Tech

WINDOWS 11

James Flynn, Milborne Port Computers

Back on 29th July 2015 when Windows 10 was released, we were told that this would be it, the last Windows software. So, what’s the crack? Here is some history.

Like most software companies Microsoft have brought out new versions of their software every 2-5 years, some good and some not so good. Windows XP was great (we still have a few clients on this) then came Windows Vista (let’s not go there as this was a disaster). Windows 7 came quite swiftly after and we all thought this would be it and most people upgraded from XP to 7 which, for bigger companies, would have cost a fortune. Then, out of nowhere came Windows 8 and just like Vista was a disaster! Can you see a trend?

After Windows 8 came Windows 10 (9 was skipped!) and to the majority this has been great just like Windows 7, although there will always be some people that just don’t like it. They discontinued Windows 7 on 14th January 2020 and said the only option is Windows 10 unless you’re a business in which case you can pay Microsoft a large fee each year to keep updates going on their Windows 7 machines. Another big expenditure for large companies, either pay to upgrade to Windows 10 or pay to maintain Windows 7! It was and still is free to upgrade to Windows 10 from 7 or 8, although if you rang Microsoft or spoke to a few big-name retailers they would say you need to pay for Windows 10 or buy a new computer from them. We still currently upgrade approx 10 people a month from 7 or 8 to Windows 10, which I think is quite a lot. And now dates for your diaries – Windows 10 will be discontinued on 14th October 2025 and Windows 11 will be released sometime this October.

Should you upgrade to Windows 11 when it’s released, or can your computer take Windows 11?

If you already have Windows 10 installed on your computer and it is less than 2-3 years old, then your computer should be able to take Windows 11. If it is older than this or you have a lower spec’d computer or notebook, there is a compatibility checker that Microsoft will provide closer to the time.

Should you upgrade? Well, we still have customers on all the versions of Windows but most are now on Windows 10. Windows 11 is based on Windows 10 and by this, I mean the behind-the-scenes is mostly Windows 10 but what you see on the front is Windows 11 with new sparkly wall papers and the start menu changed again and moved to the middle of the screen. Windows 11 has been released to developers and beta testers, but we don’t know much else about it – if there are any bugs or bad updates or even how easy it is to upgrade. One of the big questions will be how easy it is to go back to Windows 10.

So, at this stage and when released in October I would be wary of upgrading to Windows 11 unless you have nothing to lose and really want to. If you do, make sure you have a good back-up, just in case!

As ever, if you want to know more, you know where to come.

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