Our PC was a made-to-order build - we bought it from a specialist PC Shop and it was built to our specific requirements with Windows 10 Pro as the OS. On his recommendation the technician gave us a gaming PC built with high spec components, although we have never used it for gaming. It wasn’t cheap but at the same time it has been a perfect PC presenting no problems. My husband’s view is that the computer has a number of years left in it. He has always cleaned it regularly and although we use is sometimes 24 hours a day it has never been ‘abused’.
We do not have a TV but we watch films, TV programmes, You Tube videos, and listen to music through the PC. We also use it for general office administration work using MS Word and Libra Office and also photo editing using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
We have a total of 20TB in hard drive storage and have many top quality programmes installed.
So with the end of W10 in sight, our thoughts are that we should take the PC back to the shop asking him to do a clean install of W11. Of course, he would be in the know if anything more was specifically needed after doing the install. Again we would tell him that it is only a general and not a gaming pc we require.
Do you think this is overkill or do you think we should do a clean install ourselves. My husband has a general knowledge of computers but he does have a logical mind with lots of patience.
What is your general opinion or views on Windows 11 OP – should we or shouldn’t we change over.
You should be able to upgrade to Win11 on your own, depending on some of your hardware. If your hardware is Win11 supported, upgrading is straightforward.
Why would you do a clean install? You could just do an in place upgrade if it meets the specification. It’s unlikely that you’ll have any problems but, in the unlikely event that you do, you could then do a clean install.
I don’t have any views on windows 11 as I went to Linux mint as my perfectly functioning pc is too old for W11 and it does what I need. In any event, you have a full year to decide and there’s no great urgency.
You should be able to see if your PC is suitable for W11. It’s possible to install W11 on certain machines even if they say not, but I wouldn’t do it. I updated my youngest Windows laptop from W10 to W11: it wasn’t at all difficult.
I prefer W11 slightly to W10, but I’ve ended up with three laptops (W10, W11 and OSX) and most of the time I’m using the MacBook.
If you can upgrade ypour PC to W11, I would do it.
I’ve been using W 11 Enterprise for a few months now no problems the only thing I changed was the right-click menu in the registry so now the same right click menu as W10.
Perhaps ask the local IT person for a quote. You could always ask for one for a clean install, and one for an in-place upgrade. Then decide whether the cost is worth it for the peace of mind… if it breaks, then the responsibility is on him to get it working (just make sure, as already suggested, that a full backup is taken beforehand in case he needs to restore it… and get him to test the backup works, cause you don’t want to find out that you’ve got a useless backup that can’t be restored).
Personally I’d do it myself, but I appreciate not everybody feels comfortable doing it.
I suspect I’m a bit more PC savvy than most, but I always put a new OS on a new 1TB SSD and transfer documents, photo etc. between drives later.
Whilst the new OS will have or pick up the basic drivers it needs to run, you’ll always need to install dedicated drivers for components such as graphics cards and peripherals to get the most from them.
Thanks for your input. Some interesting points to consider. Firstly we want to say that our PC meets the system requirements to accept W11.
We read in the early days that if you had W10 Home you could upgrade to W11 Home. And if you had W10 Pro then you could upgrade to W11 Pro. But we can’t find confirmation of that now.
Are we right in thinking that as registered W10 Pro users we would automatically qualify for the update to W11 Pro?
In which case the Enterprise version is what you really need.
Bitlocker, perhaps and virtualisation.
Not sure about WIndows11 but up to W10 the pro version also included terminal services (but only one session overall - though that can easily be extended with an easy to find hack).
Oops, yes, indeed I was thinking of Enterprise not Pro.
Home still comes with full disk encryption though, right? It’s called Device Encryption or something similar, and I think the key is maybe only stored in the TPM, iirc.
Genuine question though, do you think outside of large organisations that many people really use full disk encryption?
To be fair you don’t need Enterprise just to join the domain - pro will do that. But if you have an actual domain controller you might well have a setup where you should be considering Enterprise on the clients.
I have a Win10 Pro license and did an in place upgrade to 11 and it was actually very painless. I would normally do a clean install as upgrades can go wrong and a clean install clears up cruft, but this time it went very smoothly. Just make sure to backup properly before doing it.
I love reading people who know what they are talking about, talking about those things, It is such a joy and wonder simply because I haven’t a clue.
Reminds me of a short story:
Will It Work?
‘I’ve got a great idea’ said Bill, ‘take the sprocket, attach it to the dongle, feed the chain round that’, pause for effect, ‘but transversely; we can then effectively alter the direction of travel thus making the whole thing reverberate within the drum.’ He drew breath, watching for understanding to dawn.
‘Yes,’ came the reply, ‘but will it work?’
You say that you expect your PC to last a few years yet so it does make sense to update it to Windows 11. While living in France, I also had a PC built to my requirements which perfectly served its purpose. Last year I decided to get a new computer. You had good advice to have a gaming machine because these are more durable in order to take the bashing they get from gamers. My decision was to replace my PC with a gaming laptop. Like you I do not use it for games but the increase in speed was amazing compared with my old PC. Computer technology improves each year so when you finally replace your PC you will probably find that a gaming laptop will serve you just as well. One final thought. I was tempted to buy an Apple computer until I realised that there was no Mac version of two of my favourite programs.
Nah, not really when it comes to compatibility the programs I work with have to have certified CPU’s & GPU’s, if not the help desks just don’t want to know.
Engineering & architecture software compatibility and performance are crucial to the workflow of a company.
Sadly Apple lost the plot years ago with the major players in engineering & architecture software. You can have workaround solutions but they need more workaround software & basically a waste of time and money.
, have Windows 10 and am frequently badgered to upgrade to 11.
