• long running

Free Upgrade to Windows 11 for Windows 10 Users

7560

Microsoft is suggesting this is only for a limited time – mirroring the upgrade strategy it used to entice Windows 7 users to make the leap to Windows 10.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/windows-11-specifica…
Requirements are listed here: Main things are TPM2.0 and i9 7th gen, 8th Gen Intel or 2nd Gen Ryzen or newer
Clear stated:Still possible to use Windows 11 without meeting the TPM requirements with steps documented here: https://winbuzzer.com/2021/08/09/how-to-install-windows-11-w…
Check compatibility with this program: https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/windows-11#pchealthc…
Windows 11 Installation Assistant, Create Windows 11 Installation Media, Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

Microsoft has announced that it will allow users to install Windows 11 on all modern hardware, including 1st Gen Ryzen and 6th and 7th Gen Core processors. There is a catch, though. You won’t be able to upgrade your PC directly from Windows 10 to 11 if you are running older hardware, not in the official requirement list. Instead, you’ll have to download the Windows 11 ISO from the official Microsoft website and do a clean install.

The upgrade will then roll out over time to in-market devices based on intelligence models that consider hardware eligibility, reliability metrics, age of device and other factors that impact the upgrade experience. We expect all eligible devices to be offered the free upgrade to Windows 11 by mid-2022.

Here are 11 highlights of this release

  1. The new design and sounds are modern, fresh, clean and beautiful, bringing you a sense of calm and ease.
  2. With Start, we’ve put you and your content at the center. Start utilizes the power of the cloud and Microsoft 365 to show you your recent files no matter what device you were viewing them on.
  3. Snap Layouts, Snap Groups and Desktops provide an even more powerful way to multitask and optimize your screen real estate.
  4. Chat from Microsoft Teams integrated into the taskbar provides a faster way to connect to the people you care about.
  5. Widgets, a new personalized feed powered by AI, provides a faster way to access the information you care about, and with Microsoft Edge’s world class performance, speed and productivity features you can get more done on the web.
  6. Windows 11 delivers the best Windows ever for gaming and unlocks the full potential of your system’s hardware with technology like DirectX12 Ultimate, DirectStorage and Auto HDR. With Xbox Game Pass for PC or Ultimate you get access to over 100 high-quality PC games to play on Windows 11 for one low monthly price. (Xbox Game Pass sold separately.)
  7. Windows 11 comes with a new Microsoft Store rebuilt with an all-new design making it easier to search and discover your favorite apps, games, shows, and movies in one trusted location. We look forward to continuing our journey to bring Android apps to Windows 11 and the Microsoft Store through our collaboration with Amazon and Intel; this will start with a preview for Windows Insiders over the coming months.
  8. Windows 11 is the most inclusively designed version of Windows with new accessibility improvements that were built for and by people with disabilities.
  9. Windows 11 unlocks new opportunities for developers and creators. We are opening the Store to allow more developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to bring their apps to the Store, improving native and web app development with new developer tools, and making it easier for you to refresh the look and feel across all our app designs and experiences.
  10. Windows 11 is optimized for speed, efficiency and improved experiences with touch, digital pen and voice input.
  11. Windows 11 is the operating system for hybrid work, delivering new experiences that work how you work, are secure by design, and easy and familiar for IT to deploy and manage. Businesses can also test Windows 11 in preview today in Azure Virtual Desktop, or at general availability by experiencing Windows 11 in the new Windows 365.

Related Stores

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Comments

  • +112

    Gamers probably shouldn't upgrade for a long time.

    • +92

      Most everyone would be wise to wait. I'm done being a free tester for Microsoft.

      • +195

        Truth is you're never done being a free tester for Microsoft 😂

        • +33

          This is true. Have a look at Microsoft Word. They still can't get it right after 30 years.

          • +103

            @ph81: " Have a look at Microsoft Word"

            Where is clippy? i want clippy back

            clippy was a mate of mine

            • +34

              @grog: It sounds like you are trying to write a letter.

