This process is called a clean install, which is ironic as there's nothing particularly clean about it: Microsoft has enshittified Windows Setup.

Don't Throw Away Your Laptop: How to Install Windows 11 On Unsupported Hardware ...

Windows 10 is officially no longer supported after today, and it's time to upgrade to Windows 11. As long as you have a supported PC, it's very easy to install. But therein lies the problem: Windows ...

If you want to de-enshittify Windows 11 but find starting over from scratch to be daunting, then this is for you.

Up until very recently, Microsoft detailed how you could go about installing Windows 11 on an older PC that does not meet the operating system's hardware requirements, and specifically the TPM 2.0 ...

However, Windows 11 is not always an easy upgrade—especially if your PC is more than five years old. Microsoft's stringent hardware requirements mean a number of ...

Microsoft reached out to Windows Latest to confirm Windows 11 26H1 is real and rolling out. Existing PCs get version 26H2.