W11 24H2 & Rufus on Z420 Z620 Z820 Zx40

[SDH]

I've been waiting for the official release of the Microsoft .iso for installing/upgrading into W11 24H2 on unsupported workstations such as the ZX20 and ZX40 families. Breakthrough, and I'll be brief. Sure.

First, MS has further locked down the upgrade pathways somewhat. Peter Batard, developer of Rufus, has been working hard (for free in his spare time) and experimenting. He has provided some great early advice and a set of commands to run as administrator or run those as admin as a batch file of those commands to enable an in-place upgrade to W11 24H2 using Rufus 4.5. He's also working on a new Rufus 4.6 which will include the batch file built in. You can find him and more pretty easily via a google search for "24H2 Rufus".

MS has baked into the new 24H2 system code that the processor must have support for POPCOUNT (Population Count), and a YT video offers several ways to check for that via https://youtu.be/C9a7PbSNf3Q. The easiest way is the first one shown... get the time-tested no-cost CPUz utility from CPUID.com and run it on your workstation. If SSE4.2 or SSE4.1 is shown under the "Instructions" section then your processor is likely good to go for running W11 24H2 (even if it is officially unsupported).

My Xeon Z4 G4 here is officially supported for a standard upgrade to 24H2, and it was running perfectly on W11 23H2 with its usual BIOS settings... but it would not initially upgrade to 24H2. I had read somewhere that at least TPM1.2 is now required by MS to be seen by the installer for our 24H2 workarounds to work. That is not common knowledge. I checked my BIOS and sometime in the past I had disabled TPM 2.0 in the Z4 G4's BIOS settings. If it is turned off (Device not available/Disabled/Hidden in HP BIOS terms) the 24H2 installer and target system can't know that TPM of any type exists. I turned it on, and the 24H2 upgrade then proceeded perfectly (I forced my install to the front of the que by downloading the released Microsoft .iso and running Setup.exe after the official iso was mounted by right-click on it).

I then downloaded Rufus 4.5 portable. I also found a downloadable zipped batch file (see below) using PBatard's approved set of CMDs from his source... he gives credit to them for the Registry change commands, and the original syntax has been corrected. I made the Rufus USB key on a 16GB quality USB3 for speed during the install, checked all the bypass boxes (now those are presented by Rufus after pressing START), tuned up my Z620 build with all the latest 23H2 updates, and did disk cleanup, etc. Booted from the Z620 to do an in-place upgrade, as instructed by PBatard. Boot instead from the Rufus USB you created from the 24H2 .iso if you're going to do a clean install... you don't need the batch file for that. I had the in-place .bat file on the desktop, disconnected from net, plugged in Rufus key, ran the .bat file as administrator (which runs in a 1/2 instant), and navigated into the Rufus USB drive to easily find and launch Setup.exe (also running that as an administrator). 

All ran well. I did not check the box on the initial install page to offer to help MS, and I also changed on that page the upper option to not do updates during the process (which would not have worked anyway because I already was disconnected from the net). All worked great, several auto-restarts, but then FAIL and "Undoing changes made to your computer". Back to 23H2 automatically, with this notification shown:

Ow....

I remembered my Z4 G4 failure on my first try and went into my Z620 via F10 into BIOS/ Security tab/ down to Device Security/ the top device is "Embedded Security Device" (which means "TPM 1.2" in the ZX20 workstations) and that was disabled so I changed it to Device Available/ F10 to save/Esc to back out/ save changes and exit. My recall is disabled was the original default from HP. Well, that was from way back. Fresh boot, did not even reload from my Acronis backup (done just before starting this project), reran the batch file plus the Setup.exe from the Rufus USB key, and the W11 24H2 installer ran perfectly through its first and subsequent auto-reboots. I then even ran Windows Updates and got three 24H2 updates (security, NET, and Cumulative Update for 24H2). All critical software now is running perfectly... in fact everything is.

Take home: That batch file is critical for in-place current Rufus 4.5 upgrades to 24H2, as is the presence of at least TPM1.2 (and ensure that TPM is not disabled in BIOS), plus you need to have a POPCOUNT-enabled processor.

Martin Brinkman's article in Ghacks.net is worth reading. His approach is a bit different from mine. For example, I download the .iso directly from Microsoft. I check all the boxes. I disconnect from the internet during the process. There is more than one way to do this. He provides in his article a link to download the batch file he created from PBatard's provided series of commands to prepare the in-place registry for the in-place upgrade... Martin's is the one I used but it is no different from Peter's set. His article's LINK   and his batch file's LINK .

The sad thing is that maybe this is the end of the line for older processors without POPCOUNT support, and workstations/ laptops/ PCs that don't have at least a TPM1.2 module turned on. However, never discount what dedicated volunteers can accomplish...

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi SDH:

Try this workaround.

It worked for every one of my PC's except those that did not have processors that supported POPCNT and SSE4.2:

You can skip over the part where he describes how to get the ISO file from the Windows insider program now that is available on the W11 download site.