            • +33

              @grog: It sounds like you're trying to write a suicide note. Here, let me help you.

            • +1

              @grog: Your mates name was actually Clippit

            • +7

              @grog: I shot 'Clippy' with a blunderbuss. Sadly it didn't improve any of the numerous MS TURD functionality glitches at all; but it made me feel better.

              Some of the functionality errors I've been asking MS to fix for more than a decade are:

              a. The 'find' feature often completely fails to find a word, even if it appears in the document many times; therefore it is almost useless because it cannot be trusted. The only way to ensure that it has done a 'proper' search for the word is to click somewhere in the document after the first search, type something, delete it, then run a second search. Useless.

              b. Spell-check's 'ignore all' feature fails about 10% of the time; particularly (but inexplicably) re terms/'words' that contain numbers or symbols.

              c. Endless 'cryptic' automated formatting that often simply cannot be 'turned off'; because (according to MS staff) "it's embedded in the 'style' that the document was created using" (?; wtf?).

              d. Online 'help' staff that seem to have never actually used MS Word/know virtually nothing about it. Often you can spend about 6 hours being 'helped' online by a succession of idiots higher and higher up the 'chain' (supposedly), only to be informed (erroneously of course) at the end of it all that the problem is terminal because the document is 'corrupt'. Scoff.

              e. No 'non-breaking en dash'. OK this last one is more of a 'pet hate' than an actual error, but really, why tf can't they simply create this feature, so that we can stop correctly expressed numerical ranges (i.e. ranges expressed with an en dash, not a hyphen) being split by a line break (a feature that already exists for hyphens and spaces, and would thus be very easy to implement)?

              I was really happy a couple of decades ago when 'Open Office' appeared, and I held out great hope for it; because I assumed that it would rapidly be adopted by most users, because MS Word has always been so terminally effed. Sadly that was not the case.

          • +19

            @ph81: The fact that they still haven’t worked out how to copy a table from Excel to Word without screwing up the formatting is amazing.

            • @Ugly: Any other Office can do that yet?

            • @Ugly: Any other Office suite can do that yet?

              • @anismistry: I used to do it twenty-five years ago on the Mac with ClarisWorks. Pretty sure I used to do the same with some WordPerfect Office templates twenty years ago.

          • +7

            @ph81: How I miss WordPerfect 5. My first word processor for Windows.
            Can also remember.. Just.. GEOS on the 64.

          • @ph81: @ph81: What's wrong with word?

          • +2

            @ph81: My question was going to be "can I downgrade if it's a lemon?"

          • @ph81: I've never used Microsoft Word. What have they not gotten right yet?

        • +1

          Well, I'm almost at the tipping point to dump Windows once and for all. I'm bearing with it simply because there are no substitute on other platforms for some tools I use. With bug 10, M$ has went way too far. I really did not have the habit to turn of computer overnight but M$ managed to force me doing so by trying to auto updating to bug 10 from Windows 7. The funny thing was that the upgrade never succeeded and of course neither did I expect it to succeed as there were so many stuff installed but the rollback did. So every night the fan run like crazy but in the morning it looked nothing suspicious. After being woken up in the mid-night for too many times, I decided to take a look what was going on and all those crap revealed. Here send my compliments to Toshiba, the boot drive is still running like new after such abuse. Did not want such drama to continue, finally I upgraded to bug 10. Story did not end there, so after every update, I found some surprise, it could be something annoying got fix, or some core utilities such as diskpart got broken. I guess was lucky enough, as despite all those stupid stuff, I did not really lose a single file like being reported.

          And I've been using Linux/BSD all the time along with Windows, and they, especially some Linux distributions are getting better and better and I can actually use them to complete most of my daily task without any difficulties, which is not like a decade ago. To me, it's almost the time to ditch Windows, I might just being waiting for the last straw.

