Windows 11 - upgrading from Windows 10

[shopper150]

My computer is offering me a free upgrade to Windows 11.

Is there anything in particular that I should be aware of before agreeing to the upgrade?
Any potential downsides?

[xeny]

Only one I'm aware of is the loss of the ability to uncombine task bar buttons, which is either a non issue, or insanely annoying, depending on personal preference.

[fatbutt]

Less easy to get to the inner settings. Also, doesn't work with any of the webcams we have distributed around the office.

[paulrockliffe]

I don't think so, I've not noticed anything major that is worse in W11, quite a few things, particularly around using multiple monitors and multiple desktops are better. The only thing that annoys me is that I really liked the full-screen Start Menu in Windows 10, but to be honest, I just press the Start button and start typing the name of what I want to open.

You'll be a while off yet, but if you don't upgrade at some point you'll lose the option of upgrading to Windows 12, 13, 14 etc at no cost. I'm running W11 on three machines whose license keys were originally on OEM Windows 7 laptops, free upgrades over getting on for 15 years.

It's not really very disruptive, but I think it's worth looking at what you have tied to the OS drive now and whether you can move it to another drive, back it up to a Cloud etc. If you can get your PC setup so that you can format the drive, install windows, install a list of apps and sign into some accounts without losing anything then it makes decisions like this much simpler and an upgrade will leave you with an old version of the OS taking up space in case you want to roll back. Better to install from scratch if you can.

Similarly, if you need more storage space, it's an ideal opportunity to stick a fast SSD or M2 drive in and start from scratch on that.

[xeny]

paulrockliffe said:

The only thing that annoys me is that I really liked the full-screen Start Menu in Windows 10, but to be honest, I just press the Start button and start typing the name of what I want to open.

Isn't the full screen start a Windows 8 thing? I agree though, press the start button on the keyboard and start typing is the way to launch applications.

paulrockliffe said:

You'll be a while off yet, but if you don't upgrade at some point you'll lose the option of upgrading to Windows 12, 13, 14 etc at no cost. I'm running W11 on three machines whose license keys were originally on OEM Windows 7 laptops, free upgrades over getting on for 15 years..

I've just done an OEM 8 to 10 upgrade, so I'm not sure this is much of a risk, more a thing MS hints at to encourage the upgrade process.

[anonymoususer]

shopper150 said:

My computer is offering me a free upgrade to Windows 11.

Is there anything in particular that I should be aware of before agreeing to the upgrade?
Any potential downsides?

You may find your computer isn't ready for Windows 11 depending on how old your porocessor is.
Someone will be along in a moment to say that doesnt really matter and you can get round it by doing x y and z and they will be correct.
The problem can though come back when there is a later version offered via windows update and you get the same ineligible message pop up

[to3m]

xeny said:

Only one I'm aware of is the loss of the ability to uncombine task bar buttons, which is either a non issue, or insanely annoying, depending on personal preference.

Along similar lines, the taskbar is apparently stuck at the bottom of the screen, and can't be docked to the side.

[paulrockliffe]

xeny said:

paulrockliffe said:

The only thing that annoys me is that I really liked the full-screen Start Menu in Windows 10, but to be honest, I just press the Start button and start typing the name of what I want to open.

Isn't the full screen start a Windows 8 thing? I agree though, press the start button on the keyboard and start typing is the way to launch applications.

paulrockliffe said:

You'll be a while off yet, but if you don't upgrade at some point you'll lose the option of upgrading to Windows 12, 13, 14 etc at no cost. I'm running W11 on three machines whose license keys were originally on OEM Windows 7 laptops, free upgrades over getting on for 15 years..

I've just done an OEM 8 to 10 upgrade, so I'm not sure this is much of a risk, more a thing MS hints at to encourage the upgrade process.

It was originally Windows 8, maybe 8.1? It's an option in Windows 10 though. I've probably ranted about this before, but why not just put all the options in rather than picking one at random and pissing half your users off with every new release?

