Windows 10 stopped receiving security updates, so staying on it means running an operating system that no longer gets patched against new attacks. This decision has a deadline now, and there are three honest answers.
First, will your machine even take it?
Windows 11 requires a security chip called TPM 2.0 and a processor from roughly 2018 onwards. Press Windows+R, type tpm.msc and press Enter — it will tell you whether the chip is present and which version.
A common and frustrating case: the chip is there but switched off in firmware. Machines that appear incompatible are often perfectly capable once it is enabled. Worth checking before you buy anything.
The three routes
- Upgrade in place. Free, keeps your files and programs. Right for a machine from 2018 or later that already runs well. Back up first anyway — upgrades almost always work, and "almost" is doing real work in that sentence.
- Buy new. Right if the machine is older than about six years, already slow, or has a failing drive or battery. Below a certain age you are paying to keep something alive that is going to need replacing regardless.
- Neither, deliberately. A machine with no internet connection — a till, a machine driving a piece of equipment, something running software that only works on Windows 10 — can reasonably stay where it is, if it is genuinely isolated from the network. That condition is not optional.
The upgrade nobody thinks of
If a machine passes the requirements but feels slow, a solid-state drive and more memory will transform it far more than a new Windows version will. On a computer still running a spinning hard disk this is frequently the difference between "needs replacing" and "feels new", for a fraction of the cost.
Before you upgrade anything
- Back up. Non-negotiable.
- Check that the software you depend on runs on Windows 11 — accounting packages and anything talking to specialist hardware are where problems live.
- Have your product keys and logins to hand.
- Allow a couple of hours, and do not do it the morning of something important.
If any of this is beyond where you want to go on your own, a Koadi technician can take it from here — remotely anywhere in the US, or on-site in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Describe the problem in your own words and someone who does this every day will pick it up.