Upgrading to Windows 11

Forums › Microsoft Windows › Upgrading to Windows 11

FieldMouse

94 posts

Master Geek

#318273 2-Jan-2025 10:19

I currently have a Z800 desktop computer running Win 10. The Win 11 checker says that it cannot be upgraded.
That means I have 10 months to replace it, if I want to keep my system safe.

Obviously I could buy a new Win 11 machine, but that means I have to reinstall all my software on the new machine.

I thought about buying a new machine that has no OS and then take my existing C: Drive (256GB SSD) and put it in the new machine?
Will it then reinstall all the necessary drivers to make it work?

Thanks

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1306 posts

Uber Geek

#3326971 2-Jan-2025 11:12

You can do a ship of theseus, just be sure you have what you need to re-activate windows upon hardware change.

If you want to, you can bypass the requirements for win11. Theres a bet going on that MS isn’t going to withhold security patches given the bad PR. The only inconvenience is having to do the bypass on every major OS upgrade e.g 24h2

decibel

315 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3326975 2-Jan-2025 11:27

Security updates are not going to stop in 10 months; I still have an old Win7 machine running in the garage and getting updates.

huckster

842 posts

Ultimate Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#3326976 2-Jan-2025 11:39

decibel:

Security updates are not going to stop in 10 months; I still have an old Win7 machine running in the garage and getting updates.

Are you sure they are updates to the Windows OS or just updates to things like Defender? I'd be nervous myself.

decibel

315 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3326985 2-Jan-2025 12:24

huckster:

Are you sure they are updates to the Windows OS or just updates to things like Defender? I'd be nervous myself.

That is true - it has only been Defender updates for the last 3 years. (That's why it is in my garage hidden behind the firewall)

I would still not panic about Win10 immediately.

FieldMouse:

Obviously I could buy a new Win 11 machine, but that means I have to reinstall all my software on the new machine.

Get used to it - I buy a new PC every 5 years, many on this forum will do so more often.

FieldMouse

94 posts

Master Geek

#3326988 2-Jan-2025 12:48

decibel

I intend getting a new PC. My question is whether I could physically transfer my existing C drive to a new PC.

Will it work?

K8Toledo

1014 posts

Uber Geek

#3326992 2-Jan-2025 13:10

FieldMouse:

decibel

I intend getting a new PC. My question is whether I could physically transfer my existing C drive to a new PC.

Will it work?

Yes, by either swapping the drive, or creating an image of the old drive and transplanting that image onto the new drive, with imaging software like Macrium Reflect.

Disable secure boot in new BIOS if possible.

W10 will last a long time yet, in 2025 MS stop releasing security updates but in every other aspect you won't notice any difference.

Software & drivers continue to be updated, just download from vendors (AMD/Nvidia etc).

Up until a few months ago I was still using W7.

Dynamic

3866 posts

Uber Geek

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Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3326995 2-Jan-2025 13:23

A couple of options to consider:

Purchasing a new PC and using something like LapLink PC Mover to move your programs files, and settings. I've not used it personally but have heard only positive reviews.
Transfer Data to a New Computer with PCmover | Laplink®

Purchase Extended Security Updates for your Windows 10 machine. Pricing is believed to be US$30 per computer for 12 months, so around NZ$50. You may consider this worthwhile to keep your existing computer running securely in an inexpensive way until late 2026.
Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10 | Microsoft Learn

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TwoSeven

1623 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#3327026 2-Jan-2025 15:41

For me, I would get a new machine that has windows 11 compatible hardware in it to save time and effort and keep the old machine for a period of time.

The reason is that the Windows OS tends to be matched to sets of hardware and devices - so when a new OS is released, it is usually followed by the newer technologies.

With both machines, one can then fresh install (from media or download) all of your old apps and retire/upgrade/replace any with modern equivalents until you are happy that one has everything from the old machine. Usually with a new machine, there is an opportunity to learn different/newer ways to complete the old tasks.

Something that I would do with the new machine is to have two M.2 nvme storage units (or something similar), ideally minimum pcie4 (I think that is standard now) - install the OS and apps on the first storage device (C:) and keep data on the second volume (D:). This makes re-installs and backups a bit easier.

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Wombat1

586 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#3327053 2-Jan-2025 17:22

Use the Registry Editor to add a DWORD value named AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup and set it to 1. Restart PC and run the Windows 11 setup from the ISO.

