How to upgrade your Windows 10 PC to Windows 11

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ISSUE 20.37 • 2023-09-11 WINDOWS 11 By Lance Whitney Can you switch your computer from Windows 10 to Windows 11 without any major hiccups? Here’s how
[See the full post at: How to upgrade your Windows 10 PC to Windows 11]

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lmacri, fisher75, DLivesInTexas, abbodi86

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First thing : full (all drives, all partitions) image copy to an external HDD.

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Cybertooth, NaNoNyMouse

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Microsoft makes money from the sales of its devices. Many Windows 10 users have older hardware and cannot afford the up-to-date devices that include TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Microsoft purports to be promoting security through Windows 11 but that benefit cannot apply to those unable to afford the necessary compatible hardware. Windows 11 therefore will result in many people having to continue with an unsupported Windows 10 after October 2025.

Microsoft seems oblivious that home users do not have the budgets of corporate users. We home users are not feature hungry. Many of us just want to do web browsing and perform basic office application on Windows.

Microsoft makes money from the sales of its devices.

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Microsoft does not make the bulk of it’s revenue from devices.

https://office-watch.com/2022/microsoft-money-come-from-go-profit/

 

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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TechTango

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After a test @ initial release I have not actually done  a 10 to 11 upgrade with newer versions.

But from past experiences some (possibly annoying) things that you should maybe consider and either avoid or work out how to deal with.

I have had full booting  backup of the system drive fail to restore – seemed to be related to the setup of the partitions needed, and I try to keep data separate from the OS partition

– So Backups:
The boot partitions as a separate set.
The OS partition
The data partition
Make sure the OS and data backups are in a mode that can be “mounted” with individual files accessed.

Also – maybe split into 4GB parts so it can easily? be uploaded to OneDrive for access from a new install(or PC) as needed.

Run chkdsk (reporting mode first to see what may be altered, lost) on the OS and data partitions.
maybe “install” a new OS instance onto a USB connected drive, getting the boot facility to let you select that (now your maintenance OS)
then overwrite the OS with the backed-up one

redo any backups needed – the bootup partition ?

Toolbars – I tend to have data folders that would normally be on the /user/ area on a second partition, and have tiered set of  shortcuts to them in a desktop folder, which keeps the desktop clearer and allows backup of the data I work with as a separate process from backup of the OS partition.

I also try to tell install processes to put software in subfolders of C:\APPS\ so that I can more easily see what I have installed rathe that what is part of the OS.
but remembering that many installs also put files into the OS folders, and the \Users\ folders.

Check the AV and Backup processes, as well as any Search processes –  limit what they do,
not a good idea to have backups stare when updating the system.

NOW – working on the system to be updated –
you don’t want email processes to run, or EDGE auto-startup actions either.
maybe download an install ISO of the latest Win-11, and do an offline install ( with the hub turned off) !

Maybe also deal with services that may be enabled for Dropbox downloads and Sync of the system to cloud storage – or the OneDrive App if that has active links.

Clear out any Temporary data, Recycle bin, and maybe any undo facilities for fixes.
Consider that MS fixes and updates have been moving things to new locations –
have a look for where Wordpad.exe and Notepad.exe are now!

Check – have you got at least 32GB of free space on the OS partition.
expect the install to want about 20GB of workspace, and sufficient space for a backuit set of files of your old OS environment.

Also – consider that an install completed may be followed by mass integration processes  – Ideally wait for system processing – as per Task Manager Details, and Resource Manager reports to cease showing lots of system usage after 3 restarts before you take a new backup – (My “dev” system showed over 48GB of files updated by the integration processes – and those updates happening indicate the system may not yet be stable.

After the system becomes “stable” do a new backup

then re-enable the tasks and services you stopped.

Check the settings for sending data to MS, and other persons.

Then start checking any shortcuts – such as Wordpad.exe in your “SendTo” folder.
Reset any disabled processes, and go through other setup specialisations – power actions, closedown, personalisation, and  such as backup app activation – you do remember the code and logons etc. – and exported the passwords from EDGE before you started all this.

Re taskbars – I also have one for the favourites folder, the Programs folder, and a structured folderset of Edge shortcuts to webpages.

Also remember the new system has – probably 30+GB of old OS version file4s – that will go in 10? days – so maybe another full backup after they have been removed from the storage.