          • +3

            @[Deactivated]: Unfortunately many apps are Windows only and Wine just doesn't cut it for some of them. This may be the version of windows that pushes many to Linux though, as you need the TPM chip or s\w TPM and many older, but still fully functional, PCs don't have that capability…there is no way I am going to buy a new PC just to run Win11 so I'll stay on 10 till it is unsupported and then migrate to Linux.

            • +1

              @Ben Kenobi: Yep, that's exactly the reason why I still have to use Windows. And same as you, there is no way for me to buy a new PC just for Windows 11.

            • +1

              @Ben Kenobi: Didnt they say if you running "older hardware" you can "Do a clean install" ?

              Also regarding that, if you have a genuine windows 10 key and do a clean install of windows 11 can you then activate windows 11 with that key? or does that only work when "upgrading" ( rather than clean install)

              "

              Microsoft has announced that it will allow users to install Windows 11 on all modern hardware, including 1st Gen Ryzen and 6th and 7th Gen Core processors. There is a catch, though. You won’t be able to upgrade your PC directly from Windows 10 to 11 if you are running older hardware, not in the official requirement list. Instead, you’ll have to download the Windows 11 ISO from the official Microsoft website and do a clean install.

              "

              • +1

                @ATTS: It is a hardware limit not a key\install issue …AFAIK you need TPM either as BIOS or H\W module…I have a perfectly good i7 (Gen3) in a Asrock 77 pro 4 m m\b that does everything I need it to do (I'm not a gamer) and I don't belive there is a functional TPM header on that m\b so it's Win10 till security patches stop then over to Linux…unless the PC dies before that day!

                • I've read that the price of add on TPM modules quadrupled when MS announced that TPM was mandatory…could be urban myth though, haven't checked as I don't have a TPM slot :o(
            • @Ben Kenobi: Just found a TPM bypass that may work for folk on older h\w: https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-re…

          • +3

            @[Deactivated]: I used Linux Mint as my daily for 5+ years. I don't game. Worked perfectly. Only using windows now on work machine as it is running a windows based ERP system but I did setup the file server for it on Linux as the windows server they had fell over once a week on average. Now it's uptime is around 12 months in between courtesy reboots or scheduled upgrades.

            • @dmbminaret: I mainly use Fedora and Debian and I'm super happy with both of them.

              • +1

                @[Deactivated]: How's the Bluetooth and WiFi support in those distros these days?

                I grew tired of the constant tweaking and friction (for Bluetooth & WiFi) that came with every linux distro I've ever used. Also found linux power management subpar across the board, I got terrible battery life with linux (running on the metal) on MacBook Pro and Dell XPS. This was a few years back.

                Eventually I just coughed up Apple's extortionate prices for a 32GB/2TB MBP. Great computer other than the GPU (AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB). I'd prefer Nvidia, but I knew what I was signing up for. Their new machines with the in-house chips and the 'unified memory' where the RAM doubles as VRAM seem promising. Particularly when they start making them above 16GB.

                Also all the little quality of life things like handoff, continuity, etc that don't show up on a spec sheet are pretty compelling for me. Getting all your Safari tabs seamlessly across your devices (I suppose you could get something almost as good if you were willing to use Chrome on your iPhone?) and your AirPods automatically switching devices when you open/close your MacBook lid. Obviously I don't game, that would be a different story.

                • @deadset: For WIFI, my experience is pretty good, my laptops use Intel ones, did not really experience any issue really. For Bluetooth, I cannot give any advice as I don't use it much, even on Windows. Regarding power management, I don't have much idea neither. I mostly use laptops like workstations, in most of cases the AC power is on and even if I disconnect main power, the time on battery would most likely be less than 1 hour. For those power management issues, I'm inclined to see it related with drivers. During the past few years, linux drivers get much better and vendors like Lenovo or Dell event provide laptops with linux pre-installed. But everyone's experience would vary as far as I can see. I don't have problems cannot vouch someone else would not have problems.

