ESX: This PC Can’t Run Windows 11

KB ID 0001763

Problem: This PC Can’t Run windows 11 

When attempting to install Windows 11 on ESX (in this example vSphere 6.7) you will receive the following error;

Windows Setup
This PC can’t run Windows 11
This PC doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements to install this version of Windows. For more information, visit https://aka.ms.WindowsSysReq

The reason you are seeing this is probably not because you don’t have the RAM,  CPU, or storage requirements, it’s probably because setup can’t see a TPM 2.0 chip. So you can either bypass this requirement or install a virtual TPM 2 chip. (I could not do this, as I’ve still got ESX 6.5 in my test cluster and all the hosts need to be 6.7 or above).

VMware Fusion Note: Be aware to run Windows 11 on VMware Fusion,  you need to set the HDD to 64GB (or greater) and the RAM to 4096 GB or this error will persist.

VMware ESX Note: MAKE SURE you change the boot options to EFI and enable secure boot, in the VM properties.

Windows 11: Bypass the TPM 2.0 Requirement

Press SHIFT+F10 (or Fn+Shift+F10 on a mac) this will open a command window > type ‘regedit’ {Enter} > the registry editor will open > Navigate to;

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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > Setup

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Create a NEW KEY called LabConfig.

Note: There is a newer version of this fix you can find here

In the new key, create a new 32 Bit DWORD object.

Call the new object ByPassTPMCheck and give it a value of 1.

Close the registry editor, type exit to close the command window. Then close the error window, (as shown below).

You will be asked to confirm that you want to exit, do so, and setup will restart, and then progress normally.

 

Note: If you are in a VMwar environment, you can also (with some caveats) install a vTPM

VMware vSphere Adding vTPM

Or if upgrading, you can bypass the TPM and CPU checks.

Windows 11 Unsupported CPU

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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