Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (insider preview) free upgrade installation on officially-unsupported outdated PC

[KSTR]

I'm on 24H2 and tried this method but it failed with "Windows Setup cannot parse the provided command-line options."
Regular setup also failed because of "different language used", even though the current language setting is English (meh)

 

[dualazmak]

I'm on 24H2 and tried this method but it failed with "Windows Setup cannot parse the provided command-line options."
Regular setup also failed because of "different language used", even though the current language setting is English (meh)

This is my first case of hearing such failure by "setup.exe /product server".
You would please double check that you use/open the "cmd" window with highest administrator rights, and correctly spell out as "setup.exe /product server" within the setup/upgrade folder.

Furthermore, again, I never heard the "different language" failure; you would please check your language setting in 24H2 and you selected/downloaded the same language installer .iso, then try again.

 

[andyc56]

The easiest way to do this upgrade for unsupported PCs is to first go to the official MS Windows 11 download page and download the 25h2 ISO at the bottom of the page where it says, "Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices". Then download Rufus. Rufus is used by a lot of people to burn bootable USB drives. Its FAQ says it gets about 3 million downloads per month. Once you've downloaded Rufus (which requires no installation), launch it to burn the ISO to a USB drive. Use the options shown.

It will create a bootable USB drive, but you don't actually boot from it. Instead, you run what MS calls an "in-place upgrade". This is just launching the setup.exe from Windows File Explorer. Don't use any slash options. Instead, the options shown above will take care of bypassing the Windows requirements that aren't satisfied by your machine. The author points out that these options are a no-op for systems that do support the requirements.

When you run the in-place upgrade, make sure to select "Change what to keep" and choose "Keep personal files and apps". This is what prevents setup.exe from doing a fresh install.

I've successfully used this method with my two desktops and my laptop. Ineligible machines won't be offered future major version upgrades automatically through Windows Update, so you'll need to do in-place upgrades like this each time you update to a new major version. I guess this won't happen until mid-2026 at the earliest though. Interim updates work normally.

 

[andyc56]

Oh, I should have mentioned that if you're currently running 24h2, you can upgrade to 25h2 via the so-called "enablement package", which is a .msu file you download from the MS site. A link to this package is in this post from Elevenforums. This is way faster than the in-place upgrade approach, but I've only tried it using machines that meet all the Win11 requirements.

 

[dualazmak]

Oh, I should have mentioned that if you're currently running 24h2, you can upgrade to 25h2 via the so-called "enablement package", which is a .msu file you download from the MS site. A link to this package is in this post from Elevenforums. This is way faster than the in-place upgrade approach, but I've only tried it using machines that meet all the Win11 requirements.

Thank you, I well know and understand that "normal" and "general" upgrade path.

The objectives and purpose of this thread, however, are "preservative (keep application and data) upgrade to Windows 11 25H2 on outdated officially unsupported PCs by avoiding/bypassing all the restrictions of CPU-check, TPM-check, MEM-check, SecureBoot-check, etc.

 

[dualazmak]

As I wrote in my post #5, I heard many times the GUI-based free upgrade tool "Flyoobe" (ex-Flyby11) successfully upgrades to Windows 11 25H2 on outdated officially unsupported PCs by avoiding/bypassing all the restrictions of CPU-check, TPM-check, MEM-check, SecureBoot-check, etc.; it automatically runs the "setup.exe /product server" in the background, and therefore you will see sign of "Windows server is now being installed" during the upgrade procedure, but it actually installs general Windows 25H2 Pro or Home.

 

[andyc56]

Thank you, I well know and understand that "normal" and "general" upgrade path.

The objectives and purpose of this thread, however, are "preservative (keep application and data) upgrade to Windows 11 25H2 on outdated officially unsupported PCs by avoiding/bypassing all the restrictions of CPU-check, TPM-check, MEM-check, SecureBoot-check, etc.

I only mentioned the enablement package approach because @KSTR said he was on 24h2 already. If he were to follow my earlier post and use Rufus, the update would have been more time-consuming for him than need be. Since I didn't see the enablement package approach mentioned previously, it seemed the right thing to do to prevent unnecessary effort on his part.

 

[dualazmak]

I only mentioned the enablement package approach because @KSTR said he was on 24h2 already.

Yes, but we still do not know whether @KSTR's 24H2 PC is fully supported one or officially unsupported outdated one...

My advice/comment for @KSTR is based on my thought/guess that his 24H2 PC would be officially unsupported outdated one, just like my nine (9) PCs which were 24H2 and all upgraded successfully to 25H2 by "setup.exe /product server" method, as shared the summary in my post #29.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

If he were to follow my earlier post and use Rufus,

The flyobee utility (mentioned above) condenses all that down to one step for the in-place upgrade.

 

[KSTR]

OK, some more info.

The PC/Laptop in question is still supported it seems, at least I could initially install a German 22H2 (that came with it, being a refurbished laptop) and then upgrade via regular automatic in-system Windows Update to 24H2. I changed system language to English immediately after the initial install and the 24H2 update had no issues.

The iso I tried to use for 25H2 is the official one, full update, US-English version, placed on an USB boot-stick with Rufus and with the usual options to skip checks. This was intended as a test run for some machines which are actually outdated wrt hardware requirements.
I tried both cmd and powershell with admin rights, same results.

