Converting to Windows 11

[buggz]

Hello,

I just tried this.
I don't get an upgrade option.

I only get two options,
INSTALL.
Which REQUIRES the check of a box that says, I agree this will blow away all apps, data, etc.

Or,

REPAIR, which did nothing but reboot.

I used this image, Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso

-rwxrwx---+ 5819484160 Dec 2 16:37 Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso
b56b911bf18a2ceaeb3904d87e7c770bdf92d3099599d61ac2497b91bf190b11

and burned it with Rufus to a USB stick.

What am I doing wrong?

Do I need a different, older, image?

 

[CompleteUtterNonsense]

Hello,

I just tried this.
I don't get an upgrade option.

I only get two options,
INSTALL.
Which REQUIRES the check of a box that says, I agree this will blow away all apps, data, etc.

Or,

REPAIR, which did nothing but reboot.

I used this image, Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso

-rwxrwx---+ 5819484160 Dec 2 16:37 Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso
b56b911bf18a2ceaeb3904d87e7c770bdf92d3099599d61ac2497b91bf190b11

and burned it with Rufus to a USB stick.

What am I doing wrong?

Do I need a different, older, image?

During the install you will be asked if you want to keep your apps and data. No gives you a clean install. Yes will move everything over to win11.

 

[buggz]

During the install you will be asked if you want to keep your apps and data. No gives you a clean install. Yes will move everything over to win11.

Thanks, I never got those prompts.

Perhaps, burn image again, withOUT the Rufus Customize Windows options?

I will try this...

 

[CompleteUtterNonsense]

During the install you will be asked if you want to keep your apps and data. No gives you a clean install. Yes will move everything over to win11.

Thanks, I never got those prompts.

Perhaps, burn image again, withOUT the Rufus advanced options?

I will try this...

Download the installer directly from Microsoft and put it on usb. There is no need for Rufus.

Start the installer from the current Windows install. The installer will start, do a self check to see if it is current, download some drivers if required and then proceed to the install.

 

[buggz]

Download the installer directly from Microsoft and put it on usb. There is no need for Rufus.

Start the installer from the current Windows install. The installer will start, do a self check to see if it is current, download some drivers if required and then proceed to the install.

Hmm, I seem to be completely missing this.

This is the page I am working off of:

Download Windows 11

Is there a better link?

Thanks.

 

[Austinian]

Download the installer directly from Microsoft and put it on usb. There is no need for Rufus.

Start the installer from the current Windows install. The installer will start, do a self check to see if it is current, download some drivers if required and then proceed to the install.

Hmm, I seem to be completely missing this.

This is the page I am working off of:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

Is there a better link?

Thanks.

The link is good, just look under the "Create Windows 11 Installation Media",

expand the instructions, and have a suitable USB flash drive you don't mind erasing to create the install media.

(A writable DVD as they mention should also work, but I haven't used that method in years.)

 

[BobKnDP]

Hello,

I just tried this.
I don't get an upgrade option.

I only get two options,
INSTALL.
Which REQUIRES the check of a box that says, I agree this will blow away all apps, data, etc.

Or,

REPAIR, which did nothing but reboot.

I used this image, Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso

-rwxrwx---+ 5819484160 Dec 2 16:37 Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso
b56b911bf18a2ceaeb3904d87e7c770bdf92d3099599d61ac2497b91bf190b11

and burned it with Rufus to a USB stick.

What am I doing wrong?

Do I need a different, older, image?

Are you booting from the USB stick?

If so, only a new install is available.

An upgrade is done from within your Windows 10. If you've downloaded an ISO, all that you need to do is double click on it. 10 will mount it as a virtual DVD. Run setup from within that.

I'm not sure what path to take if you're trying the upgrade on unsupported hardware. Are you doing that?

You also won't get the option to preserve programs and files if the installer doesn't include a version that matches the Windows 10 installation. (Home or Pro, N or not, language.) I'm in the US, so it has always been straightforward for me.

 

[buggz]

Are you booting from the USB stick?

If so, only a new install is available.

An upgrade is done from within your Windows 10. If you've downloaded an ISO, all that you need to do is double click on it. 10 will mount it as a virtual DVD. Run setup from within that.

I'm not sure what path to take if you're trying the upgrade on unsupported hardware. Are you doing that?

You also won't get the option to preserve programs and files if the installer doesn't include a version that matches the Windows 10 installation. (Home or Pro, N or not, language.) I'm in the US, so it has always been straightforward for me.

Thank you for this information.

It seems all I can do is a new install, my PC doesn't support TPM 2.0.

Shtug...

 

[GodSpeaks]

A clean install offers the opportunity to wipe away all the detritus windows likes to leave behind.

