AdvertisementĪlso, unofficially, I've had some success using old Windows 7 and Windows 8 product keys to activate equivalent editions of Windows 11. Many of these sites are sketchy, and we won't link to any of them directly, but it's one option for getting a working key. Unofficially, you can buy a working Windows product key from product key resale websites for anywhere from $15 to $40. These can be purchased from retail sites like Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, or directly from Microsoft for between $120 and $140. If you're installing Windows 11 on a new PC you've built yourself, officially, you should buy a Windows 10 or Windows 11 license. So if you're running Windows 10 Home or Pro on your PC, regardless of whether your PC is officially supported or not, you'll be able to install and activate the equivalent edition of Windows 11. Windows 11 is a free upgrade to Windows 10. Finally, you can just download an ISO file directly from Microsoft’s site.

You can also burn the ISO to a DVD, but installing from any USB drive, even an old USB 2.0 drive, will be much faster, so you shouldn’t do that.

Once you have a USB drive, you can either boot from it to perform a clean install or run the Setup app from within Windows 10 to do a normal upgrade install. The second is to use the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool, which automates the process of creating a bootable USB install drive or downloading an install ISO file. One is to use the Installation Assistant app, which you install on your PC to trigger a normal upgrade install via Windows Update. Microsoft offers several ways to download Windows 11 manually. But if you aren't seeing it there, or if you have lots of computers to upgrade and only want to download the new OS once, there are other options. The easiest way to get Windows 11 is by checking Windows Update on a supported, fully up-to-date Windows 10 PC.

Should I go through with an unsupported install anyway?.

What are the risks of running Windows 11 on an unsupported PC?.

Installing on a PC without a 64-bit CPU.

Manually installing on a PC without Secure Boot or a TPM.

The easy way to skirt the Secure Boot, TPM, and Microsoft account requirements: Use Rufus.

Installing on a PC with Secure Boot and any kind of TPM.

What does my PC need to be “supported”?.

Windows 11 pc