How to install Windows 11 24H2 on Unsupported PC (Early Access) (youtube.com)

I was shocked when my Rufus drive didn't work on PC's that had UEFI BIOS' but not secure boot or the one notebook I have that does not have any TPM security device at all.

The above method in the video is so simple to use and worked on all of my PC's that had a TPM 1.2 security chip and a UEFI BIOS and the one notebook that had no TPM security chip at all but had a UEFI BIOS and supports secure boot.

The other PC's were older (dc7800 and 8000 Elite) and those processors don't support POPCNT or SSE4.2.

I tried to clean install W11 and do an in place upgrade on those and nothing worked.

Not even the mighty Q9650 will support W11 24H2 under Microsoft's new processor requirements.

However, an Intel 1st Gen core processor-equipped PC should work and those won't have UEFI BIOS' or support secure boot.

I wish I had one of those to try the video out on.

Paul

[SDH]

Paul,

Thanks much for that video link. We're here again at the early stage of keeping our fond hardware running under new OS capabilities (and restrictions). So far so good here, but I've got earlier HP business class PCs and a hodgepodge of useful laptops to work on. I'll take any tips you discover!

Best, Scott

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You'reverywelcome, Scott:

As long as the processors support SSE4.2 and POPCNT, the video should work on all of them.

Paul 

[SDH]

To fulfill the intent of this post... here is also the info on BIOS setting changes to enable TPM in the ZX40 BIOS so that an in-place upgrade from W11 23H2 to W11 24H2 can proceed. The TPM chipset that is soldered onto their motherboards can be firmware-toggled back and forth from/to TPM 1.2<->2.0 as needed, whereas DGroves has noted that the older TPM chipset soldered onto the ZX20 motherboards cannot be toggled between TPM1.2 and TPM2.0. Those are fixed at TPM1.2 only.

Regardless of the current TPM version present in firmware on your ZX40 motherboard TPM must at least be enabled in BIOS for it to be seen by the OS/installer (and other parts of BIOS) for an in-place upgrade to 24H2 to proceed. The navigation to set this is as follows: F10 or Esc into ZX40 BIOS (it should be the latest version of BIOS)/ go to Security tab/ go to the top Administrator Tools section/ TPM Embedded Security/ TPM Specification Version/ (1.2 or 2.0)/ TPM Device/ change from Hidden to Available/ TPM State/ change from Disable to Enable/ use Back Arrow to go to.../ Main tab/ Save changes and exit/ Yes/ (auto-restart happens)/ TPM PPI window opens/ Press F1 = Accept/ (auto-restart happens again). Shut down/ Cold boot/ Proceed with your W11 24H2 in-place upgrade (or the Rufus clean install method instead). Also, a Rufus 4.5 clean install will need to see at least TPM1.2 enabled in these W11-officially-unsupported workstations.

The ZX40 workstations have a much more complex BIOS than the prior ZX20 workstations. This is one example, but the capabilities are higher too.

The rest of the techniques are unchanged.

[SDH]

Some added info:

An easy way to get to the TPM Management section of the W10/W11 Management Console (from inside W10/W11) via Taskbar, CMD, or Run:

1. From taskbar click on the Search icon/ type tpm.msc/ hit Enter.
2. Open elevated CMD and enter tpm.msc, then hit enter...
3. Press Windows Key + R (or Search icon/ "Run") to open the Run dialog/ type tpm.msc/ hit Enter.

The TPM Status section should state "The TPM is ready for use".

The HP workstation BIOS has a security setting section for devices and it is my understanding that if a device is set to hidden there the OS (and any installer) cannot detect that it is present even if it is soldered onto the motherboard. That has been my experience over the years. Other brand's BIOS may not include that complexity. I've been in contact with Peter Batard and he has not experienced this issue with other PCs/other BIOS types when using Rufus. However, my advice is that if you plan on doing the W11 24H2 in-place upgrade on a HP workstation (or advanced HP Business Class computer with the newer type BIOS) to ensure that TPM is not hidden. Here is what it looks like when TPM is available vs hidden using the in-OS Microsoft Management Console TPM subsection:

TPM Available and Enable

TPM Hidden and Disable

An interesting potential BIOS gotcha is that in the Z440 and other recent high end HP computers when you go into the BIOS Security tab and down to the TPM section there are two entries for TPM... first TPM Device and below that is TPM State. You can set TPM Device to "Available" but also set TPM State to "Disable". However, I believe it would be better to also set TPM State to "Enable". It is possible that if the Microsoft updater to W11 H2 only needs to see the presence of at least a TPM1.2 chip on the motherboard you could set TPM Device to Available and TPM state to Disable and the updater could still proceed, but I'm not going to do that here. This does show that this HP BIOS has the option to let the TPM device be seen but not used.

Then, when you back out of Security and save the changes you'll automatically be taken in BIOS to a "TPM PPI" window to accept these important changes by pressing F1.

