Your Complete Windows 11 Upgrade Guide: Everything To Know - Before You Ditch Windows 10

At nan consequence of stating nan blindingly obvious, Windows 11 is nan successor to Windows 10. It's built connected nan aforesaid halfway architecture arsenic Windows 10; indeed, Microsoft could person chosen to present nan caller features successful Windows 11 done a bid of characteristic updates to Windows 10 without a sanction change.

Instead, it chose to springiness nan caller OS a caller awesome type number, on pinch a group of caller and unusually restrictive hardware requirements.

Most group don't salary straight for Windows but alternatively get it pinch a caller PC.

On caller PCs, nan Windows licence is paid for by nan manufacturer, and its costs is included successful nan value of nan PC. On customizable systems pinch Windows 11 Home version preinstalled, buyers mightiness person nan action to salary other for an upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.

Also: How to upgrade Windows Home version to Pro (and why)

If your PC has a decently licensed transcript of Windows 10, nan upgrade to Windows 11 is free. If you instal Windows 11 connected a PC you build yourself aliases successful a virtual machine, you must participate a merchandise cardinal aliases different use a Windows licence to activate nan installation.

Windows 11 licenses are disposable from nan accustomed unit channels for astir nan aforesaid value arsenic Windows 10. The complete lineup of unit and OEM editions includes Home, Pro, and Pro for Workstations.

Support for Windows 10 will officially extremity connected Oct. 14, 2025. After that date, PCs moving Windows 10 will still work, but they will nary longer person monthly value and information updates unless their owners enroll in an Extended Security Update subscription. Those updates will travel astatine a steep value for business customers; free options are disposable for individual PCs, but only for 1 year.  

Also: Can't discontinue Windows 10? Here's really to support getting information updates aft October 2025

Microsoft nary longer allows PC makers to waste caller PCs pinch Windows 10 preinstalled, though you tin still find Windows 10 PCs (especially refurbished machines) successful banal astatine unit outlets. Corporate customers who bargain PCs pinch a licence for Windows 11 Pro tin workout downgrade authorities to instal Windows 10 connected those devices.

Microsoft stopped trading unit licenses for Windows 10 connected Jan. 31, 2023. You tin still download Windows 10 for free (from aka.ms/DownloadWindows10), and because merchandise keys for Windows 10 and Windows 11 are interchangeable, you tin activate nan aged operating strategy utilizing a merchandise cardinal aliases a integer licence for either version.

Unlike erstwhile versions of Windows, which prioritized backward compatibility and were built to tally connected older hardware, Windows 11 requires comparatively caller hardware and is blocked arsenic an upgrade connected older PCs. Most PCs designed and sold successful 2019 aliases later will activity pinch Windows 11.

The published system requirements for Windows 11 are arsenic follows:

• Processor: 1GHz aliases faster pinch 2 aliases much cores connected a compatible 64-bit processor or strategy connected a spot (SoC)
• RAM: At slightest 4GB
• Storage: At slightest 64GB of disposable storage
• Security: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) type 2.0, UEFI firmware, Secure Boot capable
• Graphics card: Compatible pinch DirectX 12 aliases later, pinch a WDDM 2.0 driver
• Display: High-definition (720p) display, 9-inch aliases greater monitor, 8-bits per colour channel

Also: Have a Windows 10 PC that can't beryllium upgraded? You person 5 options earlier support ends adjacent year

To cheque for Windows 11 compatibility, download and tally the PC Health Check app, which will place circumstantial compatibility issues that forestall an upgrade. Older hardware is little apt to walk Windows 11's stringent compatibility checks; for example, astir Intel 7th Generation Core processors (launched successful mid-2016) are not connected nan database of compatible CPUs, nor are PCs built utilizing AMD Zen 1 processors. PCs built successful 2017 aliases earlier are almost definite to beryllium unsupported, and galore low- to mid-priced PCs sold successful 2020 aliases earlier are apt to incorporate unsupported CPUs.

Most apps and devices that activity pinch Windows 10 should activity arsenic expected nether Windows 11. The newer operating strategy is sufficiently akin to its predecessor that nan differences shouldn't airs a problem for astir apps.

One large objection to that norm is pinch nan latest procreation of Copilot+ PCs that usage Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon processors alternatively than x86 CPUs. Developers tin take to recompile their apps for nan caller processor, arsenic each of nan Microsoft apps (including nan full Office family and nan Edge browser) person done.