It worked for me on a 10 year old Intel i7 HP Laptop with 16GB Ram. MS updates and support may be limited.

FieldMouse

94 posts

Master Geek

#3327055 2-Jan-2025 17:35

Thanks for your advice

My Z800 has 4 drive bays

1.is a 256Gb SSD that has the operating system
2&3 are 3.5" SATA drives that have multiple partitions
4 is used only for back ups. I have a 4TB SATA drive that I pug in whenever I want to back up.

For my new machine I didn't care if it only had an SSD for the OS. Then I would have the external enclosure, permanently plugged in for my 3.5" SATA drives. I would then have a single enclosure with the back up drive and plug in when required

Hope that makes sense

TwoSeven

1623 posts

Uber Geek

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#3327069 2-Jan-2025 18:26

FieldMouse:

Thanks for your advice

My Z800 has 4 drive bays

1.is a 256Gb SSD that has the operating system
2&3 are 3.5" SATA drives that have multiple partitions
4 is used only for back ups. I have a 4TB SATA drive that I pug in whenever I want to back up.

For my new machine I didn't care if it only had an SSD for the OS. Then I would have the external enclosure, permanently plugged in for my 3.5" SATA drives. I would then have a single enclosure with the back up drive and plug in when required

Hope that makes sense

The SSDs (in general) and SATA are a bit slow these days in comparison (about half the speed from memory).

A bit I left out is that for me, I always ensure machines have thunderbolt 4 (or later now I guess) - one could then add a thunderbolt dock (if required) and multiple external [thunderbolt] drives (and USB-C 4 devices). The difference is that thunderbolt runs off the PCIe bus like the NVME cards do. For me, this adds a layer of extensibility.

As an example of something I have been giving some thought to, if I ever win lotto more than a free ticket, as I do some small form factor/IoT dev sometimes, I'd like to try out a 32gb Latte Panda Sigma (as an example device) and see what it can do especially with a couple of Hyper-V virtual machines on it. There is enough space in my PC case to mount it on the bottom and I'd like to try a peer-to-peer thunderbolt network.

...they/their/them...

K8Toledo

1014 posts

Uber Geek

#3327128 2-Jan-2025 20:03

FieldMouse:

Thanks for your advice

My Z800 has 4 drive bays

1.is a 256Gb SSD that has the operating system
2&3 are 3.5" SATA drives that have multiple partitions
4 is used only for back ups. I have a 4TB SATA drive that I pug in whenever I want to back up.

For my new machine I didn't care if it only had an SSD for the OS. Then I would have the external enclosure, permanently plugged in for my 3.5" SATA drives. I would then have a single enclosure with the back up drive and plug in when required

Hope that makes sense

Are you not replacing the Z800 with another desktop, say from HP? So why would you need external drive bays for the 3.5" drives? Just use the internal 3.5" drive bays on the new machine.

All desktops still come with 3.5" bays (AIO's don't count as desktops :P).

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3327135 2-Jan-2025 20:52

FieldMouse:

I currently have a Z800 desktop computer running Win 10. The Win 11 checker says that it cannot be upgraded.
That means I have 10 months to replace it, if I want to keep my system safe.

Obviously I could buy a new Win 11 machine, but that means I have to reinstall all my software on the new machine.

I thought about buying a new machine that has no OS and then take my existing C: Drive (256GB SSD) and put it in the new machine?
Will it then reinstall all the necessary drivers to make it work?

Thanks

i managed to upgrade a 10 year old PC that wasn't allowed win 11 to win 11 by following the internet.

took a few goes to get it to start, but it's been running on win 11 for almost 2 years now without any issues

K8Toledo

1014 posts

Uber Geek

#3327140 2-Jan-2025 21:27

W11's GUI would be the shittiest Windows GUI ever. It takes 50 clicks to perform simple tasks because the context menu's are buried under layers of submenus. Whoever designed it must be a sadist.

mdav056

607 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3327144 2-Jan-2025 21:52

Wombat1:

Use the Registry Editor to add a DWORD value named AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup and set it to 1. Restart PC and run the Windows 11 setup from the ISO.

It worked for me on a 10 year old Intel i7 HP Laptop with 16GB Ram. MS updates and support may be limited.

Exactly. I did this for an old Dell laptop and an old SurfacePro, and it worked perfectly -- even with the SurfacePro having only 4 GB RAM (though it runs a little slow). Both receive updates. Full instructions in Windows Central.

gml

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