Windows 8.1 to 11

[loftus52]

Hi, 

I need to upgrade my Pavilion 500 desktop from windows 8.1 to 11. I have upgraded the RAM and I need to know what else I have to do re Processor ect. Has anyone done this, or knows how to do it?

Thanks,

Paul.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Paul:

Below is the link to the product specs for your PC.

HP Pavilion 500-326na Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

None of the supported processor upgrade options would meet Microsoft's W11 AMD processor requirements.

Windows processor requirements Windows 11 supported AMD processors | Microsoft Learn

You cannot upgrade the PC from W8.1 directly to W11.

First you would need to upgrade your PC from W8.1>W10.

Here's how to upgrade from W8.1 > W10:

Make a bootable W10 USB installation flash drive with the media creation tool from the link below.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

It will be easier to do this if you have a PC running W10 or W11 because on W7 or W8.1 you need to make some registry changes in order for the media creation tool to work.   See this link if you only have your notebook to use.

Update to enable TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 as default secure protocols in WinHTTP in Windows - Microsoft S...

Have your PC running and at the Windows desktop.

After you create the bootable W10 installation flash drive, plug it into your PC's USB port.

Do not boot from the flash drive.

Open the flash drive in Windows Explorer.

You will see a list of files on the flash drive.

Double click to run the Setup application to begin the upgrade process to W10.

You have 10 days to go back to W7 in case things don't work as well on W10 for any reason.

Go back to Windows 8.1 - Microsoft Support

If you are interested in installing W11 on your PC as is, you can read this discussion for how I upgraded several HP and Dell notebook and desktop PC's that did not meet the W11 hardware requirements to W11 22H2.

Re: Issues upgrading to windows 11 - HP Support Community - 8517912

If the in-place upgrade fails, you should be able to clean install W11 using the bootable W11 installation flash drive you made with Rufus.