How to get HP Support for upgrading to Win 11 HP ENVY 17TK200 CTO (Energy Star) 4thGEN (Ineligible)

[JavaMan2000]

Upgrade adviser rejects this laptop but I still want to upgrade to Win 11. Would that be paid support and if so how much?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You should be able to upgrade to W11 free, and quite easy--especially if you use the first method I posted.

If you want to install W11 on your PC as is, you can bypass the W11 hardware requirements using two easy methods.  The first one is the easiest.

I would make a system image of your current W10 installation prior to updating to W11, so you can easily reinstall W10 in the future.  I used the free Macrium Reflect software to do that, under the Backup at Home section. 

Along with the system image, make sure you create the bootable DVD or USB rescue drive you boot from to access the system image stored on your portable hard drive.

Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition

Read and follow the instructions at the link below.

Windows 11 Upgrade Hack on Any Hardware | Dong Knows Tech

No registry changes needed.  No need to create installation media.  Just download the W11 ISO file, and the guy's zip file.

I used the first procedure to do an in-place upgrade an old HP Elitebook 6930p notebook made in 2010 to W11, and I was able to keep my old Office 2010 Starter program that came with the notebook when it had W7 on it, along with all of my other programs, files and settings.

The notebook met none of the enhanced W11 hardware requirements.

That is the 11th unsupported W11 PC I have upgraded to W11, and not one of them have had any issues whatsoever.

They have all gotten all the Windows 11 updates released thus far.

I check those against a PC I have that is fully supported to run W11.

There is also this way you can upgrade to W11, bypassing the hardware checks...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02mgrA51974 

[WAWood]

@JavaMan2000 

HP does not provide tech support for upgrades -- so you will not be able to pay them to do this.

I understand your issue -- as I have the same situation with an old laptop that meets almost none of the Win11 hardware requirements.

But -- this is an "experiment" at best, not a long-term solution.

Let me explain ...

MS has relented, for now, in enforcing Win11 hardware requirements -- but they already have the code to check hardware because they provide that as a downloadable utility.  It would take little effort to package that as a Security Update, push it to the PCs, and after a reboot, we get messages that our PCs are disabled and we have to reinstall Win10 from scratch to get a working PC back. MS has already done this with "insiders" who were running really old hardware on Windows 11. Their PCs were disabled by a Windows Update.

I'm OK because I have a full image backup of the laptop running Windows 10 -- which would take me 5 minutes to restore. Most folks don't even know what that means and will end up with a nonworking PC -- and no simple way to restore it.

So, enjoy it while you can -- but do not expect it to last long.

[JavaMan2000]

I am doing a clean install using Media Creation Tool from Microsoft for Win 11. When you launch it one gets requirement error and installation stops. I already have the Image of 10 saved externally. 

Microsoft suggested that I should update the BIOS and have asked me to ask HP for help on BIOS upgrade before clean install. I got the impression that Microsoft along with Hardware Manufacturers do not want to be perceived as those who are destabilizing existing PCs in-order to promote new sales. After all these years my HP ENVY development platform under Win 10 has developed driver issues.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

That is why you have to use a hack to bypass the system checking requirements.

You can't just use a plain W11 installation media to install W11 unless you do some registry changes and other things.

The first method to do an inplace upgrade I posted is so easy, a 12 year old can do it.

The second method shown on you tube is not so hard to do, but it takes downloading two ISO files and copying one of the W11 files into the W10 ISO file.

I used the YouTube second method on the very first PC I upgraded to W11 doing a clean install.