When working – consider worst case possibilities –

Your home, kit, paperwork, and backup devices get destroyed.

During a powered-up session your OS deletes the backup device you were updating, clears any attached devices – and makes them inaccessible (to you) including any “cloud” storage it can get at, as well as passing on details of your passwords and logon ID’s to banks, ISP, (email, broadband & phone accounts etc.)

Consider – security, many  computers were shipped with malware already in the “security” chip.

Yes – a lot more than just update 10 to 11, but most of that should be considered – in many years of IT support, I have encountered times when the above were important!

(also remember alt+functionkey 4) will get the selected app to be closed – and if the desktop is closed – then it will close the windows OS session.
That may work if ctrl+alt+del doesn’t – and is less dangerous than the wall./PC powerswitch. also – PC power on, and then during startup, use the PC powerswitch  to turn the system off (10 seconds hold)  3 times and the system will (hopefully) start in maintenance mode!

Jamies

 

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schwabel_ronald, NaNoNyMouse

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I also took the plunge a week or so ago and my experience went much less smoothly than I had expected.

These are all the things I could think of that might possibly cause a Windows 11 upgrade to have problems. Some or all of them may not actually change the way the upgrade is processed.

1. Make a full image backup of the C: drive so the current Windows 10 system can be restored at any time.
2. Uninstall MS Edge redirect. I was going to  reinstall it after the upgrade to Windows 11 completed.
3. Reset all MS Edge flags for the production version of Edge. I don’t know how or even if edge is involved in the upgrade process, but I decided that it probably wouldn’t hurt to do it anyhow.
4. Make sure that there is no
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

file which redirects Bing to localhost. (I really hate Bing)
5. Restore all Microsoft system App defaults
6. Run SFC /Scannow from an admin cmd prompt
7. Run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth from an admin cmd prompt
8. Run CleanMgr
9. Disable the group policies preventing Windows Update from seeing that I was eligible to upgrade to Windows 11.
10. I also made sure that the Hyper-V control panel and all Hyper-V systems were shut down.
11. Finally check for Updates.

I did wonder if maybe Hyper-V should be removed before the upgrade.

Actually, the only problem I had with my Hyper-V guest systems after updating to Windows 11 was that I had to create a new Hyper-V virtual switch and change the guest system settings to use that new virtual switch. The Windows 11 upgrade process apparently didn’t like the way my Ethernet was configured and decided to create a new Ethernet configuration that then wasn’t setup properly for the Hyper-V guest systems virtual switch.

Notes on the upgrade to Windows 11

1. When I checked for updates, Windows Update started the download and install of Windows 11.
3. After about an hour, it failed before the download had reached 100% with an error code.
4. When I looked up the error code, one of the blog posts instructed me to run SFC and DISM.
5. That made me add Steps 6 and 7 to the first list.
6. SFC did find some problems that it said were corrected. When DISM didn’t find anything, I rebooted the system to ensure that the changes made by SFC were active.
4. This time, when I checked for Windows Updates again, it no longer offered me the option to upgrade to Windows 11. It did tell me that my system was eligible for Windows 11 and it would be offered to me some time in the future.
5. I didn’t want to wait so I decided to download the Windows Upgrade Assistant. The Upgrade Assistant didn’t have any trouble downloading Windows 11, but during the installation phase, it failed again with a very generic error code that didn’t give me any way to find out what had gone wrong this time.
6. In frustration, I decided to select the retry option on the failed Upgrade Assistant install and this time the installation ran to completion. (Third time was the charm)
7. The total time elapsed was around 4 hours starting at about 8:30 AM on a Saturday morning. (8/26/2023)

I definitely had better results when I used the Windows Upgrade Assistant, although the problem with my Windows Update download might have actually been a Microsoft server  problem or a glitch on my internet connection.

However, I thought that the Upgrade Assistant gave me a lot better status about what it was doing at all times than was given by Windows Update.

I’m learning to live with most of Windows 11’s idiosyncrasies and probably won’t go back to Windows 10.

 

My system:

Windows 11 Pro

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10850K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3601 Mhz, 10 Core(s), 20 Logical Processor(s)

Main board ASUS Prime Z590M+

64 GB RAM

2 TB SSD for drive C:

4 TB SATA drive for data

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NaNoNyMouse, Cybertooth

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Many windows 10 machines can not upgrade to Windows 11 – is Microsoft going to fix this?

