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Installing Windows 11

Introduction

So, you want to upgrade your custom built PC to Windows 11? Should be easy right? That's what I thought but in many cases it's anything but straight forward!

My goal was a clean install of Windows 11 on a new SSD with BitLocker and all the other new security features of Windows 11 enabled. I had a Windows 10 Professional license and intended to use the free upgrade, which is an important point as we'll see later.

It took a lot of effort but I managed to get Windows 11 up and running in the end. I've documented the process here. Please bear in mind that the challenges I faced may not be the same for you. It'll depend on your setup and what you're trying to achieve. I don't necessarily claim that this is the best process - it's just how I managed to successfully get Windows 11 installed!

Goes without saying that bad things can happen if anything goes wrong with the upgrade process. I wouldn't recommend doing this if you don't vaguely know what you're doing! I don't want to sound overly dramatic but if you decide to follow any advice or instructions here, you do so entirely at your own risk!

Pre-requisites

Here's my machine setup before upgrading to Windows 11:

  • A custom built PC. I assembled all the components myself. AMD Ryzen AM4, X570 AORUS motherboard with multiple M.2 SSD's.
  • A new/spare SSD to install Windows 11 on. I didn't want to upgrade my existing Windows 10 install or use the SSD it was installed on so that if anything went wrong I could switch back to the old Win10 SSD.
  • Windows 10 Professional license that was eligible for the free Windows 11 upgrade.
  • Motherboard that supports TPM. Although this was NOT switched on.

Before you start, make sure your motherboard supports TPM. If not, you will probably need to purchase a TPM module.

There are a number of things that I'd advise you do on your existing Windows 10 install in preparation for the Windows 11 install. It's a lot easier to do these things up front.

Prepare Windows 10 install media

It turns out that the free Windows 11 upgrade from Windows 10 is exactly that - upgrade only. You can only do a truly clean install of Windows 11 if you've purchased a Windows 11 license.

You'll need to do a clean Windows 10 install first. And then upgrade it to Windows 11. So, I dug out an 8gb USB thumb-drive, booted up my old Windows 10 install and created a Win10 install media on the USB drive.

Instructions can be found here: Create installation media for Windows

Prepare the new SSD

If you've already used the SSD that you're planning to install Windows 11 on, as I had, you may need to remove the partitions. I had issues later in the process that seemed to be caused by existing partitions so best to remove them all before starting. How to delete a drive partition on Windows 10

Ensure your BIOS is up-to date

One of the issues I discovered further along the process ended was caused by having a slightly older version of the BIOS. So, before going any further, I'd recommend upgrading your BIOS to the latest version.

If you've got a AORUS motherboard, this is how I did the upgrade. As always, it wasn't as easy as it should have been!

  1. If you've modified any BIOS settings, you might want to make a note of them before starting. BIOS updates usually reset any configuration changes.
  2. Make sure you've got the very latest version of the Gigabyte @BIOS app installed. I think I downloaded it from here: Gigabyte @BIOS.
  3. Download the latest BIOS binary file for your motherboard (at the time of writing this was F35) from the Gigabyte support page.
  4. Unzip the BIOS file you downloaded from the Gigabyte website. @BIOS will let you select the zipped file but then does nothing! It'll only work if you use the unzipped bin file.
  5. Open the @BIOS application, select upgrade BIOS and importantly select the "from file" option. DO NOT use the "from server" option. For some inexplicable reason, the "from server" option installed an out-of-date BIOS version.
  6. Select the unzipped BIOS file you downloaded and upgrade your BIOS.

Unplug all drives except the new SSD

I had problems selecting the disk to install Windows 10 on. In the end I resolved this by unplugging all other drives from the motherboard. I never really got to the bottom of why but I'd recommend only having the SSD you want to install Windows 11 on plugged in.

Install Windows 10

Plug in the USB thumb drive and boot the PC. If the PC doesn't boot from the USB drive you may need to go into the BIOS and change the boot priorities.

Do a clean install of Windows 10 on the new SSD.

Modify the disk partition to GPT

By default, the Windows 10 installer uses MBR for the OS disk partition. Unfortunately, if you want to enable Secure Boot with Windows 11, it only works with GPT. We'll need to switch from MBR to GPT before upgrading to Windows 11. Don't worry too much if you don't know what MBR and GPT are.

Once you've completed the clean Windows 10 install, you'll need to modify the disk partition to use GPT. Instructions can be found here: How to convert MBR hard drive partitions to GPT

When I went through this process I got an error at the end of the conversion. It wasn't a problem until later on when I tried to enable BitLocker in Windows 11 but I was able to Google the error message and easily fix it.

Update BIOS settings

You should be running the latest version of the BIOS now, so we can enable some of the BIOS features required by Windows 11.

Enable TPM in your BIOS. For the AORUS BIOS there are instructions near the end of this article: How to Enable TPM 2.0 in Gigabyte BIOS Settings

Enable Secure Boot in your BIOS using the following process:

  1. Enter the BIOS
  2. If the BIOS is in "Easy Mode", switch to "Advanced Mode",
  3. Go to Boot > CSM (Compatibility Support Module) > set "Launch CSM" to Disabled
  4. Save and exit
  5. Enter the BIOS
  6. Go to Boot > Secure Boot > Key Management > "Restore DB Defaults"
  7. Go to Boot > Secure Boot. It should show that Secure Boot is enabled
  8. Save and exit

The grand finale: Upgrade to Windows 11

Boot your Windows 10 clean install and under settings, navigate to Windows Update. Sadly, you may have to install updates before you can proceed. When it becomes available on the Windows Update screen, run the Windows 11 upgrade adviser. Your system should now pass all the pre-requisites!

You should now be able to upgrade to Windows 11!

I don't recall exactly when I enabled BitLocker but I think it might have been after upgrading to Windows 11. I previously mentioned that there was a problem when upgrading from MBT to GPT. This may have the knock on effect of causing an error enabling BitLocker. I didn't make a note of the solution to this but it was just a case of Googling the error message. It was an easy fix.

Welcome to Windows 11

Congratulations! If all went well, you are now running a clean install of Windows 11!