How can I upgrade Windows 10 to 11 without losing data and programs on unsupported cpu?

Yeah, I ran into the same wall with my old Lenovo ThinkPad that had an 8th-gen i7 — totally capable, but Microsoft called it “unsupported.” I still managed to upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11 without losing data and programs using two simple tricks, no sketchy tools needed.

(1) The first way was just editing the registry before running setup. I mounted the Windows 11 ISO, opened Command Prompt as admin, and ran:

reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup" /v AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Then I launched setup.exe from the ISO and chose Keep personal files and apps. It went straight through and kept everything — apps, settings, even my desktop wallpaper.

Microsoft actually documents this bypass here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/

Official Windows 11 system requirements are listed here: https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-11-specifications.

(2) The second method I tried later on my desktop was deleting the appraiserres.dll file from the ISO’s sources folder before running setup. That file’s what blocks the install on unsupported CPUs. Once I removed it and ran setup.exe, the installer finally offered the “Keep files and apps” option again — worked flawlessly.

Both ways let me upgrade Windows 10 to 11 without losing data and programs on unsupported hardware, and I didn’t have to reinstall a single thing. It’s wild that Microsoft calls these CPUs unsupported when they run Windows 11 just fine.