Launched in October 2021, Microsoft Windows 11 is the latest Microsoft Operating System (OS) for PCs.
A free upgrade has been rolled out to Windows 10 computers that meet the hardware specification, so you may have noticed a message offering you to upgrade already. New PCs are now starting to come pre-loaded with Windows 11 too. It has been what some might call a ‘soft launch’ so far, but it has left many users unsure about whether they should make the jump and upgrade to Windows 11 now, or stay with Windows 10.
At the current time, Smartdesc does not recommend upgrading to Windows 11 yet, in a business setting at least. Our advice to charities and non-profits is to wait until Windows 11 is more mature and established; there is absolutely no reason or benefit in upgrading now, and you will still receive full support and security updates for Windows 10 for some time.
As long as you keep it up to date (which you should do anyway!), Windows 10 will still be fully supported by Microsoft until at least October 2025.
Our team are using Windows 11 and testing it out every day, and are tracking its evolution. We will continue to do this and will let you know when the time is right to do the upgrade.
Where possible we recommend asking suppliers to provide new machines with Windows 10 for now too. They can usually be rolled back if needed, and as always make sure you always buy the Pro version (i.e Windows 10 Pro), never the Home version, because it won’t come with the various business features needed.
When it launched Windows 11 had a lot of compatibility issues and some features did not work as they should. It also looks quite different – the start button is in the middle of the taskbar for one thing, and some of the appearance and location of apps and notifications are different.
There’s been a few updates and patches since then, and it is improving all the time, but as expected from any new release there are still bugs and the overall user experience can be quite frustrating in our experience. As such, there is nothing that would really make a significant improvement in an office environment at the moment and it will probably introduce some challenges and IT support issues too.
Eventually we will advise making the move of course, and it’s unlikely to cost anything extra for the license upgrade too. But for now, sit tight and let Microsoft iron out the wrinkles and do their testing on other people to save yourself the hassle!
If you have any questions or to make sure you are getting the best our of your current Windows operating system, please get in touch and we will be happy to discuss.
Carl Rowles, Smartdesc Customer Experience Manager
Smartdesc is an NCVO Trusted IT Supplier, ACEVO Premium Partner and CFG Partner.
Smartdesc specialise in helping charities and non-profit organisations define and deliver their IT and Digital Strategies. We also help many organisations cut their IT costs, migrate to remote working platforms such as Office 365 and Teams, and improve their Data Protection and GDPR resilience. Find out more here.
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