How can I upgrade windows 10 to 11 for free?

the CPU (Intel i5-6500) is not supported by Windows 11. One working approach is by configuring a custom unattend.xml to upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11 on unsupported PC.

unattend.xml is an answer file that Windows Setup reads automatically. By adding specific registry instructions, it tells Windows 11 setup to skip hardware requirement checks during upgrade.

This works for:

• No TPM 2.0
• Unsupported CPU
• No Secure Boot

And it still allows an in-place upgrade (apps + files stay).

What You Need

1. A Windows 11 ISO (same or newer edition than your Windows 10)
2. A text editor (Notepad is enough)
3. Admin account on Windows 10

How to Upgrade Windows 10 to 11 For Free

1. Download a Windows 11 ISO that matches your current Windows 10 edition and language.
2. Open Notepad, paste the unattend.xml content (with LabConfig bypass commands), and save it as unattend.xml using UTF-8 encoding.
3. Right-click the Windows 11 ISO and choose Mount to open it as a new drive letter.
4. Open the mounted drive, go into the sources folder, and copy unattend.xml into X:\sources.
5. Go back to the root of the mounted ISO and run setup.exe from inside Windows 10 (not from boot).
6. When prompted for updates, choose Not right now to reduce extra checks and download time.
7. Accept the license terms and continue until you reach the “Choose what to keep” screen.
8. Select Keep personal files and apps (or your preferred option) and click Install.
9. Let the PC reboot as needed and complete the upgrade until you reach the Windows 11 desktop.
10. After login, verify Windows 11 is installed (Settings → System → About) and run Windows Update if desired.

Currently, this is one of the most reliable way for upgrading Windows 10 to Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. It will also keep files & apps methods 👍