On or around October 5, Windows 11 will offer you a choice: upgrade to Windows 11,
or remain on Windows 10. I’d recommend that you choose the latter, for several reasons.
Normally, feature updates are a no-brainer. Updating your PC from one Windows 10 update to
another typically offers your PC security updates, bug fixes and new features,
justifying the update. Consumers don’t really have the freedom to opt out of an update,
either – in the words of one Marvel supervillain, they’re inevitable.
Windows 11 offers you something closer to a true choice. Microsoft says that it will
support Windows 10 until 2025, allowing consumers the option to remain on Windows 10 for a few more
years before the current operating system finally exits Microsoft’s support window.
This all leads to the question: should you upgrade to Windows 11?
My answer is no, not yet, and I’m going to briefly explain why.
I’d also encourage you to read the full review of Windows 11 on PCWorld.com.
Knowing your way around an operating system or a supermarket or a car’s engine matters,
especially if you can instinctively navigate through it. Windows 11 offers the same Taskbar
and Start menu and File Explorer as Windows 10, but with unfamiliar layouts,
icons and navigation. You simply won’t be as efficient as you will within Windows 10
until you learn the ins and outs of the OS.
This also matters in such mundane apps as File Explorer. Microsoft’s navigation system for
performing such basic tasks as renaming files has been replaced by obtuse icons that simply
aren’t as memorable as Microsoft probably hopes that they’ll be. Microsoft has every right to
rework and update Windows, but if you have to devote conscious thought to how to do something,
you’re justified in wondering if changes were made just for the sake of change.
Windows 11 is usable in its present form, without a doubt.
But there are little issues throughout the OS which will certainly irritate new users.
Take the Taskbar and the Start menu, which are both less functional than in Windows 10.
Windows 11’s Taskbar is dynamically centered, which pushes the Start menu icon further and
further left as more apps are opened. The Taskbar can’t be resized, or moved,
and users can’t replace the icons with labels, as you can with Window 10.
When you install new apps, you can pin them to the Taskbar, but not directly to
Start — those apps appear in the “All apps” menu within Start, where they can then be
pinned to the main Start menu. Did we mention the Taskbar’s weird badging system? Or the
Notifications calendar that doesn’t do anything but sit there? It’s all a headache for new users.
Familiarity and features go hand in hand. If Windows 11 offered additional capabilities,
learning its quirks would be justified. But we think that most users will
simply find the more familiar Windows 10 environment to be more productive, too.
For a certain class of users – PC gamers – DirectStorage could be
the biggest selling point of Windows 11. We also think that many Windows 11 users will
also be tickled to discover that they can run smartphone-style Android apps
on the Windows 11 desktop. But neither capability will be available at launch.
DirectStorage, the foundation of the Quick Resume capability on the Xbox Series X,
will probably eliminate the need to launch a game and wade through splash screens, menus and
other time-wasting cruft. That’s what Quick Resume does on the Xbox, and it’s a literal game-changer.
But DirectStorage also requires at least a PCI Express Gen 3 SSD of at least a terabyte or more,
it requires game developers to specifically design games for the DirectStorage SDK, and,
we don't have the games quite yet.
Finally, to be honest, we really don’t know exactly how it will work within Windows. Meanwhile,
the state of Android apps within Windows is more straightforward – they just aren’t ready.
If two of the biggest Windows 11 features won’t be available at launch, why bother upgrading?
New operating systems contain new code, and new code means bugs. I’ve seen Edge
fill up the entire screen, covering the taskbar. I’ve seen bugs blank the Widgets
windows and prevent users from typing within fields within Windows 11 Mail.
It was rare, but a bug in an earlier Windows 10 feature updates actually deleted user data.
It seems fairly clear that Windows 11 will ship with some bugs,
obvious or not. Why live with them? Just wait it out for a while, instead.
Let’s make one thing clear: Opting out of Windows 11, for now, doesn’t mean that your
choice to upgrade goes away. For one thing, remember how hard Microsoft pushed users
to upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10? We’d be shocked if Microsoft didn’t, er, encourage
users as enthusiastically as it did before, all in the service of upgrading to Windows 11.
We simply can’t imagine that you’ll lose the opportunity to upgrade to Windows 11, ever.
There will be a tipping point. At some time in the future, Microsoft will ship Windows
11’s flagship features, fix (most) of its bugs, and hopefully respond to user requests
to polish its user interface and features.. I can’t say when that might be,
but PCWorld will weigh in when I think that it’s time to upgrade.
For now, however, I would recommend that most Windows 10 users simply opt out and wait to move
to Windows 11. Most, not all! If you enjoy working within Microsoft’s most modern environment,
I’d encourage you to upgrade. Users who want to experience features like AutoHDR
or like what Microsoft is doing with Windows 11’s Widgets should give it a try. After all,
you should have a short period of time to roll back to Windows 10.
Windows 11 still is the future of Windows.
For many Windows 10 users, though, I say that the future can wait.
For news, how-tos, and the full review of Windows 11, check out PCWorld.com.
For tips, tricks, reviews and unboxings, keep your app dialed in to PCWorld’s YouTube channel.