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No. It was done on purpose in order to sell new machines. The new “requirements” are completely arbitrary and can be worked around.

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Except that MS make no money from selling hardware (not counting Surface which is tiny).

cheers, Paul

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OEM Windows licensing. They get a cut from every device sold with Windows. So, yes, they do.

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They aren’t exactly arbitrary.  The hardware is needed for security features for businesses that connect to cloud services.

There is a reason for the push and mandates.  It’s not for consumer needs.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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So its some kind of coercion of hardware makers?

I remember seeing this video when looking up ms pluton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgFbqSYdNK4

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Cybertooth

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I have a couple of laptops which don’t meet Windows 11 requirements. An old Acer Spin I want to use for travel meets no requirements, although I replaced its 4Gb memory with 8Gb. Wow!  I joined it up to the Windows Insider program. The next day, without any input from me, Windows 11 was installed and working. Then, of course, it took a while to get 11 to perform as it should. The little Spin is perfect for undemanding work and also doubles as an ebook reader so now great for travel. Saved from the recyclers.

The other laptop, an HP Envy 17, lacked TPM, it has an Intel processor and, unlike AMD, doesn’t appear to have the software workaround. Again Windows Insider, a bit of a wait and Windows 11 installed. Still waiting for the phone call from Microsoft telling me not to do this sort of thing.

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I see no reason to upgrade my Win 10 laptop to Win 11 so I will never do so.

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Please remember that by default, you have only 10 days to revert Windows 11 back to Windows 10. You can extend this time period using registry edits mentioned by Susan Bradley.

However – reverting to Windows 10 after an extended period (>10 days) may not work and may result in an unbootable system. This occurred on a Lenovo Thinkpad T470 which I upgraded to Windows 11 for testing using a registry edit to bypass the TPM2.0 check. When I had to put it into production 40 days later after 1 cycle of monthly updates, reverting to Win10 appeared to go well until I rebooted to a blue screen. I didn’t have time to figure out what went wrong, so I booted into recovery mode and did a Reset, which removed all the programs but kept all the data.

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moss rawn wrote:

is Microsoft going to fix this?

No. And the numerous workarounds you might of heard about (including from us) may not work in the future.

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For those using the Rufus workarounds to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware…

You will not be able to do an in-place upgrade repair with their ISO.

So make sure you image your system frequently, because that will be the only way to fix it.

 

 

 

 

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NO>>>>FULL STOP…Do not update to Windows 11. Windows 11 is not for everyone. Windows 11 is target for MAC users. Many people have left Windows for MAC. This is an attempt by MS to lure those people back to Windows. But people should be running from Windows to MAC or Linux as fast as possible. But that is at least my 2 cents. Others will not agree with me.

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Many people have left Windows for MAC. This is an attempt by MS to lure those people back to Windows.

It might be helpful to remember the dominate use of Windows is the enterprise edition for business and institutions worldwide.

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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My Lenovo G70 Laptop told me a couple days ago while doing an update that my computer

is not able to upgrade to windows 11….so my question how long will I be able to use my windows 10 Home  without any problems.

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Microsoft has said there will be no more Feature upgrades for Win10, so 22H2 will be the last version and will receive security updates only going forward. Win10 will be EOS after Patch Tue. in October 2025.

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What are the disadvantages? 😉 No ads, no issues, no bad patches?

I ran 11 Preview as an Insider, skipped it when it went RTM, used it for 3 days last week (swapped SATA SSD for NVMe, so I wanted to clean install anyway) and decided to stick with W10 until the end of support.

Hopefully W12 (already announced) will be less useless.

Fractal Design Pop Air * Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 750W * ASUS TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS * Intel Core i9-11900K * 4 x 8 GB G.Skill Aegis DDR4 3600 MHz CL16 * ASRock RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB OC * XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB * SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB * Samsung EVO 840 250GB * DVD RW Lite-ON iHAS 124 * Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64-bit Insider * Windows 11 Pro Beta Insider

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Sorry, I refuse to upgrade to windows 11, especially since I have two very operational computers that don’t have the TPM chip and run Windows 10 without issue. I am aware of the end of life for Windows 10, but of the two machines I have running windows 11, I hate it. I prefer the takbar on the right hand side, can’t do that with windows 11. The insider preview, for 6 months now, the desktop icons are white and don’t show the associated programs. And no matter what setting I use, I cannot get File Exploder to open on start up. There are too many other issues to mention here. I do have one machine still running Windows 7 because the “Windows 10” software for a piece of hardware doesn’t work. I had to revert back to Windows 7 to get it to work.

