Transfer Windows 10 license to new Windows 11 PC

I have a PC that runs Windows 10 Pro. It doesn't meet the requirements of Windows 11 so I cannot do an upgrade. Meanwhile, I assembled a new PC with latest hardware that can run Windows 11.

You absolutely could upgrade to Windows 11 on your current device you would just have an unsupported installation.

You can upgrade to Windows 11 regardless if your machine is compatible or not. All it takes is a registry key to do so. Despite reports saying otherwise, it appears you will still receive cumulative updates, in this unsupported state.

Plug the hard drive containing Windows 10 into the new PC and upgrade to Windows 11. I'm not sure if this can be done cleanly, as I heard that Windows may require re-activation of there are major hardware changes

This won’t work. Even if the system boots it will won’t be activated. OEM licenses of Windows 10 cannot be transferred.

Perform a clean install of Windows 11 on the new PC, and somehow transfer my Windows 10 license to the newly installed Windows 11 system. Afterwards, the old Windows 10 system can be wiped

This also won’t work since you cannot transfer the license to your new machine.

Is the second option even possible? My guess is that since I can upgrade my Windows 10 to Windows 11, the license should theoretically be able to activate Windows 11. If so, what's the right way to do it?

The correct method to install Windows 11 today is to purchase a Windows 10 license, and install Windows 11. Windows 11 is a free upgrade to Windows 10 Home and Windows 11 Professional.