But those hardware restrictions have also proven to be an enormous controversy in their own right. In order to provide a secure, managed PC, Microsoft’s Windows 11 code must sync up with specific PC hardware. Microsoft has the best of intentions here. Windows 11 arrives with some very strict hardware requirements for PCs that can run Windows 11, essentially requiring the latest Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology as well as a recently released computer processor. Even if you upgrade to Windows 11, you should have an option to “roll back” to Windows 10-a ten-day window, according to information that Microsoft has circulated to its customers.Īnd that all assumes that your PC will be able to receive Windows 11, too. How long that choice will be available isn’t known. Note that you can “stay on Windows 10 for now,” too. Here’s a Microsoft-provided example of how you’ll be asked to upgrade to Windows 11, as part of the Windows 10 Settings menu. You can delay the update, but not for very long. (Microsoft says it will take until mid-2022 for the update to be made available to all eligible computers.) What’s important to remember is that with Windows 10, mid-cycle feature updates like moving from the Windows Update to the Windows 10 October 2020 Update usually occurs within a month or so of when Microsoft begins pushing the new feature update to PCs.

Windows 11 will be a free upgrade to Windows 10, which some compatible PCs will have access to on or around Oct.

For now, however, most users will probably want to forgo the update from Windows 10. Under-the-hood performance improvements will collaborate with gaming enhancements like DirectStorage and AutoHDR…eventually. Yes, you’ll find things within Windows 11 worth applauding: the initial installation experience, a redesigned Settings menu, Tips, and some improved Windows apps. Teams Chat asks you to reorganize your social circles around Microsoft. A hyperactive Widgets app pushes celebrity gossip. A new Start menu seems designed for enterprises. Aesthetically, Windows 11 sacrifices productivity for personality, but without cohesion. Last year, we often felt we had to do something, and for some very good reasons, but without a real sense of the way ahead. In some ways, Windows 11 feels very much like a product of 2020. Windows 11 doesn’t convincingly answer the question every PC user should ask: Why do I need this upgrade? The new operating system repurposes some of Microsoft’s cancelled Windows 10X code, but lacks the unified vision that 10X promised.

Windows 11 will undoubtedly improve over time, but it’s a very polarizing upgrade that many users will want to forgo for now.

Installing another browser is nearly prohibitiveĪ decidedly mixed bag of improved features and unnecessary changes.

Local “offline” accounts require Windows 11 Pro.

Teams Chat is unnecessary and potentially obtrusive.

Taskbar, Start reworkings don’t benefit users.

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