Windows 11

 Microsoft made Windows 11 available on Oct. 5 on a rolling basis as a free upgrade to most Windows 10 users. If you have Windows 8, you’ll have to get the free upgrade to Windows 10 first, then download Windows 11. Before you decide whether or not to install the new OS, let’s talk about what we like and don’t like about the upgrade. 

If your PC qualifies, upgrading to Windows 11 from Windows 10 will be free. And if you’ve been beta-testing Windows 11 already and your PC meets the minimum requirements, you should be able to upgrade to the final version of Windows 11 on launch day.

However, if you haven’t been a beta tester you could be waiting awhile to get the official offer to upgrade through Windows Update: Microsoft has said it plans to start rolling out Windows 11 to existing Windows 10 machines on October 5, but it’s hard to say which PCs will get the upgrade when. All we know so far is that Microsoft will prioritize PCs based on factors such as how old they are and how compatible they are with Windows 11. It’s likely that most Windows users won’t have the option to upgrade until next year, given that Microsoft has set itself the goal of offering an upgrade to every compatible PC by mid-2022.

That said, you can install Windows 11 on your PC right now if you’re willing to do a clean install of Windows 11 using an ISO file, but that means you’ll have to download the .ISO file yourself and mount it as a bootable drive.

Perhaps the most important thing to know about the release of Windows 11 is that we should expect it to change significantly over the next few years. I’ve been using beta versions of Windows 11 for a month in the lead-up to writing this review, and it seems like every few days there’s a minor new feature or redesigned app to check out. After October 5, we’ll likely see far fewer Windows updates than we did during the beta period, but even at launch Windows 11 is missing promised features like Android app integration — Microsoft will instead beta-test Android support in the coming months. We may not see that feature fully realized in Windows until next year. 

So if you have any trepidation about upgrading, there’s no harm in waiting — while Windows 11 is, by my estimation, a completely decent and usable version of Windows with a slick new look, it’s not yet feature-complete. Plus, most of us won’t have the chance to upgrade for a while yet anyhow. And Microsoft has pledged to support Windows 10 into 2025, so there’s little risk in holding off.

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