I have a pretty powerful laptop that I use for slicing/dicing large data exports in excel/access. Our Managed IT company is forcing everyone to update to Windows 11 by the end of the year due to security updates ending for Windows 10 soon. I emailed them with my system info to see if they can force an update to Windows 11. They pretty much just told me to purchase a new one. I've never had any issues with this system and hate to get rid of it and doubt I'll get approved to get a replacement with similar capability.

I'm not a computer expert by any means, but want to see if anyone here has any suggestions? Is there a simple hardware change that I can do that will make it compatible for Windows 11? I know the processor isn't supported, but could that be caused by other hardware/firmware issues elsewhere?

I'm not an expert, but I'm thinking there's really nothing you can do. That Xeon processor is pretty outdated at this point. Is your company not approving Precision 77XX models anymore? The 7780 should run circles around yours.

When doing a fresh install, there are autounattend files that you can use to bypass the system requirements.

• https://github.com/memstechtips/UnattendedWinstall?tab=readme-ov-file
• https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/

I don't know if the same applies to an upgrade, but others may have relative experience.

Atmtws, I've just completed a clean installation of Windows on this exact laptop, so I've registered here specifically to answer your question.

You can get Windows 11 onto this computer without hacks if you install it from a USB boot disk. Despite not being supported, this processor has all required features and will pass whatever testing it does on boot. All you need to do is enter the BIOS (tap F12) turn on Secure Boot and turn off Legacy (in the Boot List Options under Boot Sequence). Semi-related as it's a problem I had in the course of this, you will want to switch to AHCI from RAID if you're installing a 4TB NVMe SSD - it will be unstable otherwise (Like Windows 11, 4TB NVMe SSDs aren't officially supported on this hardware).

To make a USB install disk, just install either Microsoft's Media Creation Tool or Dell's OS Recovery Tool.

I didn't have a Windows key, so I used the OS Recovery Tool (it only asks for the Service Tag). Installing Windows 11 wasn't originally the plan, but that became irresistible once I saw that it as an option.

I am currently at work and have left the system alone to complete several updates. Updates on officially unsupported hardware may present a problem, but I'm not sure yet. I'll post an update once I have everything installed.

Here are some helpful links:
Create an OS Recovery Image with the Dell OS Recovery Tool | Dell US
How to install Windows 11 on supported and unsupported PCs, 24H2 edition - Ars Technica
Download Windows 11 (official Microsoft Media Creation Tool, you may need a key)

You can bypass that check with the registry hack - AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU.

Ways to install Windows 11

• Microsoft recommends against installing Windows 11 on a device that does not meet the Windows 11 minimum system requirements. If you choose to install Windows 11 on a device that does not meet these requirements, and you acknowledge and understand the risks, you can create the following registry key values and bypass the check for TPM 2.0 (at least TPM 1.2 is required) and the CPU family and model.
• Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup
• Name: AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU
• Type: REG_DWORD
• Value: 1

Thanks for the tips! I may give this a try this weekend. After speaking with our IT guys again, they said that upgrading to Windows 11 was specifically required within 30 days for those that need on the domain. I do not, however, so he said I could keep my current system. But if I have any issues updating to Windows 11, or if I accidentally brick this thing, I have approval to look for a newer model.

atmtws said:

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Thanks for the tips! I may give this a try this weekend. After speaking with our IT guys again, they said that upgrading to Windows 11 was specifically required within 30 days for those that need on the domain. I do not, however, so he said I could keep my current system. But if I have any issues updating to Windows 11, or if I accidentally brick this thing, I have approval to look for a newer model.

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Dang! Looks like you accidentally bricked it this weekend.

Atmtws, If you install Windows 11 on the Dell Precision 7720 using the Dell OS Recovery Tool, you will have a problem installing updates. It will fail to install all or most of them during the initial setup, and you'll be left with a lot of update errors that have the number 8007 in them. (0x80070103, 0x80248007, etc).

The fix is this (found here)...

Immediately after the install, open the command prompt as administrator and type:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Then when that's done, enter:
sfc /scannow

If you have the update window open at the time, you'll see it finally begin to install things while DISM finishes up. The instructions from the site tell us to run SFC though, so... go ahead and do that anyway just in case.

Also, as soon as you can, right click the C: drive and disable Bitlocker. Windows 11 uses software encryption by default, which will slow your HD/SSD performance by about 20%. If you want Bitlocker, but you don't want the performance hit, research how to get the hardware version going.

I tried a few other things before finding what worked, then once it did, I erased and reinstalled windows 11 just to be sure. To be honest, I'm not sure the problem is the OS Recovery Tool, the laptop, or the SSD. I'll know for sure when I do it again on the old HD, sometime after I take my files out of it.

So, to amend my earlier suggestion... it might be better to use official Microsoft install media, rather than the one from Dell. The same thing might happen, but I guess in that case, you can run those commands to fix it.

My 7720 was also my old work computer. Between 2017 and 2022, I used it to for 3D architectural models, point clouds, and more. It's no slouch, but the tech industry needs to make money so anything more than a few years old loses support even if it works fine. Microsoft is usually a bit better about that, but I guess all good things come to an end... I'm happy with my hardware/software upgrades and I'll probably stick a barely supported RTX mobile video card in there next. Keeping things alive and useful isn't always easy, but I'd rather struggle (and help fellow travelers) than submit to planned obsolescence.

Good luck.