Also: Can't upgrade your Windows 10 PC? You person 5 options and 3 months to enactment - earlier EOS

The developer didn't rework your app? No problem. Arm-based PCs tin tally astir apps written for x86 processors successful emulation mode, pinch a negligible capacity hit; however, apps aliases devices that require civilization drivers will only activity if nan developer recompiles nan driver for nan Arm architecture. This limitation is astir apt to look successful apps that usage system-level drivers, specified arsenic backup utilities, information software, and VPNs.

If you observe a compatibility rumor pinch hardware aliases package aft upgrading a PC to Windows 11, you person 10 days to rotation that upgrade backmost to nan erstwhile installation of Windows 10. That action disappears aft 10 days, truthful don't delay.

Windows 11 requires a hardware information constituent called a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). The TPM is simply a cryptographic processor that supports instrumentality encryption and a wide array of different information features. Many of those features were optional successful Windows 10 but are turned connected by default successful Windows 11.

To alteration nan TPM, Windows 11 besides requires UEFI firmware (no bequest BIOS allowed) and support for nan Secure Boot feature. The UEFI request besides intends that strategy disks must beryllium group up utilizing nan GUID Partition Table (GPT) standard. Systems that usage nan bequest Master Boot Record (MBR) strategy are unsupported.

Also: The champion VPN services: Expert tested and reviewed

Beginning successful 2016, Microsoft required makers of Windows PCs to see TPM 2.0 support and alteration it by default, though specified systems sometimes see firmware settings that let nan proprietor of nan PC to disable nan TPM aliases to move from UEFI to Legacy BIOS, which makes nan TPM unusable. For much connected nan exertion down TPMs, spot "Why Windows 11 requires a TPM - and really to get astir that."

On each presently supported versions of Windows 11, mounting up a caller PC for individual usage requires an net relationship and a Microsoft relationship to complete nan out-of-box instrumentality setup. The action for a section relationship is disposable erstwhile mounting up Windows 11 Pro for usage connected a business network.

After nan first setup is complete, you tin create a section relationship pinch administrative authorities and disregard aliases delete nan Microsoft account. There are besides a number of workarounds you tin usage to bypass this request and create a section relationship during nan first setup of a Windows 11 PC.

Using a Microsoft relationship unlocks a fewer features that are worthy knowing about, including Device Encryption pinch a betterment cardinal backed up to nan cloud. For a afloat mentation of personification relationship types and instructions for creating section accounts, see "Windows 11 setup: Which personification relationship type should you choose?"

The Windows 11 Setup programme includes a inferior that checks for compatibility pinch hardware requirements and blocks upgrade installations connected devices that don't meet those restrictions. However, you tin bypass that compatibility cheque by utilizing 1 of 2 workarounds, arsenic described successful these elaborate instructions. Hundreds of ZDNET readers person confirmed that these options successfully upgraded their "incompatible" PCs to Windows 11.  

The first action was primitively published successful an official Microsoft support document that has since been edited to region those instructions. This action specifies a registry cardinal you must modify earlier moving Setup. This method will activity connected a PC pinch an unsupported CPU, but it requires nan beingness of a TPM.

The 2nd action uses an open-source inferior called Rufus to bypass nan compatibility checks connected moreover aged hardware.

Using either method results successful a informing that nan installation is not recommended, including nan pursuing text: "If you proceed pinch installing Windows 11, your PC will nary longer beryllium supported and won't beryllium entitled to person updates. Damages to your PC owed to deficiency of compatibility aren't covered nether nan shaper warranty."

Older PCs upgraded utilizing this workaround proceed to person information updates alongside supported hardware, but that's not guaranteed. It's imaginable (but, successful my opinion, unlikely) that a early update to Windows 11 mightiness reinstate nan compatibility cheque without allowing a bypass. For a much elaborate discussion, see "Is Microsoft really going to trim disconnected information updates for your 'unsupported' Windows 11 PC?"

Compared pinch Windows 10, location are immoderate noticeable ocular tweaks to what Microsoft calls nan Windows 11 personification acquisition (UX), including caller icons, pinch much vibrant colors and rounded corners, arsenic good arsenic a caller strategy font.

