Windows 10: Old PC with No TPM/Secure Boot – What Are My Options After Windows 10 Ends in 2025?

My current PC is equipped with 4GB of RAM, an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor, and an integrated Intel Q45/Q43 Express chipset. I'm currently running Windows 10, but I understand that Microsoft will officially end support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Given that this date is approaching, I'm trying to explore my upgrade options.Unfortunately, my system does not support TPM 2.0 or Secure Boot, which I know are minimum requirements for officially installing Windows 11. Given these limitations, I’m wondering:Is there any way to upgrade to Windows 11 on my current hardware, either officiall

:)

 

PC Windows 11 Upgrade - Secure Boot and TPM 2.0

Thank you for the reply and info @dashdotdot

I have a few follow up questions if that's ok!

I have gone into BIOS settings before to enable TPM 2.0 and enable secure boot but as you said the PC did not boot up and I had to short one of the components of the PC to reset to default settings before,

What would the step by step process be to update to windows 11?

I was told before to enable TPM in BIOS then use a USB with Windows 11 on it to install it. Is there a simpler way?

 

Windows 10 version 22H2 end of servicing on October 14, 2025

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/li...ober-14--2025-

 

Inaccessible Boot Device - Likely due to TPM and Secure Keys

When I boot my custom build desktop, I'm getting Inaccessible Boot Device. I then get to WinRE and I am able to go to the command prompt and I can see the windows installation on driver D.

I tried running

• Startup Repair - No luck, nothing fixed, issue remains
  
• cmd prompt - sfc/SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=d:\ /OFFWINDIR=d:\windows [enter].
  
• cmd prompt - chkdsk d: /r (answered yes to dismount)
  
• Restart Options - disable driver signature enforcement
  
• Restart Options - disable early launch anti-malware protection
  
• Safe mode
  
• playing with different settings in BIOS
  

How did I get into this messy situation:

• Win 10, tried to upgrade to Win 11. TPM was not enabled in BIOS
  
• Enabled fTPM in mobo (ASUS Prime X570-Pro)
  
• Win 10 was using legacy MBR. Successfully converted to GPT. Changed mobo to UEFI in compatibility mode (UEFI and Legacy OPROM, storage devices and PCIe devices in UEFI only mode). Boot Device is an NVME SSD (PCIE-4 compatible). Bitlocker was never enabled.
  
• No issues so far and I was able to start Win11 installation.
  
• After a few auto-reboots, at around 75% the installation failed. Inaccessible Boot Device
  
• Win11 installation was successfully reverted and I was able to login to Win10
  
• restarted the win11 install. same issue at aroung 75%
  
• Upgraded Mobo Firmware (v2407 to v4021).
  
• Win 11 installation failed again.
  
• Changed bios configs and could not boot anymore
  

Unfortunately I don't have the exact sequence of steps but these are the areas I played with

• I never run the TPM module in windows after enabling TPM in the BIOS.
  
• I was looking into Bios as some forum post suggested making sure SATA was set to AHCI. But I am using RAID on my SATA spinning HDDs. The system is booting from NVMe SSD
  
• I noticed that Bios -> Boot -> Boot/Secure Boot -> OS Type - Was set to "Other OS" and changed it to "Windows UEFI Mode"
  
• Unfortunately I don't remember if I changed any other settings at this point.
  

Other things I have tried

• Bios - Saved secured keys to USB drive and deleted existing keys (only after changing the OS type and the issue already present)
  
• Bios - installed default secure boot keys
  
• Bios - Restored saved secure boot keys
  
• Disabled fTPM (by setting it to discrete TPM - there are no external TPM module in my setup)
  
• Bios -> Advanced -> Trusted Computing -> Security Device Support - Disable
  
• Bios -> Advanced -> Trusted Computing -> Disable Block Sid -> Enable (only for next boot)
  
• A few combinations of the configs above, though likely not exhaustive of all combinations
  

I also tried to boot from the Win 10 Installation DVD and try to repair the win10 installation, but no success. Though it is possible I could have had a a bad choice of bios settings when trying this.

Any ideas on what I can do next? What would be the best procedure to try to recover the system?

• fTPM enabled
  
• Should I clear the Secure Boot Keys? Leave them empty or install default ones?
  
• Security Device Support - Leave it enabled? there are some options such as platform hierarchy and storage hierarchy (both enabled)
  
• TPM 2.0 UEFI Spec version is TCG_2 / Physical Presence Spec Version is 1.3
  
• Try to repair windows with the settings above?
  
• Try to re-install Win10 preserving personal files?
  

Thanks,

Felipe.