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Windows 11 install on HP Z640
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Windows_11_install_on_HP_Z640.md

0. Introduction

This looks at installing Windows 11 on a HP Z640.

1. Starting point

The PC had Windows 10 Pro Version 22H2 (OS Build 19045.4474) installed.

Updated the BIOS to the latest version M60 v02.62 01/04/2024 and enabled secure boot.

2. PC Health Check reported Windows 11 wasn't supported

The Windows PC Health Check reported that Windows 11 wasn't supported, due to the TPM version and the processors: image

In the BIOS there is no wat to change the TPM version exposed to the operating system.

3. Try registry modification to bypass TPM version and CPU check

How to Install Windows 11 on an Unsupported PC suggests setting a AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU registry key to bypass the Windows 11 installer check for the TPM version and CPU check.

Created a Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup\AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU DWORD (32-bit) value set to 1.

Rebooted after making this registry change, but PC Health Check still reported Windows 11 wasn't supported.

4. Try the Windows 11 Installation Assistant

The How to Install Windows 11 on an Unsupported PC article said:

You can now download and run the Windows Installation Assistant tool from Microsoft's website to upgrade your PC to Windows 11, just as if it had a supported CPU or TPM 2.0.

Downloaded https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2171764

However, attempting to run Windows11InstallationAssistant.exe failed with: image

Unable to bypass system checks to allow upgrade to Windows 11 contains:

You must download a Windows 11 ISO and mount the ISO while within Windows to bypass the compatibility checks.

5. Use Create Windows 11 Installation Media to get ISO image

Downloaded https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2156295, which is MediaCreationTool_Win11_23H2.exe.

Selected Accept to the license terms.

For Select language and edition:

  • Language : English (United Kingdom)
  • Edition : Windows 11

For Choose which media to use selected USB flash drive. Initially tried a 64 GB micro SD card in several adapters. Windows Disk Management recognised the SD card, but Windows 11 Setup didn't (possibly due to having an AlmaLinux Live image on it). Under AlmaLinux erased the existing partitions and formatted as a single FAT partition. Windows 11 Setup then recognised SD card and started to download Windows 11.

The Windows 11 setup failed with:

There was a problem running this tool

We're not what happened, but we're unable to run this tool on your PC. If you continue experiencing problems, refernce the error code when contacting customer support. Error code: 0x8007007B - 0xA001B

The error might be the micro SD code / adapter. Therefore, re-run the Windows 11 Setup and this time select to download an ISO image.

6. Write ISO image to USB media

Booted the PC into Ubuntu.

The checksum of the downloaded Windows 11 ISO:

$ sha256sum /mnt/windows/Users/mr_halfword/Documents/Windows_11.iso 
262f549f2ed93ca11dce7e9108823e2316a9746a4050cbf250aefb73c95872c3  /mnt/windows/Users/mr_halfword/Documents/Windows_11.iso

Wrote the ISO image to a SD card, using a different USB to SD adapter to the one used when Windows 11 setup reported an error:

$ sudo dd if=/mnt/windows/Users/mr_halfword/Documents/Windows_11.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=8M status=progress
[sudo] password for mr_halfword: 
5318377472 bytes (5.3 GB, 5.0 GiB) copied, 4 s, 1.3 GB/s
673+1 records in
673+1 records out
5646647296 bytes (5.6 GB, 5.3 GiB) copied, 686.532 s, 8.2 MB/s

After the write completed, safely removed the USB and then re-inserted before calculating the SHA256 of the media (assumes the ISO is a multiple of 4KiB blocks):

$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdc bs=4096 count=$(($(stat -c'%s' /mnt/windows/Users/mr_halfword/Documents/Windows_11.iso) /4096)) | sha256sum
[sudo] password for mr_halfword: 
1378576+0 records in
1378576+0 records out
5646647296 bytes (5.6 GB, 5.3 GiB) copied, 311.43 s, 18.1 MB/s
262f549f2ed93ca11dce7e9108823e2316a9746a4050cbf250aefb73c95872c3  -

The above checksum matches that of the ISO image.

Copying the ISO image to the SD card was pointless since:

  1. Ubuntu and AlmaLinux could read the file system.
  2. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 11 Home couldn't read the file system.
  3. 3 PCs tried (two with secure boot enabled and one with no secure boot) were unable to boot from the media.

I.e. looks the ISO image is only designed to be copied to an actual DVD (unlike recent Linux ISO live images which can be directly copied to USB media).

On the Windows 10 Pro PC on which downloaded the Windows_11.iso file, if double click on the file in Windows Explorer is mounted as DVD Drive (E:) ESD-ISO.

