 compatibility, but make sure the system disk uses GPT before switching completely away from legacy/CSM boot mode.
Use a hardware-checking utility that reports each Windows 11 requirement separately instead of only saying the PC is unsupported. It can reveal whether the problem is Secure Boot state, TPM configuration, boot mode, CPU support, or something else. A BIOS update is also worth checking, especially on an older board.
I ran into that exact issue after disabling CSM: the computer froze during startup. If Windows was installed in legacy mode on an MBR disk, the boot configuration may need to be converted to UEFI/GPT before Secure Boot can be enabled safely.