I like the fullscreen not because it's better for launching single apps, but because it's a great platform for developing the Start concept - Let me create groups of apps, so I'm doing X and I want all these apps open and I want them where they were last time I was doing X. Then make it dynamic, so if I close a file or an app it's no longer in the X group, ditto if I open something new. Then if I stop doing X, I close everything and it's frozen ready for next time I need it all.

[Mr Whippy]

paulrockliffe said:

You'll be a while off yet, but if you don't upgrade at some point you'll lose the option of upgrading to Windows 12, 13, 14 etc at no cost. I'm running W11 on three machines whose license keys were originally on OEM Windows 7 laptops, free upgrades over getting on for 15 years.

I have/had 3 Win7Pro licences, bought after Win10 arrived on the scene.

I upgraded my last one to Win10 Pro this year.

I’d argue you get plenty of latitude on free upgrades on Pro versions at least.

[anonymous-user]

One thing to think about is has the manufacturer of your PC included any modifications to Windows 10 that will be lost if you upgrade? My laptop is a Lenovo Legion Pro and has several power modes built in that are selected via FN Q. I always run my laptop in Quiet mode which causes the processor to run at 1MHZ and hence the fans never kick in.

After the upgrade these power modes were lost and my processor was constantly running at full speed which was very annoying.

In the end I had to completely wipe my laptop and reinstall the Lenovo version of windows 10 to get them back.

[Sheepshanks]

Joey Deacon said:

One thing to think about is has the manufacturer of your PC included any modifications to Windows 10 that will be lost if you upgrade? My laptop is a Lenovo Legion Pro and has several power modes built in that are selected via FN Q. I always run my laptop in Quiet mode which causes the processor to run at 1MHZ and hence the fans never kick in.

After the upgrade these power modes were lost and my processor was constantly running at full speed which was very annoying.

In the end I had to completely wipe my laptop and reinstall the Lenovo version of windows 10 to get them back.

Another Lenovo thing that bugs me is their battery icon doesn't work in Windows 11 - sure the Windows one is there but it's much smaller and you have to hover over it to see the battery percentage.

[anonymous-user]

I'm a little annoyed by the announcement that Microsoft stops supporting W10 in 2025. I've got 4 desktops and a laptop telling me they don't meet the minimum requirement for upgrade. I wouldn't mind but two are Home Theatre PCs and the rest are used for browsing the internet. Hardly taxing and they are all working fine on W10. So in less than 2 years, I'll need to do a major hardware upgrade. The 2 HTPCs will get new mother boards and processors, I'll re-use everything else.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 30th December 16:48

[130R]

wormus said:

I'm a little annoyed by the announcement that Microsoft stops supporting W10 in 2025. I've got 4 desktops and a laptop telling me they don't meet the minimum requirement for upgrade. I wouldn't mind but two are Home Theatre PCs and the rest are used for browsing the internet. Hardly taxing and they are all working fine on W10. So in less than 2 years, I'll need to do a major hardware upgrade.

Windows 11 requires TPM. You might have it but it's just not enabled in BIOS.

Personally I am sticking with 10 for now because there is zero benefit in going to 11.

[sociopath]

wormus said:

I'm a little annoyed by the announcement that Microsoft stops supporting W10 in 2025. I've got 4 desktops and a laptop telling me they don't meet the minimum requirement for upgrade. I wouldn't mind but two are Home Theatre PCs and the rest are used for browsing the internet. Hardly taxing and they are all working fine on W10. So in less than 2 years, I'll need to do a major hardware upgrade. The 2 HTPCs will get new mother boards and processors, I'll re-use everything else.

Edited by wormus on Friday 30th December 16:48

They won't just stop working. Just MS support stops. You may want to think about the security depending what you're doing, but they'll still work

[Steve_H80]

wormus said:

I'm a little annoyed by the announcement that Microsoft stops supporting W10 in 2025. I've got 4 desktops and a laptop telling me they don't meet the minimum requirement for upgrade. I wouldn't mind but two are Home Theatre PCs and the rest are used for browsing the internet. Hardly taxing and they are all working fine on W10. So in less than 2 years, I'll need to do a major hardware upgrade. The 2 HTPCs will get new mother boards and processors, I'll re-use everything else.

