Question: Windows 11 upgrade, yes or no

[Bamaro]

Support for Windows 10 supposedly will end in October. How many of you have upgraded (not bought a new 11 PC) and how did it go?

 

[jthomas666]

I have always been leery of upgrading the OS.

I never upgraded my older machines, but installed Win11 pro on the machine I built earlier this year.


Support for Win10 ends on Oct 14; 22H2 will be the last version.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

Support for Windows 10 supposedly will end in October. How many of you have upgraded (not bought a new 11 PC) and how did it go?

my office did it last year, no problems. I upgraded when the office did and again no problems.

 

[crimsonaudio]

I've upgraded one machine - it was painless and worked flawlessly. The rest were either custom builds (fresh Win11 install) or preinstalled Win11 on laptops.

Win11 is easily the best OC MS has release to date, and I prefer it to MacOS (which I also use daily) at this point.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

I've upgraded one machine - it was painless and worked flawlessly. The rest were either custom builds (fresh Win11 install) or preinstalled Win11 on laptops.

Win11 is easily the best OC MS has release to date, and I prefer it to MacOS (which I also use daily) at this point.

I'm not anywhere near well-versed enough to have an opinion. But I'm interested in the opinions of those who are.

So I'm curious, CA -- why do you feel Win11 is the best operating system Windows has released? And why do you like it better than MacOS.

For the record, I have one laptop that came with Win11 preinstalled. Another is still running Win10.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

I've been running 11 on my work laptop for years now. I upgraded it back when 11 was still in beta. It has been the most stable OS from release that MS has built but, I don't love everything about it.

I absolutely hate how pushy MS is with updates on 11. I do not like to update right away because MS is known for releasing updates that occasionally cause huge problems. This is nothing new from MS but 11 makes it harder to disable automatic updates compared to previous version of Windows. I have turned updates completely off, even with registry edits, and MS eventually turns them back on. I get why they want it this why, a lot is for security and the average user pre-11 was not great at keeping Windows up to date. But for me, someone who works in IT, the lack of control over this is annoying. This is all in regard to the personal version of 11. MS has corporate versions that give business more control, but my place of work has not move to 11 yet, I went rouge for "testing" purposes.

I hate how MS basically forces you to use a MS account when setting up a fresh install of 11. You have to jump through many, many hoops to create a local account. Your average user will not even know how to do this and will have no option but to use a online MS account. There is so much more tracking in 11 and not to mention the ads they can now put on the desktop. Yes, you can turn them off but forcing customers to jump through these hoops is disgusting IMO.

There are some other nitpicking things I don't like but that is because I am so use to older version of windows and old versions of the settings/control panel menus. 11 has new menus for almost everything that they keep changing. Once I finally learn where and setting is they suddenly move it to a different menu. I use a number of CMD prompts to bring back the old 10 versions of menus as much as I can.

Unlike @crimsonaudio, at home we are an Apple family, and I love MacOS 100 times more than 11. MacOS, even the latest version, still feels like it stays out of the way a lot more than Windows. Plus, since we have basically all Apple devices, iPhones, MacBooks, Apple TVs, they all play together easily. Apple hasn't started to try and sneak ads into MacOS yet and you can still easily create an offline account out of the box on Macs.


The one thing I have not mentioned about MS and 11 is how they are trying to force AI all over 11. Unfortunately, this is not just a MS problem, but every tech company is doing this right now, even Apple. AI should be a toll we use when we need it, like Word and Excel. I wouldn't wat Excel to always run in the background, begging me to use it and I don't need AI doing that either. When I want or need to use AI, I go to chat-gpt, do what I need to do, and get out of it. I hate how these tech companies basically want AI to always sit between me and what I need to get done.

 

[jthomas666]

I absolutely hate how pushy MS is with updates on 11.

MS is pushy about everything. One way or another, it will make you use Edge, because you can't point everything towards a preferred browser.

