The most common cause is missing or disabled TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, followed by using a non-UEFI or Generation-1 VM; other causes are a small virtual disk, an incompatible ISO, or not enough CPU. Now that you are familiar with the possible causes, let’s get to the fixes.
1. Meet the minimum requirements
If you’re just beginning to troubleshoot the ‘This PC can’t run Windows 11‘ error with VMware Workstation, the first thing you should do is make sure your current PC setup meets the minimum requirements:
The system disk needs to be 64GB or largerAt least 4 GB of RAMProcessor – 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC)The PC must support Secure BootThe PC must support TPM 2.0TPM 2.0 must be enabled
Note: While the TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot requirements can be bypassed with the workarounds below, the others are mandatory. Before proceeding, make sure you meet the free disk space, RAM, and processor requirements.
2. Enable Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 on VMware
The most common cause of this problem is that your system supports Secure Boot and TPM 2.0, but they’re disabled in VMware Workstation’s virtual machine settings. Enable Secure Boot under the Firmware section and add a Trusted Platform Module to the VM to resolve this. You can fix the error by encrypting your virtual machine and then adding a virtual Trusted Platform Module (TPM) if you use VMware Workstation Pro. Important: If you’re using VMware Workstation Player, move on to the next method, which involves a registry bypass and modifying the .vmx file.
3. Edit the VMX File to Add VTPM
Another reason you can encounter this problem is when the virtual TPM (vTPM) isn’t set up for the Windows 11 VM. In this case, you can resolve it by modifying the VMX file so that vTPM is added in VMware Workstation. Editing your virtual machine’s .vmx file and adding vTPM is a simple way to fix the “This PC can’t run Windows 11” issue. This works with all VMware Workstation variants, including Pro, Player, and Fusion.
4. Bypass TPM Check for VMware via Registry Editor
If you meet all the other requirements except the TPM check, you can bypass it by adding a registry entry during setup. This lets you continue the installation inside VMware Workstation. This method edits the Windows Registry when the system requirement warning appears on screen.
