From an unsupported macOS to supported Windows

2 min read

I had some old MacBooks, one upgradable to Big Sur (no longer supported), one upgradable to Ventura (supported, but soon to be obsolete). My family needed some windows machines, and remarkably I was able to move from unsupported and old macOS to completely supported Windows 11. Who knows how many more years of support these old machines can get, but presumably till Windows 11 EOL which is impressive.

Steps

  1. Move/backup/delete all data from the Macbook and any existing Bootcamp installs (your MacBook will be completely wiped during this process)
  2. Update to the very latest macOS (so that your firmware is up to date; once you do this you can’t update your firmware again which is fine because it likely won’t get any more updates anyway)
  3. Download your Windows Support Software (very important). Boot Camp -> Action -> Download Windows Support.
  4. Get an 8GB thumb drive and create a Windows 11 installable boot
  5. Copy the Windows Support Software onto the same thumb drive, there should be room. Else, use another.
  6. Boot into the Windows 11 installer. (Did you save your Windows Support Software? Go back and do this if you didn’t).
  7. You need to add some bypass options for the TPM check. Shift F10. regedit.
    • Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup
    • Edit -> New -> Key, named LabConfig
    • Open that key, create two DWORD (32-bit) values:
      • BypassTPMCheck
      • BypassSecureBootCheck.
    • Modify both DWORDs and set the value to 1
    • BypassCPUCheck and BypassRAMCheck are also options, but I didn’t need them for my macbooks (and it was good to know that with the check still active, they apparently pass the minimum bar for those.
  8. Start installer
  9. Format the disk. There is no need to install drivers at this step, it works without them. This is the part that wipes all data on the disk.
    • Delete Disk 0, Partition 2 (and all partitions on Disk 0, except Partition 1). Should eventually read “Unallocated space”. You may need to hit “Refresh” a few times.
    • Create a partition on the unallocated space. If you get an error (I did), just refresh, it seemed to actually work. Then format the new partition (the largest one on Disk 0)
  10. Select the newly created partition to install Windows 11
  11. Install
  12. When prompted to install the Wifi driver, you can’t. Don’t try to load drivers from your thumb drive, they don’t work. Instead bypass the Wifi requirement, press Shift+F10 and run OOBE\BYPASSNRO in the command prompt.
  13. Once windows is setup, then run bootcamp Setup.exe (which will install your Wifi and other drivers)

You now have a pure Windows 11 machine!

Not sure how legit this is, but I found some pretty good deals on Windows 11 Pro keys (OEM ones presumably) on Groupon. Microsoft accepted them, so they have to be legit, right?

Want another option, or what to do when Windows 11 support ends? You can convert it to a ChromeOS Flex machine and keep the good times going.

Oh, and for the Windows 10 install on bootcamp on a Mac that is supported, you can simply download the ISO, mount it, and run setup.exe /product server (thanks reddit).