Home windows 11 is Microsoft’s newest desktop working system. Few have been predicting its arrival simply a few years in the past, with Home windows 10 beforehand described as “the final model of Home windows”.
However Microsoft’s angle appeared to alter in the course of the pandemic, which left folks around the globe counting on its software program for all the pieces from distant working to preserving in contact with family and friends. A few of these tendencies are extra everlasting, so the corporate determined it was time for one thing new.
Enter Home windows 11. The brand new OS represents a big design shift, aiming to simplify the person expertise and cut back muddle. Many components are impressed by Home windows 10X, the cancelled Home windows 10 spin-off designed for touchscreen gadgets.
Each appropriate laptop computer may have been supplied a free improve, however you don’t must replace till Home windows 10 help ends in 2025. However virtually each laptop computer that’s not a Mac or Chromebook runs Home windows 11 nowadays.
This full information goals to reply each query you might need in regards to the OS, linking out to our intensive Home windows 11 protection.
What’s Home windows 11 like?
Clearly eager to keep away from upsetting thousands and thousands by making radical modifications (because it in the end did with Home windows 8), Microsoft has saved the identical primary format, albeit with a big redesign. You’ll discover rounded corners all over the place you look and a brand new centrally positioned Begin Menu, though you possibly can return the latter to the facet when you’d choose.
There’s a brand new widgets panel which might present the climate, shares, information and different issues – seemingly changing the previous Begin Menu’s stay tiles – and improved grouping and snapping of open Home windows so you possibly can focus extra simply on what you’re making an attempt to do.
Home windows 11 on tablets is way improved due to the introduction of gestures and a brand new on-screen keyboard that rather more just like the one in your telephone. You’ll be able to even set up and use Android apps by way of the Amazon Appstore, though a workaround enables you to use the Google Play Retailer as an alternative.
Nonetheless, whereas there are many visible modifications, Home windows 11 needs to be a simple transition from Home windows 10 for most individuals.
When did Home windows 11 come out?
- Preliminary launch date: 5 October 2021
- Greatest replace to date (22H2): 20 September 2022
Home windows 11 was formally launched on 5 October 2021. However actually, that was simply the date that OEMs (unique tools producers) might start to launch Home windows 11 {hardware}.
The rollout was gradual, however all appropriate gadgets ought to have been supplied the choice to improve from Home windows 10. If that’s not the case for some motive, you possibly can obtain Home windows 11 manually or set up it utilizing a USB.
New options have been added regularly, however essentially the most important new options to date arrived on 20 September 2022. That’s when the massive 22H2 replace, earlier than much more new encompasses a month later.
How a lot does Home windows 11 value?
- Free improve for eligible PCs
- New {hardware} pricing depending on producer
- USB and obtain hyperlink variations out there
Pricing was at all times prone to be one of many huge questions, however the excellent news is that it’s free for eligible PCs. This can doubtless proceed for nevertheless lengthy Home windows 11 is supported.
Nonetheless, it’s not so simple as all Home windows 10 gadgets getting Home windows 11. As is defined beneath, Microsoft has up to date the {hardware} necessities for its new OS.
Naturally, upgrading from Home windows 10 isn’t the one method to get Home windows 11. Loads of new laptops and PCs are already working the working system out of the field, with loads extra on the best way. Up to now, it doesn’t appear to be having Home windows 11 pre-installed has affected the asking value.
Nonetheless, you may also now purchase Home windows 11 as a standalone working system. The best technique is by way of a obtain hyperlink, which shall be despatched to you when you full the acquisition:
You should buy it pre-loaded on a USB stick when you’d choose – that is at the moment out there for Home windows 11 House ($139/£115.99), however not Professional. At Amazon UK, you possibly can even get a disc model for £99.
Wasn’t Home windows 10 the final ever model of Home windows?
That’s what Microsoft mentioned when it introduced Home windows 10, sure. However apparently it modified its thoughts about that. The corporate might have rolled out these modifications in a Home windows 10 replace, nevertheless it selected to not refer again to this assertion in the course of the launch occasion and is likely to be hoping its prospects have quick reminiscences.
