The introduction of the weather button in the far left of the Taskbar is a nice addition, but it’s not going to make me use the Widgets panel itself any more. Weather on the Taskbar is the most I need, and I’ll never need to click on it unless the Widgets feature as a whole improves. All of the system icons have cute little animations that play when you click on them.
- Microsoft added SMB compression to the new server OS to reduce bottlenecks when transferring files with Windows-based file shares.
- Windows Hello now has support for virtualization-based security for certain fingerprint and face sensors, which protects, isolates, and secures a user’s biometric authentication data.
- The free upgrade offer was initially for a year, but users are reporting that the free upgrade offer is unofficially available even today.
The operating system also features hardware-enforced stack protection for supported Intel and AMD processors for protection against zero-day exploits. Microsoft Teams is similarly integrated with the taskbar, with a pop-up showing a list of recent conversations. For example, it will become increasingly difficult to find software that is compatible with the old operating system. Certain programs, including Microsoft 365 apps, will not receive updates. If you continue to use Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 8.1, you will likely encounter performance and reliability issues over time. It would be very surprising to see more devices culled for an annual feature update, unless serious hardware vulnerabilities are discovered.
Cyber Shield Released
This guide Read more will help you upgrade to Windows 11 manually using the Installation Assistant from Microsoft. If Windows 11 update isn’t available for your PC yet and you don’t want to manually upgrade, the only thing you can do is to wait. Microsoft is in the process of rolling out the Windows 11 update slowly to resources all PCs that meet the system requirements for it. You can expect it to be available for your PC by the middle of 2022.
Overall, nobody is saying that Windows 11 is a bad operating system or that it did improve upon Windows 10. Now how much these issues would affect your experience is up for you to decide. But within three weeks of using it, I started seriously questioning if Windows 11 was worth the upgrade. Microsoft had put major irreversible roadblocks to my regular workflow in Win11. When I tried looking up ways to solve my issues, I was sure I wasn’t the only one.
➡ Features comparison
A few years back, Windows 10 Home was retailing for around $100-$120, whereas the Pro version could be as much as $199 depending on the retailer. We can expect something similar for those who are going to need to buy the operating system, however, we imagine OEM keys sold with hardware could be significantly cheaper. You can still change system sounds in Settings, but the new Windows 11 default set of sounds is slick, quick, and modern. And for businesses, students and gamers, join one our free Lenovo online communities for SMB, education or gaming.
You might have one, but your PC hasn’t been activated with it. Perhaps the activation process went wrong or you entered an incorrect product key. There can be occasions when you’re confused about your product key or digital license.
There are other people who are excited about every update and they can’t wait for new versions to have a release date assigned. They see the new version as an opportunity to learn and grow right alongside human technical advancement. They are interested in learning more about the changes and they appreciate the new design choices that are intended to make the interface more user-friendly. The design itself looks good, but there are a few functionality quirks here and there. Windows 11 is the latest big iteration of Microsoft Windows.
What version of Windows 10 is required to receive the upgrade?
The biggest ones to leave Windows in version 11 are the Timeline, Live Tiles, and Internet Explorer. If you run an old business application that requires IE, however, you can still run an Internet Explorer mode within the Microsoft Edge browser. The Timeline, however, is now relegated to the mists of times past. Taking screenshots in Windows 11 continues to improve, with many good options. Microsoft has updated the clunky old Snipping Tool (accessible with Windows Key-Shift-S), which competes with the similarly named and superior Snip & Sketch app.