Win 11 update and programs reinstalling?

[Ernie Misner]

What are the downsides to doing the Win 11 upgrade from Win 10? Programs don't have to be reinstalled unless you change the motherboard, is that right? Thanks.

 

[Morris0]

What are the downsides to doing the Win 11 upgrade from Win 10? Programs don't have to be reinstalled unless you change the motherboard, is that right? Thanks.

This is a very simple upgrade Ernie. Most everything will continue to work. If you launch programs from the desktop you will have nothing to do. If you use the start menu you will probably want to adjust it after the upgrade. Possibly you will want to reconfigure the taskbar to have the start button on the left side rather than the default center.

So head over to Windows Upgrade in settings and kick off the upgrade. Then enjoy a cup of coffee and return to answer a few questions. Then let the system complete the upgrade. You might want a second cup of coffee or to occupy your time another way. If you have a high end system total time can be as little as 15 minutes and with lesser hardware allow for an hour.

Morris

 

[drj3]

What are the downsides to doing the Win 11 upgrade from Win 10? Programs don't have to be reinstalled unless you change the motherboard, is that right? Thanks.

You may need to reactivate some programs depending on the specific software you have installed, but they should all work as before without having to reinstall them.

 

[BobKnDP]

What are the downsides to doing the Win 11 upgrade from Win 10? Programs don't have to be reinstalled unless you change the motherboard, is that right? Thanks.

Programs usually survive a 10 to 11 upgrade without issues. But it's not guaranteed.

Some software installs drivers that can block the installation of 11. The drivers were often incompatible with some security features that were also available in Windows 10, but that weren't enabled by default. (Example: Core Isolation.) To make things more entertaining, such drivers may be retained on the Driver Store, even if the applications that originally installed them is long gone.

Swapping motherboards is another discussion entirely.

 

[palombian]

I upgraded my system from WIN8 to WIN8.1 to WIN10 and WIN11 without reinstalling, out of fear to loose the license. Over these years every hardware part had been (gradually) changed without any questions from MS.

I learned afterwards my WIN8 PRO was a retail license (purchased from MS for €24, nobody believed in it then...) digitally linked to my Windows account. I can take it with me the day I build a new PC.

Because Windows update never installed 24H2, and rolled back the one I initiated myself (although my 8th gen Coffee Lake CPU is the oldest one supported) I reinstalled from scratch a few months ago (since automatically updated to 25H2) without any issues. I always keep setup files and license codes for all my applications. It took me some time but the system is much faster now.

PS: I remember updating a laptop with XP to WIN10 using the WIN7 OEM key from a dismantled desktop, IMO MS is very tolerant at this point.

 

[Eric Carlson]

I didn't have any downsides. Everything still works great. All my programs and data are intact (though I did backup my data first, which I do regularly anyway, as everyone does, I hope). And I have a 15 year old i7-2600. I did make a few UI adjustments afterwards to make it closer to how 10 looked, like moving the start button back to the left and other things like that.

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

I upgraded my wifes unsupported W10 dell laptop to windows 11 using flyoobe and it never had any issues. I am guessing your system is a supported system? if so everything will work as advertised. Keep the "start menu" in the center as it speeds up work flow. having to just go down instead of across and down to the corner to get to the menu.

I have yet to encounter any software that worked on 10 that didn't on 11. It's the same OS under the hood in reality.

 

[ggeinec]

I didn't have any downsides. Everything still works great. All my programs and data are intact (though I did backup my data first, which I do regularly anyway, as everyone does, I hope). And I have a 15 year old i7-2600. I did make a few UI adjustments afterwards to make it closer to how 10 looked, like moving the start button back to the left and other things like that.

What method did you use to update your 15 year old i7-2600 to Win11?

 

[Eric Carlson]

I upgraded my wifes unsupported W10 dell laptop to windows 11 using flyoobe and it never had any issues. I am guessing your system is a supported system? if so everything will work as advertised. Keep the "start menu" in the center as it speeds up work flow. having to just go down instead of across and down to the corner to get to the menu.

I have yet to encounter any software that worked on 10 that didn't on 11. It's the same OS under the hood in reality.

I used FlyOOBE. If I keep it in the center, it keeps moving, as I open and close more programs, and that is annoying. And I always know exactly where my start menu and shortcuts are located.

 

[Eric Carlson]

I didn't have any downsides. Everything still works great. All my programs and data are intact (though I did backup my data first, which I do regularly anyway, as everyone does, I hope). And I have a 15 year old i7-2600. I did make a few UI adjustments afterwards to make it closer to how 10 looked, like moving the start button back to the left and other things like that.

What method did you use to update your 15 year old i7-2600 to Win11?

FlyOOBE. Super simple.

 

[Robert Zanatta]

I had an issue with an old driver (Win 10 didn't have core isolation enabled) but that was easily resolved.

In a side note, I always had found the new start menu introduced in Windows 10 as being awkward but so I switched to Open-Shell and after 10 minutes of configuration I really liked it. Much quicker to get at what you want.

 

[Ernie Misner]

I had an issue with an old driver (Win 10 didn't have core isolation enabled) but that was easily resolved.

In a side note, I always had found the new start menu introduced in Windows 10 as being awkward but so I switched to Open-Shell and after 10 minutes of configuration I really liked it. Much quicker to get at what you want.

Many thanks to you and to all who replied about my Win 11 question. Much appreciated.

 

[Ernie Misner]

What are the downsides to doing the Win 11 upgrade from Win 10? Programs don't have to be reinstalled unless you change the motherboard, is that right? Thanks.

This is a very simple upgrade Ernie. Most everything will continue to work. If you launch programs from the desktop you will have nothing to do. If you use the start menu you will probably want to adjust it after the upgrade. Possibly you will want to reconfigure the taskbar to have the start button on the left side rather than the default center.

So head over to Windows Upgrade in settings and kick off the upgrade. Then enjoy a cup of coffee and return to answer a few questions. Then let the system complete the upgrade. You might want a second cup of coffee or to occupy your time another way. If you have a high end system total time can be as little as 15 minutes and with lesser hardware allow for an hour.

Morris

Thank you kindly, Morris and to all who have responded. My computer is a home built version, and currently, MS says that the hardware is not supported for Win 11. I'll be looking into that more. Thanks again.