One can find some info on the net regarding the non-working "/product server" switch, for example here: https://windowsreport.com/the-windows-11-setup-exe-product-server-bypass-is-no-longer-working/ ... albeit with a different error message.
But there are also reports which show the same command parsing issue that I got: https://www.neowin.net/news/the-rec...onger-works-in-new-windows-11-preview-builds/
In this case it looks like setup.exe actually doesn't have the /product switch coded in because the error message is the same if I use something like "setup.exe /blablabla foo".

As for the language issue, it seems that the initial install language of the current OS must match the update, otherwise setup says that any installed apps cannot be kept because of language mismatch, only user data would be kept. This of course is not what I wanted and therefore I declined.

Could it be that Rufus replaces the setup.exe with a patched one which misses the /product option? That would explain things. I might try with an genuine install unpacked from the iso to some temp folder.

I'll also try all the above again with a German iso, I may need both anyway as some of my current installs on the outdated machines are initially German, some initially English versions.

 

[KSTR]

It will create a bootable USB drive, but you don't actually boot from it. Instead, you run what MS calls an "in-place upgrade". This is just launching the setup.exe from Windows File Explorer. Don't use any slash options.

This is what I did, just that I used the /product switch. I chose Rufus with the options to have a boot stick ready for fresh installs on old machines, just in case.
One more data point that Rufus might alter the setup.exe?

 

[KSTR]

Another thing maybe related to the Rufus method, the other day when I installed a fresh US-English 24H2 on a naked machine with a new SSD I was expecting having to activate it, buying a license (no issue because this one was for my day job).
To my surprise Windows told me that it is already successfully activated, how come?

 

[Soniclife]

Another thing maybe related to the Rufus method, the other day when I installed a fresh US-English 24H2 on a naked machine with a new SSD I was expecting having to activate it, buying a license (no issue because this one was for my day job).
To my surprise Windows told me that it is already successfully activated, how come?

There are different places the key can be stored, possibly in the motherboard in this case, it's a normal experience.

 

[dualazmak]

....
....
Could it be that Rufus replaces the setup.exe with a patched one which misses the /product option? That would explain things. I might try with an genuine install unpacked from the iso to some temp folder.
....

I assume this would/could be the cause of the failure of "setup.exe /product server".

I never tried Rufus nor "Flyoobe" (ex-Flyby11); my successful upgrades to 25H2 on unsupported 24H2 PCs (ref. #29) have been always done by "setup.exe /product server" within temporary folder of unpacked genuine .iso image!

As for the language issue, it seems that the initial install language of the current OS must match the update, otherwise setup says that any installed apps cannot be kept because of language mismatch, only user data would be kept. This of course is not what I wanted and therefore I declined.

Also I understand and agree your point regarding the "language" mismatch.

It looks that Windows always internally (in background) remembers/preserves the "most original, earliest, Windows language setting" on each specific PC, and the major upgrade package like present 25H2 .iso would always refers to such original language set, even whatever language change you have implemented afterwards.

 

[dualazmak]

Another thing maybe related to the Rufus method, the other day when I installed a fresh US-English 24H2 on a naked machine with a new SSD I was expecting having to activate it, buying a license (no issue because this one was for my day job).
To my surprise Windows told me that it is already successfully activated, how come?

There are different places the key can be stored, possibly in the motherboard in this case, it's a normal experience.

Yes, agree.

For contingency purposes, however, we should always memorize/preserve the "Product Key" of our specific Windows OS on each of our Windows PCs, since we need the present/latest "Product Key" for "Activation" of Windows OS, in case if it would be deactivated for any reason.

In case if you would lose or forget the "Product Key", you can use free tiny application "Windows Product Key Viewer" (now ver.3.03) in a portable ZIP file, no installation needed.
Windows Product Key Viewer

 

[ShadowBoxer]

New flyobee release is 25H2 ready (includes Rufus support). Works fine.

 

[dualazmak]

According to the latest information here (please read it in AI English translation), the 25H2 Enablement Package (eKB) also works even on unsupported/incompatible 24H2 PCs, only if the 24H2 is most up-to-date (i.e. already having hidden 25H2 in it by the latest Windows updates) in such non-compatible PC.

Enabling Package:
KB5054156 x64 (Intel, AMD CPU)
KB5054156 ARM64 (ARM64 CPU)

 

[KSTR]

There are different places the key can be stored, possibly in the motherboard in this case, it's a normal experience.

Ah OK, I see. It could well be this desktop PC originally came with some Windows installed, this was like some 8 years ago or so. When I joined the company it was running a Linux distro.

 

[KSTR]

According to the latest information here (please read it in AI English translation), the 25H2 Enablement Package (eKB) also works even on unsupported/incompatible 24H2 PCs, only if the 24H2 is most up-to-date (i.e. already having hidden 25H2 in it by the latest Windows updates) in such non-compatible PC.

Enabling Package:
KB5054156 x64 (Intel, AMD CPU)
KB5054156 ARM64 (ARM64 CPU)

This worked on my full-up-to-date machine, it was the fastest update ever, less than 30 seconds total (160kB(!!) download, run, reboot, done).
Makes me wonder if all they changed was the version number string

 

[Soniclife]

Ah OK, I see. It could well be this desktop PC originally came with some Windows installed, this was like some 8 years ago or so. When I joined the company it was running a Linux distro.

I can see now why that was so surprising, but the only thing I trust Microsoft to do is to ensure they got paid.