Windows 11 besides makes immoderate reasonably extremist changes to nan different basal parts of nan Windows UX. The taskbar is now centered astatine nan bottommost separator of nan display. (There's a mounting to move it backmost to nan near if you don't consciousness for illustration overpowering your musculus representation from decades of having nan Start fastener successful nan little near corner.)

The Windows 11 Start paper is thoroughly reworked and hardly resembles nan scrolling lists of apps and utilities recovered connected erstwhile versions. This abstraction is divided into 2 rectangles nether a hunt box. The apical half contains programme icons, and nan bottommost half shows shortcuts to caller documents. You tin pin programs and folders to nan apical space, resistance them to alteration their order, and group them into subfolders. A caller creation for nan Start paper is scheduled to look astatine nan extremity of 2025 arsenic portion of nan type 25H2 update.

Also: The 11 Microsoft apps I ditch connected each caller Windows instal - and nan 11 I keep

Beginning successful 2024, Microsoft has redesigned nan personification sheet connected nan Start menu, moving nan Sign Out and Switch User options to a abstracted menu. The only different tweak for Start is nan action to pin immoderate strategy folders to nan bottommost row, betwixt nan personification floor plan image and nan powerfulness button. The Start paper can't beryllium resized.

Most of what's noteworthy astir nan taskbar is what's missing, compared to nan type successful Windows 10. The taskbar is centered astatine nan bottommost of nan display; you tin align it connected nan left, but you can't dock nan sidebar to nan apical aliases sides. Feature updates person besides brought backmost a right-click paper to unfastened Task Manager arsenic good arsenic adding nan expertise to show labels and move disconnected nan options to harvester buttons for aggregate windows associated pinch a circumstantial app.

The taskbar contains 1 caller button, which opens a Widgets pane connected nan near broadside of nan display. The action of widgets, though improved from nan first release, is still constricted mostly to Microsoft services and a cringe-worthy action of news headlines. The expertise to fine-tune nan visibility of tray icons and a crisper, cleaner Quick Settings sheet (shown below) are invited changes.

Although Microsoft regularly boasts that customer restitution pinch Windows 11 is "higher than immoderate type of Windows ever," nan caller OS has plentifulness of detractors. Most of their complaints boil down to a elemental critique: Microsoft has "dumbed down" Windows 11, they argue, removing features and simplifying nan personification interface compared to Windows 10, successful ways that don't needfully summation productivity.

Some level of dissatisfaction is inevitable pinch each caller Windows release, of course, and it's intolerable to cognize whether nan grumbling complete Windows 11 is much pronounced than successful erstwhile versions.

Also: Microsoft still has a monolithic Windows 10 problem - and there's nary easy measurement out

On much nonsubjective measures, Microsoft's information shows that Windows 11 is much reliable and much unafraid than Windows 10.

Ultimately, nan champion logic to usage Windows 11 is because it will beryllium nan only supported type of Windows arsenic of Oct. 14, 2025, and developers of apps and devices will beryllium targeting Windows 11 arsenic nan supported platform.

Windows 11 does not see third-party advertisements arsenic portion of nan halfway Windows personification experience. You will, however, find pointers to third-party apps preinstalled arsenic portion of a caller Windows installation, and Microsoft is not awkward astir promoting Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and Xbox services, pinch occasional pop-up messages and banners connected nan Start menu.

These campaigns to cross-sell, upsell, and beforehand Microsoft services done Windows PCs are successful astatine bringing successful gross for nan company, truthful they're apt to get much persistent. For a look astatine why those campaigns exist, spot "Here's why Windows PCs are only going to get much annoying."

Microsoft offers Windows 11 arsenic a free update to PCs moving Windows 10 that meet compatibility requirements and are not blocked for compatibility issues. To manually upgrade a PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11, aliases to instal a cleanable transcript of Windows 11, spell to the Download Windows 11 page, wherever you tin take 1 of 3 installation options:

• Run nan Windows 11 Installation Assistant, a inferior programme that downloads nan basal installer files and upgrades nan existent PC.
• Create Windows 11 installation media connected a USB flash drive.
• Download a Windows 11 disk image successful ISO format.

The installation files are besides disposable for Volume License subscribers and for those pinch a Visual Studio subscription. 

Also: Wiping your Windows laptop? Here's nan simplest measurement to erase each individual data

The charismatic download page only includes nan astir caller merchandise of Windows 11. As of October 2024, that's type 24H2, which has a awesome OS build number of 26100. When type 25H2 is released, its build number will beryllium 26200. Monthly cumulative updates increment nan insignificant OS build number. To find these specifications for nan existent installation, spell to Settings > System > About.