                  For Apple products, I cannot tell much neither. Believe it or not, I never liked Apple products as I simply don't want Apple to tell me how to do things. There is no way for me to install iTunes to just copy files to/from my phone etc.. I do have a few iPads at home but the time I spent on them only a couple of hours, just for setting up the devices and/or grant permissions for kids etc. Apple products mean almost nothing to me…

          • @[Deactivated]: diskpart has always worked for me: it is the best way to destroy data on a drive :p

            • +1

              @the Unforgiven: Its version specific and depends on what you are trying to do. For me, the scenario was I wrote some iso to the thumb drive and in some version of Windows 10, I simply could not format it. All means provided are throwing out same unknow error. Had to use SDFormat tool or linux. Other annoying thing was in some versions, neither of the two UIs to set IP address work intermittently, which means I had to retry multiple times to just set an IP address.

          • +1

            @[Deactivated]: Migrate to Linux Mint. I did five years ago and never looked back. Window$ is just s%*i

          • @[Deactivated]: switch to Linux, for Office and other stuff you can use O365 and other cloud alternatives. Don't use OpenOffice or LibreOffice it will make you dislike Linux.

        • -1

          The windows directory is still the largest replicating virus on anyones hard drive.

        • That's why I get my copy of Windows for free. I'm paying while using it. 😂😂

        • +3

          They may beta test with our health, but they'll never take our frame rates!

          • -7

            @SKiZO: Not a coincidence that windows 11 come out as soon as the country hit 80% 1st dose.

    • +16

      From early benchmarks, games are getting higher FPS in W11 so…

      • +33

        Less about FPS and more about bugs no?

        • +6

          its all about the FPS

          • +8

            @Hugh G Rection: I'd like to add, that not only has my FPS gone up in Win11 - My RGB has extra RGB. Can't argue with that performace boost!

            • +16

              @VikingAesir: Normally, MS releases a Good/Nice OS and it is supported for a long time. Then a new one comes and its Crap OS for the most part, has lots of problems and isn't as successful commercially. But the major version after that turns out to be another Nice OS, and then the people who held onto their older versions decide to upgrade. The gap between Nice OS to Nice OS is about 6-year period. Hopefully I got the year/order listed correctly.

              So let's look at Microsoft's usual commercial pattern:

              1 - 1990 - Windows 3 - Crap
              2 - 1995 - Windows 95 - Nice
              3 - 1997 - WindowsME - Crap
              4 - 1998 - Windows 98 - Nice
              5 - 2000 - Windows 2000 - Crap
              6 - 2003 - Windows XP (sp2) - Nice
              7 - 2006 - Windows Vista - Crap
              8 - 2009 - Windows 7 - Nice
              9 - 2013 - Windows 8 - Crap
              10- 2015 - Windows 10 - Nice
              11- 2021 - Windows 11 - …..you be the judge!!

              • +16

                @Kangal: I take exception to Windows 3 being 'crap', unless you are referring to 3.0. The longer-standing version was 3.11, which was very good (for it's time, that is).

                Oh, and Windows ME (Millennium Edition) was released in 2000 (after Win 98). That might have been what you were thinking of when you put Windows 2000, which was the latest Enterprise version of Windows NT, rather than a consumer OS…

                • @papachris: I think you're right. I was young when '95 was around, so a little muddy. The ME version was that cartoony one that always crashed right? Heard about Windows 2000, it was in the magazines back then. Google tells me it's a server specific OS versions, never used any of those. I remember Linux was hot topic back before Xp and always was touted as a superior alternative. So what do you propose instead? Something like this:
                  Windows 3 - Crap (end of Intel's 808xx range)
                  Windows 3.11 - Nice (start of Intel's Pentium)
                  Windows 95 - Crap
                  Windows 98 - Nice
                  WindowsME - Crap
                  Windows XP - Nice

                  • +1

                    @Kangal: 98 was pretty rubbish too, 98SE was the better version.