And yes, they are pushy about updates. Two months ago I had to buy a new webcam because an update rendered my older webcam obsolete; rolling back the update didn't fix the problem, either.

That's one of the reasons I bought a copy of Office rather than doing a 365 subscription.

 

[crimsonaudio]

So I'm curious, CA -- why do you feel Win11 is the best operating system Windows has released? And why do you like it better than MacOS.

Two reasons why Win11 is not only MS's best OS, but also better than MacOS:
1- Stability - across multiple machines Win11 is consistently more stable (never crashes) than MacOS (which is, by my estimation, less stable now than it was just five years ago), and
2- Usability - where MacOS (OSX) shined for so many years was the 'intuitive usability' that Jobs insisted on in every product. As Apple has grown under Cook, it's become a boon for shareholders while making products that are less cutting edge and less intuitive than some of their counterparts. While I still prefer iOS, for example, MacOS has become cumbersome and less intuitive while making simple things more difficult for power users (as it's always attempting to 'help', often creating issues rather than solving them).

Cook was a great replacement for Jobs from a shareholder's perspective, but he has the creativity and understanding of what makes products superior of a rock. And while that sounds personal, it's not - he's overseen an OS that was clearly superior and made it worse while the competition closed the gap and surpassed his.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

I see your point with those reasons but, personally, I'd still give the edge to MacOS. It is not as good as it use to be and it is definitely geared more towards the average user and not power users. Some of the new security popups that you have to navigate are annoying for those of us that know what we are doing. They are a god send for the rest of my family though.

Win11 is the best version MS has ever released and has definitely caught up to MacOS when it comes to stability. You don't have to reboot Win11 anywhere close to how often you would for previous versions. Although I still reboot my work laptop once a week out of habit.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I can't compare to MacOS, but my favorite stopped back at Win 7. Since then, the trend has been to bury and hide ever more from the great ignorant and unwashed public. I had to dig in 10 to find what was obvious in 7 and even more in 11. I'm always reminded of "You can't handle the truth!"

 

[Bamaro]

My main concern is the install process. Is it clean? I'm satisfied with 10 and see no reason to go to 11 until support is dropped for security patches. I'm not sure if that will happen in October or not.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

My main concern is the install process. Is it clean? I'm satisfied with 10 and see no reason to go to 11 until support is dropped for security patches. I'm not sure if that will happen in October or not.

I think they mean it this time. My desktop is down one rung on the CPU. OTOH, it's a hot gaming machine, far better than this pitiful "qualified" Celeron Laptop I'm typing on now...

 

[CrimsonNagus]

My main concern is the install process. Is it clean? I'm satisfied with 10 and see no reason to go to 11 until support is dropped for security patches. I'm not sure if that will happen in October or not.

Are you asking if you can perform a clean install, meaning wipe everything and start over? Or are you asking if the upgrade process is smooth?

Yes, you can perform a clean install and start from scratch, even if you are upgrading from 10.

You can also choose to keep your files and compatible programs. It will show you which programs are not compatible, if you have any, during the upgrade process. I think it even gives the option of only moving your files but not programs. I have done less than 10 in place upgrades and have not encountered any issues. All the users' files came over perfectly and most programs were still there except some really old, out of date programs (but we knew about those ahead of time).

Honestly, this was the smoothest, and fastest, upgrade for Windows I have every experienced. The PC have not had stability issues post upgrade as well. Anyone that has done upgrades from XP to Vista, or Vista to 7 knows what kind of headache they can be. Things started improving going from 7 to 10 and now 10 to 11 is very smooth.

Shoot, 11 has a pretty smooth "go back to 10" option if things are not working right. I have done it a couple times and have not had any issues. I think this option disappears after 30 days. It's been a few years so, for all I know they may have completely removed this feature.

No matter what, always backup your data first just to be safe.

 

[Bamaro]

Are you asking if you can perform a clean install, meaning wipe everything and start over? Or are you asking if the upgrade process is smooth?

