Written by
Ed Bott, Senior Contributing Editor
Ed Bott
Senior Contributing Editor
Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades’ experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications.
Full Bio
Posted in The Ed Bott Report
on December 13, 2021
| Topic: Windows 11
Windows 11: Everything you need to know
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Microsoft’s staged rollout of Windows 11 is kicking into a higher gear these days, which means your Windows 10 PC could receive an invitation to upgrade at any time. When that day comes, you’ll have a decision to make: Do you proceed with the upgrade, or do you stick with Windows 10?
The good news is that you won’t be forcibly migrated to Windows 11. For now, at least, the upgrade requires you to approve the installation by clicking a button like the one shown here.
Not ready to upgrade yet? Click that faint link to stay on Windows 10
If you’re not ready to upgrade, all you have to do is click “Stay on Windows 10 for now.” That action hides the upgrade option and removes the associated notification icon from the taskbar.
If you’re ready to upgrade, you can kick things off by clicking the big Download And Install button. Before you do that, though, consider what can go wrong.
Your hardware might not support Windows 11
If your PC is brand new, it might have come with Windows 11 preinstalled. If that’s the case, you have the option to downgrade to Windows 10, but I don’t recommend it. Most people will do just fine off sticking with the OS, hardware drivers, and utility software that their PC was designed to use.
For older PCs, the story is complicated by the hardware requirements for Windows 11. These are more than just a technicality. The biggest hurdle is the CPU compatibility requirement, which rules out most PCs that were designed before 2019. If your PC has a 7th Generation (or earlier) Intel CPU, its CPU is unsupported, which means you won’t be offered an upgrade at all.
On those older PCs, you still have the opportunity to move to Windows 11, but you’ll have to do so the hard way, by downloading installation files, performing a clean install, and then restoring your programs and data. (For details, see my Windows 11 FAQ: Our upgrade guide and everything else you need to know, under the heading “What happens if my system doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements?”)
You might lose features you rely on
Some people love the way Windows 10 works. I mean, they really, really, really love it, and they’re concerned about some aspects of the user experience that have changed in Windows 11.
For example, you can dock the Windows 10 taskbar at the top of the display or on either side, but the Windows 11 version is limited to the bottom of the display. The upgrade also removes your ability to drag a file or app icon onto the taskbar and have it pinned as a shortcut and to organize Start menu shortcuts into folders.
Enterprise Software
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Microsoft
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Windows
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Windows 10