                • @papachris: When comparing Windows 3 to MacOS at the time, Windows 3 was definitely crap.

                • +8

                  @papachris: Windows 2000 was actually pretty good. I've been using it until the release of Windows server 2003.

                  • +1

                    @[Deactivated]: yep - that was my gaming OS for decent amount of time before going XP

                • -2

                  @papachris: For anybody who owned a Mac at the time, yes, Windows 3.1 was crap.

                  If you would happily go back to using Windows 3.1 as a daily driver (assuming of course that the software you currently use was still supported) would you still want to use it? If not, then it was crap.

              • @Kangal: Agree except Windows 2000 was solid - first build based on NT and therefore very stable. XP was Windows 2000 with the Fisher-Price skin, it wasn't crap but it didn't add anything substantial. There's a few releases where barely anything changed, e.g. Windows 8.1. So I'd say:

                1 - 1990 - Windows 3 - Crap
                2 - 1995 - Windows 95 - Nice
                3 - 1997 - WindowsME - Crap
                4 - 1998 - Windows 98 - No change
                5 - 2000 - Windows 2000 - Nice
                6 - 2003 - Windows XP (sp2) - No change
                7 - 2006 - Windows Vista - Crap
                8 - 2009 - Windows 7 - Nice
                9 - 2013 - Windows 8 - Crap
                10 - 2013 - Windows 8.1 - No change
                11- 2015 - Windows 10 - Nice

                • @Piers: Was there something similar going on with MS-DOS before Windows? I remember versions 4 and 6 being good, but have no memory of 5?

                  • @CacheHunter: I don't remember 4, went 3.3 to 5, to 6, to 6.2, to windows 95.

                • +2

                  @Piers: Windows ME came out after 98 and 98 SE..
                  Win XP SP2 was a service pack.

                • @Piers: Then there was all the Fruit market OS's with animal names and the likes…

                  All crap!

                  The end!

                • @Piers: Windows 8 is very nice aside from the full screen start menu. Windows 8.1 changed a few things, good improvements. I prefer Windows 8.1 to Windows 7 & 10 but I'm not going to keep using an old OS. Works better on low spec devices than Windows 10 and Windows 7 if the device has enough vram though.

                  Windows 98SE was a million times better than ME. ME would have a blue screen once an hr.

                  • @Agret: Windows ME integrated Internet Explorer into the file explorer. You could add all the plugins in Windows 98 and it would crash just as often…

                • @Piers: Win XP had multiple Service Packs.. which were basically bug fixes. This was when Windows boxes started to infect the always-on internet. Prior to this (dial-up era), they were not a problem as you can always unplug the modem if your machine got owned.

              • +1

                @Kangal: Win 2k was great

              • @Kangal: To be honest windows is a necessary evil as a gamer. Once linux plays games flawlessly, I'll switch completely and never go back. Be nice not to have a dual boot launch screen. Stream deck and SteamOS will hopefully push things along quite a bit.

              • @Kangal: Holy crap… that's actually a very accurate summary!

                Every second release has been a bomb, and the one after has been the stable one.
                Saved for posterity :)

              • @Kangal: And before windows showed it's bloatware there was Dos, with masm support, write your own games in machine language with a footprint of a few megabytes, those were the days where you learnt what the difference is between a bit and a byte, and interacted directly with the hardware.

              • @Kangal: Windows 2000 was for enterprise and was never a consumer OS. It was rock solid at the time if properly configured. We ran it with head-end software running 24x7 Digital TV transmission.

      • +16

        Whose benchmarks? Hardware Unboxed found no significant difference.

      • +3

        If you're talking the Ben Anonymous youtube video, it was a mess. He ran it under different performance modes and it can't be replicated.

        Most reviews have them about the same. Windows 11 will have improvements for new chip models, faster load times (although directstorage is coming to Win10 too), AutoHDR will make older games look prettier, but for the average gamer with a fast CPU and fast GPU it'll be exactly the same.

