- Microsoft has closed a loophole that allowed users to bypass system requirements and install Windows 11 on unsupported PCs.
- You can no longer run the "setup.exe /product server" command to bypass Windows 11 system requirements on the latest Canary build.
- The change has been noted in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview build in the Canary channel.
When Microsoft released Windows 11 in 2021, it introduced several new system requirements to run Windows 11. The new requirements didn’t go down well with users as it left out older PCs and required a hardware TPM chip. That said, users found new workarounds to bypass hardware requirements for Windows 11 entirely.
One such loophole was installing Windows 11 as a server version that bypassed all such requirements. During the installation process, running setup.exe /product server in Command Prompt would allow Windows 11 installation on unsupported PCs. Now, Microsoft has closed this workaround with the latest Canary update.
TheBobPony on X revealed that Windows 11 Insider Build 27686 (Canary Channel), based on the upcoming Dilithium platform, blocks this particular workaround. Of course, this is part of the new platform, and will likely make it to the stable version with the next 25H1 build, however, Microsoft can very well patch the current 24H2 build as well.
Apart from this workaround, there are other ways to completely bypass Windows 11’s system requirements and they work fine for now. You can circumvent CPU and TPM restrictions, RAM limitations, and even set up Windows 11 without a Microsoft account.
Having said that, Microsoft has definitely taken notice of the loopholes and before the next major release, it’s likely that such workarounds will be closed. Microsoft says that these new requirements improve security on Windows 11, and it wants to make the Windows platform a secure platform, by default.