[DGroves]

this post is for those people who can remove/replace surface mounted components

quite a while back i spend a short time on a failed z820 motherboard and while fixing (replacing) the failed bios chip i noticed the TPM chip used on the z820 board was replaced/superseded by the mfgr with a slightly newer model tpm chip that was tpm 1.2/2.0 compatible and used the same pinout and posted that it might be possible to do a chip swap and flash TPM 2.0 onto it. I never pursued this as the cpu family used in the z820 is still not windows 11 compatible so no read gain in actual win 11 installs, but depending on how MS checks in the future a tpm chip swap on motherboards might yet become useful

i'm also curious if the win 11 popcount check is only used during new installs/upgrades if so simply imaging a base win 11 install on a compatible system and then moving it to a older non popcount system might work

[lh4pi]

I can confirm that I today was succefull  to update a HP Z620  32 GB  from  Windows 7 Pro directly to Win11 Pro  on a dual boot system  with also Mint 21 installed using latest Rufus  4.6 Beta  using a 8 GB usb stick  and   I deleteted  all data on the same  booth drive on my SSD disk during the installation  .   Since I had the  linux as default  OS I have to use F9(booth selection)  to select windows booth  each time  windows 11 install  program want to restart  but  it worked . Very happy now .

i have Bios J6I V03.90 and believe that I  set  TPM to be active in BIOS but not sure , reading post I belive that I did otherwise it shouldn work .

So now i have a  dual booth sytem on my HP Z620 with both Windows 24H2 and Mint 21

Than all for the info here to make this happened  and what  a fantasic help  of  the creator of Rufus 4.6 Beta  are !

Lars 

[lh4pi]

I have an question  to  SDH  concerning update from earlier version of windows 11 pro eng to 24H2 .. 

I have  version  21H2 on a HP workstation 640 and want   to keep the contents  of files  but only to update  windows 11  to 24H2 ( using rufus 4,6  win 11 24H2 iso) ,  can that be done using the same ISO    that I successfully  used for a clean  installation from windows 7 on my  workstation HP620  (see earlier  post  in this thread ) .

Is this a choice  during the installation for keeping the  data but only update the version of windows  that way ?

Best regards Lars

[SDH · Accepted solution]

Lars,

You want to use the official release of Rufus 4.6, now available. Peter Batard, the generous developer of Rufus, has added some improvements to that vs the earlier 4.6 beta release, and especially when compared to the prior way of doing an in-place 24H2 upgrade by using a Rufus 4.5 USB drive plus running of a separate batch of commands (usually via a "batch file"). He integrated that batch file into the programming of Rufus 4.6 (plus more) so that it is automatically run when you do an "in-place" upgrade, which is what you currently describe. Details below...

That is different from doing a "clean" install which is when you actually boot from the Rufus 4.6 USB and everything on your personal boot drive is wiped and the new OS only is loaded. The in-place method instead keeps your current files and programs intact but updates your OS. Clean can be better because In-place does not get you all new drivers. However, if you have a good W10 or W11 build that usually is good enough to do an In-place W11 24H2 upgrade from.

There is a small degree of risk in doing these things. Microsoft has built in the ability to roll back to your prior OS build if something goes bad, but I also use Acronis to back up my current install as an "image" from which I can clone from if needed.

I'm assuming you downloaded your current official copy of the 24H2 iso from Microsoft. You can still use that but make a new Rufus 4.6 USB drive using it. I check all the boxes during that process (available after you click "Start"). You will not be booting from that USB... you'll have it plugged in and navigate into it and launch its "Setup.exe" from within your current OS. Doing that triggers the "in-place" upgrade, and in the background the special batch file is triggered also. You won't even see that happen. I do these upgrades with the original build fully updated and tuned up first using Disk Cleanup and then some added steps from an elevated CMD prompt:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
sfc /scannow
chkdsk C: /f

You add a few returns below that bottom line and copy/paste including the returns into the elevated CMD. This will run all 3 of those steps sequentially, automatically. At the end you'll be asked if you want to run chkdsk after a restart. Click Y and restart or reboot.

I disconnect from the internet before I do an in-place upgrade, and on the first Microsoft 24H2 install page that opens I don't check the box to help MS and do go into the upper option and choose to not upgrade to latest software (that is for the current build... I'm not connected to the net and I already did a full upgrade of the current). That will let the 24H2 iso, modified by the Rufus 4.6 program and now on the Rufus 4.6 USB drive, run efficiently and complete the in-place upgrade. It will do some auto-restarts and auto-cold boots... be patient.

Let us know how things went.

EDIT: I'm still making sure that TPM is not set to hidden in BIOS even if it is TPM 1.2, and I still make sure that I have a processor that is recent enough to have SSE4.2 show up in the "Instructions" field when you run the free CPUz. That way you know your processor has the ability to do PopCount, which Microsoft set as necessary to run 24H2. I have access to old and new HP workstations and same for HP Business Class PCs and 100% test out good on that issue so far. That is thus a non-issue for us here.

Note that Paul Tikkanen (https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/178540) has provided an alternative method in this thread, above, which is working very well there also.