Upgarde from Windows 10 to Windows 11

[Val Gavin]

I’ve been getting calls regarding Windows 10 and what will happen after October 14 next when Microsoft stops providing updates and technical support (not that there was much support ever)

Anyway, there is no real need to worry Windows 10 will continue well into the future without any major issue, Windows 7 is still running happily on many computers, and I still have Windows XP running on a computer that has reached maturity at the age of 21 years. I give it an outing and start it up at least once every month to keep the spiders out.

So no matter what messages you get from Microsoft, your Windows 10 Desktop/Notebook will not stop functioning on October 14.

Also no matter what messages you get regarding the suitability (or not) of your Windows 10 computer, you can upgrade to Windows 11 for free.

To upgrade and run Win 11 comfortably you will need a computer that has an i3 or i5 CPU with minimum 8GB of ram and about 10GB of spare disk space, you can then chose do a clean install or keep all your files and settings.

Windows 11

Most computers purchased in the last 6 years or so will have 8^th gen CPU’s but many older refurbished will still be using older CPU architecture

To find out what generation your Intel or AMD CPU is, In Windows Explorer right click on ‘This PC’ and select properties, on the popup page look for Device Specifications and under this you will see Processor Information it will look something like this

 Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8761 CPU @ X.X0GHz   3.20 GHz, ‘this is a 8^th gen CPU’

Your one may look different depending on the make and model. The first digit after the i5- or i7- is the chip gen so i5-8761 is an 8^th gen that means that according to ‘Microsoft’ the architecture is compatible with Windows 11.

When you try to upgrade your 8^th gen to Win 11 and if you are getting compatibility issues it most likely that TPM (Trusted Platform Module) is not enabled in the computer BIOS.

To enable this you need to restart your computer and at start up when you see the computer name/logo flash on screen press the F2 key (you must do this before Windows starts to load)

This will allow you to enter the Computer BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) this is the heart of your computer and the first bit of software to run and allows interaction between your operating system and the computer’s hardware (monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, USB etc etc).

When you press F2 you will enter the BIOS Look for security settings, advanced and TPM just make sure it’s set to enabled save and exit.

Restart your computer, check for updates and you will be given the option of upgrading to Windows 11

Now if you have an older computer and you try to update it to Windows 11, you will probably get the following message. This PC will not run Windows 11 or

Your PC does not meet the needed requirements. Windows 10 will be supported until 14 October 2025, but you can also explore new PCs that will run Windows 11.13

And as far as Microsoft in concerned that’s it, But.

You can upgrade older systems to Windows 11 you just have to bypass Microsoft upgrade block,

You can do this with apps like Rufus or Flyby11

If anyone is seriously interested in doing this as an experiment I can send you the details and a workaround, but most probably better to leave Windows 10 on older systems, it will be much more stable

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I have been working with computers since the mid 1980's and have seen lots of changes over that 40 years, I remember it was late 1986 that I got my first copy of Windows 1.03, from a friend in US, it ran on top of MS DOS a disk operting system (on a floppy disk (who remembers them), There have been a few good versions of Windows realeses over those years and some better forgotten. but Windows 1.0 was supported by Microsoft until 2000

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Just one more thing, remember, that computer do not slow down with age, its just that software demands more resources RAM wise, and faster access, like SSD drivees, mechanical hard drives tend to lag, files get fragmented bad sectors start to appear, you can run maintenance programs to try and fix these issues, but...

But all is not lost if you have a working desktop PC or Notebook with an i3 CPU or equivalent with 8GB ram, you can refurbish it by purchasing a relatively cheap SSD drive and some Ram, you can then clone your older mechanical drive to the new faster SSD one using cloning software such as ( EaseUS, Mini Tool Partition Wizard, or Acronis) will do the trick, you'll be amazed at the difference, and apart from your own time the cost should be under €100 

I'ts a shame, I see so many good computers needlessly going to the skip or recycling with many years of work still left in them, I think its time we stpped dumping perfectly good computers, most small businesses and schools do not need state of the art computers, an i3 with 8GB of ram, a SSD drive and Windows 10/11 will run MsOffice or any wordprocessing packages and 99% of school related software.

Val Gavin Computer Services

v...@valgavin.biz   

 

[Tim Lavery]

Val,

Thanks for your advice in terms of upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11, for so many schools on tight budgets your advice is very valuable, and it is clear that there is a considerable amount of hype and scare tactics around regarding the need to upgrade at all. School IT support should take note.

Tim Lavery

[jim....@adamstowncc.ie]

For those schools not in a position to upgrade the most important thing is to ensure you have a good and reliable Security in place on the computer, both Anti-Virus and Firewall.

This will help protect you from some of the potential attack vectors that will be coming down the line. 

With security updates essentially stopping, security vulnerabilities will be targeted 

Also make sure you don't have a single point of failure and if important data is being stored on PCs that are staying on Windows 10 you need to get a backup policy in place in case the unthinkable happens.