For a database of updates and links to merchandise notes, spot the Windows 11 Update History page. (Use nan pane connected nan near broadside of nan page to prime nan awesome type number.)

The astir important alteration successful nan Windows 11 era isn't package astatine all. Instead, look astatine what Microsoft calls the servicing schedule, which now produces characteristic updates erstwhile per twelvemonth (in nan 2nd half of nan almanac year) alternatively of adhering to nan frenetic twice-a-year characteristic update schedule that prevailed for nan first fewer years of the Windows 10 era.

Although those yearly releases are still called feature updates, that sanction is simply a spot of a misnomer, arsenic Microsoft now regularly releases caller features betwixt those awesome releases. New features tin get via Windows Update, arsenic portion of nan monthly information and value updates, aliases they tin beryllium delivered done nan Microsoft Store.

Also: How Microsoft now delivers Windows updates: 4 things you request to know

Those updates proceed to get monthly, connected nan 2nd Tuesday of each period (aka Patch Tuesday).

The support almanac (what Microsoft calls the Windows lifecycle) is besides caller for Windows 11, pinch Microsoft offering 24 months of support for unit and OEM editions: Home, Pro, Pro for Workstations, and Pro Education. That attack is simply a alteration from nan 18-month support model offered for Windows 10. IT unit successful business and acquisition environments get 36 months of support for Enterprise and Education editions.

Microsoft allows anyone to tally preview versions of Windows 11 connected supported hardware by opting into nan Windows Insider Program. Insider releases are available successful 4 channels: Canary, Dev, Beta, and Release Preview. In nan caller arrangement, those first 3 channels support abstracted paths from existent builds; nan only measurement to get backmost to nan nationalist releases is to reinstall Windows.

To subordinate nan Windows Insider Program, spell to aka.ms/windowsinsider and motion successful pinch a Microsoft account.

Yes, you tin instal Windows 11 successful a virtual instrumentality (VM). In fact, you tin create a virtual TPM successful a Windows 11 VM that will fulfill nan hardware requirements of nan caller operating system.

For elaborate instructions connected really to group up a Windows 11 virtual instrumentality utilizing Hyper-V connected nan Pro aliases Enterprise editions of Windows 10 aliases Windows 11, see "How to create nan cleanable Windows 11 virtual machine."

On a Mac pinch an Intel-based processor, you tin instal a third-party hypervisor and past usage a downloaded ISO to instal Windows 11. On Macs that usage Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4), nan Microsoft-authorized action requires Parallels Desktop type 18 aliases later. You'll request to proviso a licence for Windows 11 Pro to activate nan virtual installation. For specifications connected nan limitations of Windows VMs moving connected this platform, spot nan Microsoft Support article: "Options for utilizing Windows 11 pinch Mac computers pinch Apple M1, M2, and M3 chips."

At Microsoft HQ successful Redmond, immoderate MBA pinch entree to nan company's monolithic telemetry database astir apt knows nan nonstop reply to this question. The remainder of america person to guess, based connected fragmentary third-party information sources.

Also: Windows 11 usage is surging? Not truthful accelerated - here's nan existent story

Based connected those numbers, it appears that location betwixt 35% and 45% of nan billion-plus Windows PCs successful nan world are moving Windows 11. That number is changing slow arsenic Windows 10 diehards take to discontinue aged devices and bargain caller hardware. But nan Windows 11 hardware restrictions mean that astir of nan maturation will travel via income of caller PCs alternatively than done upgrades.

At nan opening of 2024, location were signs that Microsoft was getting fresh to vessel its adjacent Windows type later successful nan year. That didn't happen, and Microsoft chose alternatively to item its Copilot PCs, moving nan latest merchandise of Windows 11, type 24H2. Now that Microsoft has officially announced Windows 11 type 25H2, it's definite that Windows 12 won't look successful 2025, either.

So, possibly successful 2026 aliases 2027? As nan saying goes, "Those who cognize aren't talking, and those who talk, don't know." If Microsoft follows nan aforesaid playbook it did pinch Windows 11, though, 1 point is certain: You won't get a batch of warning. Microsoft amazed everyone pinch nan Windows 11 announcement, and nan last nationalist merchandise was fresh astir 100 days later.