Can I install Windows 11 on an unsupported CPU?

Sseveral of the provided responses are perfectly correct if the ONLY issue were that your INTEL CPU did not appear on the Approved list.

However, Apple silicon processors use a COMPLETELY different Processor instruction set from older Intel processors, and ordinary Windows 11 for a PC will absolutely NOT run on an Apple silicon Mac.

You need one of:

• A Virtual Machine environment that provides a COMPLETE emulation of an Intel machine on an Apple-silicon Mac. To the best of my knowledge, there is only one experimental OpenSource project attempting this, and their implementation is extremely slow.

I do not believe VMWARE, Virtual Box, or Parallels claims to provide such an environment. Their claim to fame is that one INTEL processor machine can impersonate another INTEL machine, and can run one Virtual Machine inside another Physical machine, PROVIDED you have another machine's worth of RAM and disk space available to support a second Virtual machine inside yours.

• use the ARM version of Windows, with the support of VMWare or Parallels for Apple-Silicon Macs, and run Windows for ARM in an Apple-silicon/ARM environment. But not all Windows software runs on the ARM version.

• use a partial emulation, such as WINE, to emulate enough Windows features that, in combination with Rosetta emulation of Intel on Apple-silicon, you can actually get that Windows software to run adequately, without a complete version of Windows at all.

• find a comparable software package that runs directly on your Mac, and skip all the added complexity of Virtual Machines and emulation.

Your tag line says that you have a M3 Pro MacBook Pro. The only supported way to install Windows 11 on that Mac is to get a virtual machine application (e.g., Parallels Desktop) and install Windows 11 for ARM inside an ARM virtual machine.

Apple Silicon Macs do not support Boot Camp, and Microsoft has not released Windows 11 for ARM for standalone use on Apple Silicon Macs, so you can't run Windows for ARM in a dual-boot arrangement. And, as Mr. Bennet-Alder noted, the M3 Pro uses different machine code instructions than an Intel CPU, so you cannot run regular Intel versions of Windows inside of a Parallels Desktop virtual machine.

Srims Said:

"Can I install Windows 11 on an unsupported CPU?: Hello, I have a question for you. I have a Mac computer, and I usually use macOS, but sometimes I also need to use Windows. Recently I want to try to install Windows 11 on this Mac, but I found that my CPU may not be in the Windows 11 support list. I wonder if anyone has tried to install Windows 11 on a CPU that is not officially supported? If so, can you share your experience, such as whether there are any special steps to pay attention to, or whether you encountered any problems after installation? Thank you very much for your help!"

------

Use a Virtual Machine:

VMWare Fusion will allow for Windows 11 to be installed. A Virtual Machine is essentially Windows-in-a-window. Use VMWare Fusion Pro for Mac. In an Intel Mac, you can go Windows 10 and down to Windows 95. As for IBM processors, this is not an option. I plan to keep my Intel-Based Mac for some time, so that I can run these older VMs. Note the VMWare is now an annual subscription, as it has been bought out by a company.

It is not an easy job to run on an old PC or Mac as it has dozens of system requirements the computer has to meet, such as TPM 2.0, Secure Boot or a model CPU (Intel 8th Gen). However, there are a couple of tricks that help you install Windows 11 on an unsupported CPU and it is quite safe to do as far as I know.

You can do this by adding a new entry in Registry or download a custom Windows 11 ISO to bypass Windows 11 system requirements. Make sure backup the data before the installation.

Creating a Windows 11 virtual machine is a possible solution but it is not the best, especially for entry level Mac, which has only 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD. Windows 11 could be running very slow and it will be painful experience for sure. It is a nice option for high end Mac models. In addition, you need an extra 100GB free space to run the virtual machine software and Windows 11 virtual machine.

In fact, there are a couple of other workarounds for installing Windows 11 on unsupported CPU, no matter it is a Mac or PC. The trick is by modifying registry (shift + F10) during the installation or make a custom bootable USB with third-party tools. They will patch the Windows 11 ISO and the installation wizard won't check system requirements.