Yes, you can perform a clean install and start from scratch, even if you are upgrading from 10.

You can also choose to keep your files and compatible programs. It will show you which programs are not compatible, if you have any, during the upgrade process. I think it even gives the option of only moving your files but not programs. I have done less than 10 in place upgrades and have not encountered any issues. All the users' files came over perfectly and most programs were still there except some really old, out of date programs (but we knew about those ahead of time).

Honestly, this was the smoothest, and fastest, upgrade for Windows I have every experienced. The PC have not had stability issues post upgrade as well. Anyone that has done upgrades from XP to Vista, or Vista to 7 knows what kind of headache they can be. Things started improving going from 7 to 10 and now 10 to 11 is very smooth.

Shoot, 11 has a pretty smooth "go back to 10" option if things are not working right. I have done it a couple times and have not had any issues. I think this option disappears after 30 days. It's been a few years so, for all I know they may have completely removed this feature.

No matter what, always backup your data first just to be safe.

Smooth

 

[tusks_n_raider]

I’ll probably run 10 on my current PC until the PC itself dies or becomes too obsolete.

I have a lot of custom security applications and other custom apps that allow me to access hidden features that as @TIDE-HSV says were easy to find all the way back in 7.

If I upgraded to 11 they would either break or I’d have to completely reconfigure and it would take me more time than I’d like.

 

[jthomas666]

I can't compare to MacOS, but my favorite stopped back at Win 7. Since then, the trend has been to bury and hide ever more from the great ignorant and unwashed public. I had to dig in 10 to find what was obvious in 7 and even more in 11. I'm always reminded of "You can't handle the truth!"

Particularly in Win10 and 11, they moved various controls for no apparent reason. Moving controls out of the Control Panel was simply not a well-considered move.

Apart from that--and Microsoft's various attempts to force you to use Edge--I've really been quite happy with Win11.

 

[cbi1972]

I have multiple machines running Windows 10 and was highly apprehensive about "upgrading" functioning systems for no benefit. I had been delaying the inevitable for months. Then I got a new Windows 11 system and it seemed 'ok' so I upgraded one of my infrequently used systems that I could afford to have out of commission. It went fine. I feel better about it even if I don't care about anything 11 has to offer

 

[Bamaro]

I began to prepare for the upgrade and after running a preliminary program found out my laptop was not ready. I needed TPM 2.0. After getting this rectified, running Windows Health Check tells me that "This PC meets Windows 11 Requirements". However when I go into Windows Update it tells me in the top right hand corner "Your PC doesn't currently meet the minimum system requirements to run Windows 11". So which is it, can I upgrade or not?

 

[DzynKingRTR]

I began to prepare for the upgrade and after running a preliminary program found out my laptop was not ready. I needed TPM 2.0. After getting this rectified, running Windows Health Check tells me that "This PC meets Windows 11 Requirements". However when I go into Windows Update it tells me in the top right hand corner "Your PC doesn't currently meet the minimum system requirements to run Windows 11". Sowhich is it, can I upgrade or not?

an older laptop might not be compatible for various reasons (no idea what they all are). My office had to get all new computers in order to upgrade. My laptop at home told me I was compatible so I upgraded when my office did.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I began to prepare for the upgrade and after running a preliminary program found out my laptop was not ready. I needed TPM 2.0. After getting this rectified, running Windows Health Check tells me that "This PC meets Windows 11 Requirements". However when I go into Windows Update it tells me in the top right hand corner "Your PC doesn't currently meet the minimum system requirements to run Windows 11". So which is it, can I upgrade or not?

Probably your CPU doesn't meet minimum standards. That was my situation, one rung down from qualifying. I had other extensive problems. One hard drive with a lot of data on it was beginning to fail. The SSD which had the OS was only 256 gig. Seven years ago, that seemed adequate, but it was full, so I would have to replace it and move the OS over. So, I just bought a new computer...