Windows 11 Upgrade Consensus?

[Howard Maron]

I haven't seen many opinions on this forum regarding upgrading to Windows 11. For my observatory computer(s) I have no desire nor need to update to 11. But the Microsoft voices keep shouting louder as time passes.
So, I am wondering if there are some recommendations/opinions or a general consensus regarding upgrading. For those that have already upgraded, were there any compelling reasons and what were the consequences?
Thank you

[Bob Denny]

Unnecessary but if you get the urge…

[Howard Maron]

So, no negative issues thus far to your knowledge?
I will be setting up a new box soon. This is, in part, why I ask the question.
Thanks

[Colin Haig]

It seems that "under-the-hood" Windows 11 behaves like 10. The challenge is that it is hard to find many features or options - due to all the screen layout changes in 11.
I've worked with a few MaxIm DL Pro customers who moved to 11. No known issues.

Some Advice:

Before installing/upgrading to Win 11:
Go to the computer manufacturer's website (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, ... Motherboard manufacturer for home-built PCs), and get their latest updater, latest BIOS / UEFI / Diagnostics / Recovery tools, latest drivers, etc.
Run the manufacturer support utility to get all updates installed. Repeat until complete.
Update all the drivers for the third-party hardware in/attached to the PC. e.g. visit the hardware manufacturer websites for AMD, Intel, NVidia, FTDIchip, Asus, Marvell, ... etc. Get their latest.

After installing:
After installing it, run Windows Update. Reboot. Run Windows Update. Reboot. Repeat many times.
Update the hardware drivers for Win 11; update the manufacturer's stuff for Win 11; and then run Windows Update a bunch of times.
Power Management settings (USB Selective Suspend) and Device Manager (power management properties on Serial ports, USB hubs, root hubs) may be harder to find, but they are still there and need to be dealt with (Powering off automatically to save power must be turned off!).

Hopefully that will save you time later, by investing time to get everything correct up-front.
Good luck!

[Bob Denny]

Thank you SO MUCH Colin!!

[Eric Dose]

For remote observatories, which demand extraordinary stability and compatibility with very old and relatively new software modules, Windows 10 Pro was not fully ready until it had been public for 3-4 years. Maybe great for Angry Birds or whatever, but it was carnival-barked as stable but was not.

So for our usage, and where one can keep Win 10 Pro, Windows 11 presents ALL risk and NO upside. None. Not worth it now and probably not until ~ 2024. YMMV (but probably not).

[Colin Haig]

I agree with Eric that Win 10 has been stable only for the recent couple of years.
The challenge is new PCs ship with Windows 11 from the factory, and drivers may only be available for that OS version.
If the question is whether Win 11 would be preferable, I also have to agree with Eric that Win 10 would be the better choice.

Microsoft has definitive statements here on Windows 10 "end of servicing" which sounds like end of support:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/release-information

Key data: Win 10 21H2 end of servicing for Windows 10 Pro is about 10 months into the future - 2023-06-13
Hopefully that isn't a hard date.

[Dick Berg]

Hi Howard,

I bought a new Beelink for my desktop computer in the house. It came with Windows 11 Pro, or so they said, but it was really Windows 10 with an "automatic" upgrade that had to be manually installed. That upgrade went well, and I've had no trouble whatsoever with Windows 11 and all the apps I had to install, except as Colin points out with the appearance being somewhat different. I really like the Beelink by the way - 25 cu. in. versus 1,800 cu. in. of the old tower.

However, on my observatory computer I'm going to stick with Windows 10 Pro as long as it or the computer lasts. No point in my making the upgrade to 11 since there's no advantage in terms of observing that I can see. You may have to accept Windows 11 on a new computer, but I'm sure you can still buy a new computer with Windows 10 Pro installed. That maybe the way to go.

[Eric Dose]

From Microsoft's "Windows 10 Home and Pro" page ( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lif...0-home-and-pro ):

"Microsoft will continue to support at least one Windows 10 release until October 14, 2025."

[One hopes that Win 11 might be half-stable by then.]

[Bob Denny]

Thanks guys. I'm of the same mind ... a conservative engineer. MS has the vision of Windows being a mobile-ish OS. Never mind the industrial and other uses. And W11 pushes "content" at you . Annoying.