7. Run setup.exe on mounted Windows_11.iso

After mounting Windows_11.iso on Windows 10 Pro, ran the root setup.exe

In Install Windows 11 clicked on Change how Setup downloads updates and changed to Not right now, to emulate having no Internet connection. The warning is:

These updates will help the installation go smoothly, and can include important fixes, updated device drivers, and additional files which are not on the installation media. If you don't install these updates now, your PC might not function properly after the installation, and you might need to reinstall some optional features and languages.

Accepted the licence terms.

On Choose what to keep the Keep personal file and apps is grayed out. There is the message:

your files apps and settings can't be kept because you've chosen to install Windows 11 using a different language than you're currently using.

At this point aborted the installed.

The following is the international settings for the Windows 10 Pro installation:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DISM /online /get-intl

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.3636

Image Version: 10.0.19045.4474

Reporting online international settings.

Default system UI language : en-US
System locale : en-US
Default time zone : GMT Standard Time
Active keyboard(s) : 0809:00000809, 0409:00000809
Keyboard layered driver : PC/AT Enhanced Keyboard (101/102-Key)

Installed language(s): en-GB
  Type : Partially localized language, MUI type.
  Fallback Languages en-US
Installed language(s): en-US
  Type : Fully localized language.

The operation completed successfully.

Perhaps the issue is when ran the MediaCreationTool_Win11_23H2.exe changed the language to English (United Kingdom).

Renamed the ISO file to Windows_11-en-GB.iso to reflect the language selection when it was downloaded.

8. Download another ISO, this time using the default language

Re-run MediaCreationTool_Win11_23H2.exe:

  1. Accepted the license terms.
  2. On Select language and edition:
    • Left Use the recommended options for this PC ticked
    • Language was fixed as _English (United States)
    • Edition was fixed as Windows 11
  3. Selected to download an ISO file, named Windows_11-en-US.iso

Comparing the ISOs downloaded with different languages:

  1. sources\lang.ini in Windows_11-en-GB.iso contains: 
    
[Available UI Languages]
en-gb = 3

[Fallback Languages]
en-gb = en-us
    Whereas in Windows_11-en-US.iso contains: 
    
[Available UI Languages]
en-us = 3

[Fallback Languages]
en-us = en-us
  2. There are language specific directories:
    • Windows_11-en-GB.iso has sources\en-gb
    • Windows_11-en-US.iso has sources\en-us

9. Install trials to check for warnings

Changed the value of the Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup\AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU to confirm it had an effect. The PC was rebooted after changing the registry key, before checking the effect.

9.1. AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU set to zero

9.1.1. Windows_11-en-GB.iso

  1. On the Install Windows 11 screen select Change now Setup downloads updates and select Not right now
  2. On Checking your PC get This PC doesn't currently meet Windows 11 system requirements with Here's why:
    • The processor isn't supported for this version of Windows.
    • The PC must support TPM 2.0.

9.1.2. Windows_11-en-US.iso

  1. On the Install Windows 11 screen select Change now Setup downloads updates and select Not right now
  2. On Checking your PC get This PC doesn't currently meet Windows 11 system requirements with Here's why:
    • The processor isn't supported for this version of Windows.
    • The PC must support TPM 2.0.

9.2. AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU set to one

9.2.1. Windows_11-en-GB.iso

  1. On the Install Windows 11 screen select Change now Setup downloads updates and select Not right now
  2. Accept the license.
  3. On Choose what to keep the Keep personal file and apps is grayed out. There is the message:

    your files apps and settings can't be kept because you've chosen to install Windows 11 using a different language than you're currently using.

  4. Left Keep personal files only selected and select Next
  5. Got the following warning: image
  6. Cancelled the installation at this point.

9.2.2. Windows_11-en-US.iso

  1. On the Install Windows 11 screen select Change now Setup downloads updates and select Not right now
  2. Accept the license.
  3. Before got to being asked to keep Windows settings, personal files and apps got: image
  4. Selected back and got the following. I.e. Keep personal files and apps was available and selected: image
  5. Forwarded again to the warning and selected Accept. Got the Ready to install screen: image
  6. Clicking Change what to keep returns to the Choose what to keep screen. That explains why when running the install ISO with a matching language that didn't see the Choose what to keep screen after accepting the license, since has now defaults to keeping personal files and apps.
  7. Clicking Check device specifications on the Ready to install screen goes to the Windows 11 Specs and System Requirements | Microsoft web page, rather than reporting any information about the actual PC.
  8. For now, cancelled the install.
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