The Horror of Upgrading Windows 8.1

Please note this page is under construction, we are documenting an active murder.

I have dealt with increasing inconvenience as a result of being unwilling/unable to upgrade to Windows 10/11. Microsoft even gave me a personal warning (a strange suit came to my house, stood on the stoop, made proclamations about not supporting Windows 8.1 after Jnauary), but evidently the thing that will finally push me over the edge is Stray, a game where you play a stray cat in a cyberpunk town, which reasonably requires Windows 10 to play.

To my credit (?), I did make a good faith attempts to upgrade earlier this year, but absolutely everything about the process was broken. I did a lot of research, as the broken-ness was well documented, but was never able to get the process to complete.

Last week I went to the Windows website to see how much psychic damage this would cause. After repeated, valiant efforts to sell me a new computer Microsoft finally capitulated and advised I could have a copy of the Home version of Windows 11 for $140. But when I checked the specs I quickly realized there were problems.

What the Hell is TPM

Windows 11 requires something called TPM 2.0. I had a sneaking suspicion whatever this was, I didn’t have it!

    C:\Windows\system32>tpm.msc
  

I was right! OK then! According to ASUS...

TPM 2.0 is the minimum requirement recommended by Microsoft. TPM 2.0 was introduced back in 2015, and all ASUS motherboards feature version 2.0.

Apparently, TPM must be enabled in the ASUS BIOS under Advanced. I couldn’t find that option, so I confirmed my motherboard:

    C:\Windows\system32>wmic baseboard get product,manufacturer,version
    Manufacturer           Product          Version
    ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.  MAXIMUS VI HERO  Rev 1.xx
  

ASUS’s motherboard compatibility list confirms the board is not compatible with Windows 11. ASUS confirms it is compatible with Windows 10. So we’re back to trying to install Windows 10 as a sort of stop-gap until I upgrade my PC. I tried many times and failed earlier this year, but I’ll give it one last go.

Using Microsoft's Media Creation Tool

Tips from Trekkie Boy at Microsoft Answers

• Download the Media Creation Tool
• Use the Media Creation Tool to create an installation medium. (Preferably a USB stick.)
• Perform a clean boot
• Pull out all external devices except for the mouse and keyboard that are not needed for the update.
• For example: printers, scanners, hardware dongles, programming interfaces, USB hubs, USB wifi/ network adapters, USB dongles, etc.
• Please cut the internet connection for the Upgrade!
• Then plug in the USB stick created with the Media Creation Tool.
• And after that open the Windows Explorer and start the setup.exe on the USB Stick to start the Upgrade.

Reporting back.... whenever.