Windows 11 Upgrade, should I allow it? For the most part Windows 11 is a decent Operating System.
Isn’t Windows 10 Upgrade a Better Operating System?
Our recommendation would be to upgrade Windows 11 unless you have applications that are not officially supported for Windows 11.
If you are using Windows 10, you may want to keep the O/S. It will lose extended support for security patches eventually.
All Programs Are Compatible with Windows 11 Upgrade, Right?
Some folks assume that Windows 11 is compatible with their applications
since it runs a test prior to the upgrade.
While the test is a good precaution it’s a Herculean task to test every
application in the world not to mention applications you may not have currently installed.
Case in Point – Windows 11 Upgrade Gone Wrong
To our dismay we have found some applications like older versions of Teamviewer are not supported for Windows 11.
My Hardware is Supported for the Windows 11 Upgrade , Right?
In most Windows 11 Upgrade cases, you probably won’t have issues with hardware if it was
installed prior to the upgrade. In theory Windows 11 would warn you if the hardware was incompatible.
How Did I End Up With Windows 11 Upgrade?
Microsoft has gotten more aggressive in pushing out Windows 11. They
made it a recommended upgrade so it upgraded if you had automatic updates on.
Downs Consulting recommends Windows Updates so the dilemma is that we don’t necessarily want the upgrade but do want updates.
Restore Old O/S – How Do I Go Back to My Previous Operating System (O/S)?
If you ran into as many issues as we did then you will want to revert back
to your old O/S.
Gracefully Revert to Your Old O/S
If you decide to revert your old O/S in the thirty-day window you may back out gracefully.
Image Backup
If you made an image backup of your system you may want to restore it
but that will wipe out all your data too.
Likewise you could use the factory image backup to restore everything back to the day your computer arrived.
To install the factory image backup, you probably have to press specific keys during start-up. F8 & Advanced Boot Options work for some Dell computers.
Image backups will restore all software that was installed at the time the image was made.
A factory image may contain trail software that they sent with the computer.
A personal image will have the software, data and updates that resided on the computer at the time of the backup.
New Installation
New installation is not for the faint at heart but it may keep your files in
Windows.old. This is a nice backup but we recommend backing up your files to an external drive as a precaution.
You will have to restore all the Windows updates and any software you use .
Obtaining Recovery Media
Ideally you created backup disks when you received your computer. If you
can locate these disks then you can restore the factory image backup.
If you don’t have recovery media then you will have to contact the computer manufacturer. This may be a nominal fee if you are no longer in warranty.
Our Experience Obtaining Recovery Media
Hopefully you won’t have as much trouble obtaining recovery media as we
did. Maybe you can avoid some of the pitfalls of our experience.
Backup You Files
As a general rule, most of your files will be in your User folder. If the user
is “Randy” then the user folder will look something like the following:
C:\Windows.old\Users\Randy – backup profile in previous Windows
C:\Users\Randy – profile in current Windows
Once you have you files backed up you can initiate a new install and preferably keep old files in Windows.old.
You can always remove this later if space is an issue.
Removing Windows.old
Removing Windows.old should be done via Disk Cleanup.
Here’s the proper way to delete the Windows.old folder: Step 1: Click in Windows‘ search field, type Cleanup, then click Disk Cleanup. Step 2: Click the “Clean up system files” button. Step 3: Wait a bit while Windows scans for files, then scroll down the list until you see “Previous Windows installation(s).