Edited by wormus on Friday 30th December 16:48

If your just using 3 of them for browsing why not ditch windows and put linux on them? It's not difficult to do, costs nothing (Linux is free) and the learning curve is far easier than windows 7 to 10.

[anonymous-user]

130R said:

wormus said:

I'm a little annoyed by the announcement that Microsoft stops supporting W10 in 2025. I've got 4 desktops and a laptop telling me they don't meet the minimum requirement for upgrade. I wouldn't mind but two are Home Theatre PCs and the rest are used for browsing the internet. Hardly taxing and they are all working fine on W10. So in less than 2 years, I'll need to do a major hardware upgrade.

Windows 11 requires TPM. You might have it but it's just not enabled in BIOS.

Personally I am sticking with 10 for now because there is zero benefit in going to 11.

I agree, Windows 10 is pretty stable and decent, the one laptop I have upgraded to 11 seems to be slower, uses more battery and is carrying out constant upgrades, like a modern day Windows ME or Vista. No benefit in terms of what it does as an OS.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 30th December 17:32

[anonymous-user]

sociopath said:

wormus said:

I'm a little annoyed by the announcement that Microsoft stops supporting W10 in 2025. I've got 4 desktops and a laptop telling me they don't meet the minimum requirement for upgrade. I wouldn't mind but two are Home Theatre PCs and the rest are used for browsing the internet. Hardly taxing and they are all working fine on W10. So in less than 2 years, I'll need to do a major hardware upgrade. The 2 HTPCs will get new mother boards and processors, I'll re-use everything else.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 30th December 16:48

They won't just stop working. Just MS support stops. You may want to think about the security depending what you're doing, but they'll still work

True but I forgot to mention I also have Office 365 which no doubt will also stop working, along with no security updates as you say. Not expensive to upgrade hardware, but an unnecessary annoyance when W10 works fine.

[anonymoususer]

Steve_H80 said:

If your just using 3 of them for browsing why not ditch windows and put linux on them? It's not difficult to do, costs nothing (Linux is free) and the learning curve is far easier than windows 7 to 10.

Surprised this hasnt been mentioined before.
It's one of the computer worlds best almost hidden joys
No doubt someone will pop up and complain that they tried it but they coluldn't get their printer, scanner, mouse, keyboard or some other unimportant thing to work with it. These people won't see the larger picture. Admittedly they may not see any picture as they couldnt get the right drivers for their graphics card but that's another issue.
Nol all that is of no consequence. There are more flavours of Linux than of ice cream and there is sure to be the right one for someone. Linux may be considered a bit of a challenge but if brings people closer to an understanding of how their computer works and what is needed to make it work surely it's a good thing.
And it's free

[zippy3x]

anonymoususer said:

Surprised this hasnt been mentioined before.
It's one of the computer worlds best almost hidden joys
No doubt someone will pop up and complain that they tried it but they coluldn't get their printer, scanner, mouse, keyboard or some other unimportant thing to work with it. These people won't see the larger picture. Admittedly they may not see any picture as they couldnt get the right drivers for their graphics card but that's another issue.
Nol all that is of no consequence. There are more flavours of Linux than of ice cream and there is sure to be the right one for someone. Linux may be considered a bit of a challenge but if brings people closer to an understanding of how their computer works and what is needed to make it work surely it's a good thing.
And it's free

Awesome, been a while since the last "this is the year of Linux on desktop". Look forward to the next.

[Motorman74]

Steve_H80 said:

If your just using 3 of them for browsing why not ditch windows and put linux on them? It's not difficult to do, costs nothing (Linux is free) and the learning curve is far easier than windows 7 to 10.

That is simply not true. Linux isn't hard, and everything you say up to the learning curve bit has merit, but to suggest it's easier to go from windows to Linux that from one version of windows to the next is simply false.