 

[CompleteUtterNonsense]

Download the installer directly from Microsoft and put it on usb. There is no need for Rufus.

Start the installer from the current Windows install. The installer will start, do a self check to see if it is current, download some drivers if required and then proceed to the install.

Hmm, I seem to be completely missing this.

This is the page I am working off of:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

Is there a better link?

Thanks.

I think I used the second option to create a usb installer. I'll try a test upgrade at work tomorrow to see what's going on.

For windows 10 I used the same install usb for in place upgrades and for clean installs.

 

[Austinian]

Are you booting from the USB stick?

If so, only a new install is available.

An upgrade is done from within your Windows 10. If you've downloaded an ISO, all that you need to do is double click on it. 10 will mount it as a virtual DVD. Run setup from within that.

I'm not sure what path to take if you're trying the upgrade on unsupported hardware. Are you doing that?

You also won't get the option to preserve programs and files if the installer doesn't include a version that matches the Windows 10 installation. (Home or Pro, N or not, language.) I'm in the US, so it has always been straightforward for me.

Thank you for this information.

It seems all I can do is a new install, my PC doesn't support TPM 2.0.

Shtug...

If the new install also fails due to lack of TPM 2.0, an alternative is to use the tool "Rufus" to defeat the normal Windows requirements. IDK if Rufus works for update installs; in the past I used it to clean-install 11 on an old 6th gen laptop.

https://www.makeuseof.com/rufus-bypass-tpm-secure-boot-requirements-windows-11/

 

[BobKnDP]

Are you booting from the USB stick?

If so, only a new install is available.

An upgrade is done from within your Windows 10. If you've downloaded an ISO, all that you need to do is double click on it. 10 will mount it as a virtual DVD. Run setup from within that.

I'm not sure what path to take if you're trying the upgrade on unsupported hardware. Are you doing that?

You also won't get the option to preserve programs and files if the installer doesn't include a version that matches the Windows 10 installation. (Home or Pro, N or not, language.) I'm in the US, so it has always been straightforward for me.

Thank you for this information.

It seems all I can do is a new install, my PC doesn't support TPM 2.0.

Shtug...

This is a bit less tidy than I'd have liked, but see:

(1) Bypass Windows 11 System Requirements on Unsupported PC | Windows 11 Forum

Maybe the easiest option would be option 2, which involves making some small changes to the Windows registry. It includes a .reg file to add the keys.

That may add bypasses that you don't need, but, as far as I know, there's no harm in that.

What CPU and motherboard do you have?

 

[New Wrycuda]

I suggest you do a fresh install of Windows 11 and not try to update what you already have. It’s always good to clean off your hard drive during events like this.

Why do more work when it's unnecessary? Having to reinstall all your apps and then make all the settings changes you had previously done takes a lot of time.

If the system has an SSD performance will not be affected by doing an upgrade. And when you upgrade you are getting a fresh copy of Windows.

In my case, the added time is not significant.

The benefit is to have a clean install that is free of fragments from previous installs.

This is mentioned fairly often, but is unlikely to be a problem, particularly if Win10 has been working properly. Just what are these “fragments”?

My experience with the Win10-Win11 upgrade was entirely positive. It was all completed in under two hours, including the download, and everything worked. I didn’t bother imaging the OS, but then I never do. ;-)

As I have previously mentioned, the other users needed no preliminary guidance and hardly noticed the difference, only commenting that the “Start/Stop Button has shifted”.

Please take some time to google the benefits of a clean window install. Periodic reinstallation of windows has served me well for decades. If your experience differs, great.

My experience obviously does differ. I’ve never done a clean install with the expectation that it would improve matters.

I have done clean installs to restore a computer that I’m about to sell/donate and I’ve also carried out OEM restorations purely as a matter of interest. Unless your configuration is really special, OEM restore plus applications can be done “recreationally” with only occasional user input.

On a related topic, after nearly four decades I can only count “on the fingers of one finger” the times when an image of the boot disk would have been really handy.

 

[Kurtamus]

I have put off converting my three home computers from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Now I must face the music. Before I get started, I would like to get input from members of this forum.

No need to "Face the music" until October 2026, that is with the caveat that the extra year of Windows 10 updates will cost you $30. See link:

Microsoft wants $30 to let you keep using Windows 10 securely for another year

Microsoft really wants people to move to Windows 11.

www.theverge.com

 

[Emphyrio2]

I want to thank everyone on this forum who contributed responses to my original post. The information was very helpful. I am following up on some of the issues that you made me aware of.

While there does not appear to be a consensus position on in-situ 10/11 conversion versus fresh install, constructive comments were offered for both approaches. Clearly experts favor different approaches based on different personal experiences and different valuations of safety/security and time/convenience, and that's as it should be.