        Which isn't surprising. There's not much the OS can do to dramatically speed up games, changes would happen in Direct X which is the same across both versions of Windows.

    • +1

      I think a lot of people should carefully think about if/when to upgrade. There's some significant changes including some dubious ones and people should do their research and understand it all before committing.

      • +82

        We have too many people doing their own research already! See where that has brought us

        • +52

          90% of the time people 'doing their own research' = coming to the conclusion they already had

        • -7

          Yes, let's not allow anyone to think for themselves, make their own decisions and come to their own conclusions. OBEY.

          • +4

            @m0usju1c3: Yet the alternative is that those people end up not thinking for themselves anyway and go follow some lunatic's ideas…

          • +10

            @m0usju1c3: All for people doing their own research, but I think people need more education on being wary of what they read online and taking a critical approach. Many people just swallow they read. This applies to MSM and fringe/independent sites.

      • +8

        I come to Ozbargain for my research. What should I be aware of?

        • +4

          Windows 11 Requirements Check Tool
          - https://bytejams.com/

          A free tool to see if your PC meets the requirements to run Windows 11.
          The tool performs the following checks as specified in this document from Microsoft:
          https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/8/8/788bf5ab-0751-…

          In addition it checks if your PC can support (gaming) features like AutoHDR and DirectStorage.

          • +1

            @whyisave: You should also let people you can use registry hack to get away from TPM requirements and CPU prerequisite, but doing so later down the track, Ms already announced next update will make it unworkable and you might not receive further updates

            • @neonlight: Musk tweeted this week, how it sucked that M$ forced
              him to create a M$ account, when installing Windows 11.

              So, I won't be surprised that going forward,
              to use a computer, would require constant logging in,
              ie. like how we're logged into a Android mobile phone all the time.

            • @neonlight: MS said the next update won't work on old CPUs that don't support a certain feature. That feature was added in the first generation core i3/i5/i7 CPUs so it's only going to affect people running it on like a core 2 duo or older.

      • +1

        Another option is that you'll be able to download the full iso and do a dual-boot with Windows 10, i.e. run Windows 10 and Windows 11 on the same PC .This will allow you to dip your toe in and slowly move across if you want to, or not.

      • Most dubious one file Explorer submenu totally notorious

    • +5

      came here to say exactly that

      oh well, I have just cloned over to a new ssd, can always put the old one back in and clone 10 over 11 if things go sour

      which they probs would

      • Spot on

      • +1

        @shabaka noob question how do you clone a HDD? Does this copy all system files and data…..any freeware software to do this?
        tanks

        • +4

          there's a few programs that can do that for you

          usually when you buy a new drive it might come with a license key for one. in this case, I bought Samsung 980 SSD and it came with a Samsung migration software. I have a spare M.2 slot, so I left the old drive where it is, installed second drive into the spare M.2 slot, ran the Samsung migration utility that copied one to another in like 10 minutes, shut down, and replaced old drive with the new one, and booted as usual, done

          you can also do that using external enclosure, just connect your new drive in external enclosure to your PC and migrate. Then swap out, done.

        • +1

          The free home edition of Macrium Reflect is excellent. You can either clone your entire system drive, clone individual partitions or create a system image. You can also create a bootable WinPE/WinRE USB that helps you restore from your backup image too. I've done a couple of restores from it and haven't had any issues.

    • +7

      Why? I'm gonna give it a go. Can always just reinstall W10 if it has problems.

    • +7

      I've been using a preview version for around 6 weeks on my main gaming desktop with zero issues. The interface takes some getting used to but overall I really like the feel/look of Windows 11. Will definitely be upgrading when the release drops.

    • +20

      Gamers probably shouldn't upgrade for a long time.

      Unless you want the NEW Minesweeper !!!!!!!!!!

    • +1

      I wonder if my programs from around 2005 will run on Windows 11. They barely do on 10 lmao

      • +2

        What did you make them in, VB6?

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