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Cybertooth

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Just don’t put it on the Internet after October 2025.

 

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Paul T wrote:

(not counting Surface which is tiny

If Microsoft’s Surface business was a standalone company, it would be in the S&P 500 list. Its market share in the PC space is nearly 3.5%. Apple, depending upon the source, is about 9.0%. Both are growing.

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Hi, and noting I’ve not had a moment to look this up.  For a Windows 10 on a corporate domain, where Windows 11 isn’t mention (well the prompts go away as soon as you join the new system to the domain – Win 2016 server hybrid) what are the steps to migrate to Windows 11?

For those of you, and I respect your decision, to stay with Windows 10, save your responses please.  I’m running Win10 and 11 on corporate and even with my challenging users, the move from Windows 10 to 11 (always on a replacement system) hasn’t caused any significant concerns by my colleagues.

Have a Dell G501 desktop (much cheaper than buying a “Workstation”) that I know is Win11 capable and I’m ready to make the plunge.

Thanks,

IT Manager Geek

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TechTango, Will Fastie

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Lance Whitney wrote:

Upgrading to Windows 11 from the Windows Update screen is the quickest and most reliable method. However, if you know your PC qualifies for Windows 11 but don’t see the upgrade here, head to Microsoft’s Download Windows 11 page. Click the button to download the Windows 11 Installation Assistant to directly upgrade your current computer (Figure 9).

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I just decided to check if my laptop is compatible with W11: Lenovo ThinkPad 20H5, W10 22H2:
With “WhyNotWin11” it says CPU not compatible.
With PC health Check run as administrator I get “Your organization manages updates on this PC”. See attached.

What does this mean? I ran this as Administrator.

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CPU not compatible ; Windows 11 support only Intel CPUs 8 gen +

“Your organization manages updates on this PC” mean you have some GPEdit / Registry settings changes.

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 Windows 11 support only Intel CPUs 8 gen +

There are a few exceptions to this.  I got lucky as my desktop CPU is one of the exceptions.

https://www.windowscentral.com/windows-11-intel-7th-gen-cpu-compatibility-announcement

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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Alex5723

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This pc has: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz 2.70 GHz

Does that mean I have to buy a new one sometime before W10 is completely done?

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This pc has: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz 2.70 GHz

Sadly your CPU is not on list and as such is not Win 11 qualified per Microsoft recommendations.  FYI none of the 7th generation CPUs that qualify are used in laptops. The “U” in “i5-7200U” would be for laptops only.  It’s a heat thing.  However, there are work arounds so you could install Win 11 on an unsupported machine.

• Intel Core i5-7640X
• Intel Core i7-7740X
• Intel Core i7-7800X
• Intel Core i7-7820HQ
• Intel Core i7-7820X
• Intel Core i7-7900X
• Intel Core i7-7920X
• Intel Core i9-7940X
• Intel Core i9-7960X
• Intel Core i9-7980XE

 

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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Ken

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Ken wrote:

This pc has: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz 2.70 GHz

Does that mean I have to buy a new one sometime before W10 is completely done?

Not necessarily. There’s plenty of documentation on this site by folks who’ve thus far been successfully running Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. Your CPU isn’t on MS’s revised list located at the link posted by @TechTango right above your post.

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Ken

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Yes, GP edit restricts to W10 22H2. Do I have to change this?

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Yes, you’ll have to change it to Windows 11 22H2 or 23H2, whichever you may wish to run when you decide to make the jump from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Bear in mind that 23H2 is currently not recommended by Susan for anyone.

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Ken

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Ken wrote:

Does that mean I have to buy a new one sometime before W10 is completely done?

W10 will be with us for a few years yet and then there is Linux. I don’t see any point in worrying about it.

cheers, Paul

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Ken wrote:

Yes, GP edit restricts to W10 22H2. Do I have to change this?

You can remove the restriction as there won’t be Windows 10 23H2 and your PC is immune to Windows 11.

The big question : Why do you want Windows 11.
Windows 10 is supported until Oct. 2025 and maybe beyond with ESU.

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Neowin – Microsoft: Here’s why you can’t get Windows 11 despite passing PC Health Check compatibility

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windbg, Cybertooth

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