For now I am leaning toward the in-situ conversion, and will use my simplest PC as a test case, but only after system cleanup, defrag, and backup as recommended here.

Emphyrio2

 

[BobKnDP]

If the boot drive is an SSD, it won't need to be defragmented.

 

[New Wrycuda]

If the boot drive is an SSD, it won't need to be defragmented.

Unlikely that a HDD would need it either. It’s been a long time since there’s been any detectable benefit from defragging, which does little more than add wear to the mechanicals.



I’ve lost track of the number of well-meaning people who swear by the “neatness” of the defrag process. Typically they are pillars of the community, are members of several well-known service organisations, and know nothing about IT.

A friend was shocked when I mentioned that defrag was a waste of time, except for very large database files. “Yes, but I have large files” was the response. (About 1MB, yeah, right).

 

[BobKnDP]

If the boot drive is an SSD, it won't need to be defragmented.

Unlikely that a HDD would need it either. It’s been a long time since there’s been any detectable benefit from defragging, which does little more than add wear to the mechanicals.

I’ve lost track of the number of well-meaning people who swear by the “neatness” of the defrag process. Typically they are pillars of the community, are members of several well-known service organisations, and know nothing about IT.

A friend was shocked when I mentioned that defrag was a waste of time, except for very large database files. “Yes, but I have large files” was the response. (About 1MB, yeah, right).

I use a large HDD as a data drive. I run no software from it.

The Windows tool always has shown it as 0% fragmented.

The issue seems pretty much moot for me.

In the context of imaging a drive, fragmenting won't matter much unless you're doing a full sector copy of the drive. (You're just copying the data. Not how it's arranged on the disk.) I've never done a sector copy, but aside from any compression, I believe that the image would be the same size as the partition or drive. Yikes.

 

[wh1tby]

I think most people have covered the basics here but I thought I would summarize my experience on this and helpfully add something useful to the comments:

1. Before deciding whether to do an in place upgrade or a new install and reinstall all apps, make sure you have all the access to the original installations files for your apps and, often more importantly, passwords etc. This way if anything happens even in an in place upgrade, you will be able to reinstall apps that no longer work or have unexpected behavior.

2. If you are rigorous in your maintenance of existing machines, then in place upgrade are the easiest and lthe east stressful. If your machines are getting slow and there are lots of orphans in the registry for example, then a clean install is best and you had better grit your teeth for the setup. I tend to find that it is the preferences you have for the OS options that are the ones that catch you out in a new install.

3. I have done both in place and new installs when moving to Windows 11. The in place installs were completely without issue but they were done on machines that were nice and clean and had been rigorously maintained (registry cleaners, complete removal of uninstalled apps, removal of unused configuration files etc.). Defragging, as has been pointed out is not necessary and for SSD positively harmful (premature wear). Windows does a lot of clean up itself in the up date process.

4. Windows 11 can be configured to look like Windows 10 e.g. moving the start to the left hand side of the task bar but there are differences you will need to get used. The learning path is not very steep and and will only take a week a two for your memory to adapt.

5. You may want to update your apps after the update to ensure they configure themselves optimally for the new environment. I did discover some off issues with printers e.g. One of my Canon printers lost the scan option. I eventually found a solution but make sure you test things like printers, wifi, card readers, any NAS and RAID arrays you may have (if you use OWC Softraid you will probably have issues with licensing as they seem to trip over this on a regular basis). I had to ensure Acronis back up software worked and I had to move the license to the newly upgraded machine. Another example a slight glitch. MS apps seem solid and Adobe seemed to work with out having to re-sign in.

6. Watch for a lot of Microsoft 'crap' that installs e.g. MSN news feeds, shopping hints etc. They need to be removed if you do not like this sort of noise. There are a lot videos and blogs about this and it is a tedious but, in my opinion, necessary step to take.

7. Be careful to set up the Windows update options as you need them. I am subscriber to a blog feed called Ask Woody. It gives very useful advice on the updates you should install and when you should hold off. They even have a Defcon setting for the danger of new updates which I tend to follow rigorously.

I hope this was helpful and not too repetitive with respect to information already provided. I have been using Windows since its first incarnation (1985, I believe) and although I primarily use Macs these days, I still have a number of Windows machines I use daily and thus keep myself well informed and up to date.

 

[BobKnDP]

That's quite a lot of detail.

I'm not that knowledgeable. I maintain 2 desktops and one rarely used laptop. No LAN, no NAS.

If memory serves, my primary system got a clean install when it was assembled about a year ago. The second desktop and the laptop were probably upgrades from 10.