Curiously, Microsoft did finally reference this at its April 2022 hybrid work occasion. Nonetheless, the corporate described the pandemic as the important thing driver of this modification in technique, including that “how, when and the place we work basically modified in a single day”.
However after spending a number of months with Home windows 11, it’s clear not a lot has actually modified below the floor.
Will my present PC or laptop computer run Home windows 11?
The minimal {hardware} necessities for Home windows 11 are as follows:
- 1GHz dual-core processor
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB of storage
- UEFI, Safe Boot succesful
- Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0
- Graphics card appropriate with DirectX 12
- Show bigger than 9in with 720p or greater decision
- Microsoft account + web connection
Undecided in case your machine is appropriate? Microsoft has a free ‘PC Well being Verify’ app, designed that will help you do exactly that. It’s out there to obtain from the underside of the most important Home windows 11 web page.
That storage requirement is likely to be SSD-only from 2023, if knowledge storage analysts Trendfocus (by way of Tom’s {Hardware}) are to be believed. Nonetheless, present Home windows 11 gadgets utilizing HDDs or eMMC storage aren’t anticipated to be affected.
For extra info, try our separate information: Will my PC run Home windows 11?
Microsoft doesn’t encourage it, however there may be nonetheless a method to set up Home windows 11 on unsupported PCs. Certainly, you’ll in all probability see messages inside Settings and on the desktop warning you that your machine isn’t appropriate. It doesn’t appear to have an effect on efficiency and app compatibility, although.
For any subsequent Home windows 11 updates, no modifications to machine compatibility are anticipated.
Home windows 11 trailer
When you’ve got a spare couple of minutes, it’s price watching this official introduction video to get a way of what Home windows 11 is all about:
What new options does Home windows 11 have?
There are too many to enter a lot of element right here, however listed here are the primary ones you’ll want to find out about.
First, there’s a big visible overhaul. Home windows 10 has maintained an analogous appear and feel all through its lifespan, however that’s all modified with Home windows 11.
A brand new taskbar strikes icons to the centre, though this could simply be reverted to a extra conventional format. What can’t be modified is a number of the performance Microsoft eliminated in comparison with the Home windows 10 model, however Microsoft is slowly including again most of those options.
The brand-new Begin Menu isn’t notably missing, though its brand-new design definitely isn’t for everybody. In reality, this aesthetic is just like what Microsoft teased for the now-cancelled Home windows 10X. Right here’s what it appears like with darkish mode enabled:
It encompasses a grid of customisable ‘Pinned’ icons, with separate ‘All apps’ part for all the pieces else you might have put in. The ‘Advisable’ heading beneath shows just lately used recordsdata, apps and folders – together with from cloud providers corresponding to OneDrive and Microsoft 365 – enabling you to rapidly decide up the place you left off, even when you final used a special machine.
Nonetheless, many individuals have been disenchanted by this, particularly the shortage of customisation skill. Nonetheless, Microsoft has since added the flexibility to decide on the cut up between Pinned and Advisable sections. The official screenshots beneath offer you an concept the way it appears:
One new characteristic that has gone down effectively is the brand new Snap Layouts multitasking performance. Hovering over the maximise button permits you to select the association of apps on the display screen, as you possibly can see beneath.
Widgets haven’t been a serious characteristic of current variations of Home windows, however that’s modified now. The panel slides in from the left, however might be customised to fill the entire display screen when you’d choose. It’s designed for fast glances at necessary info with out distracting you from what you have been doing earlier than you opened it.
Widgets for the climate and shares are additionally constructed into the taskbar, however these can now be used to set off notifications on the taskbar. As The Verge stories, the static icons will now get replaced with stay animations. Which means you’ll get a extra apparent alert that there’s a thunderstorm or your favorite shares are buying and selling downwards for instance. This may very well be distracting for some folks, however there’s no apparent method to flip it off because it stands. Microsoft explains extra about Widgets in a help article.
Elsewhere, Microsoft Groups’ chat operate is now immediately built-in into Home windows 11, with future updates permitting you to share home windows and toggle mute immediately from the taskbar:
The Groups integration extends to the Edge browser, which means particular person tabs now present up inside Process Supervisor. Edge tabs on the taskbar can even embrace the location, icon and matter title, though that is changed by a generic icon throughout personal searching periods.
Many inventory apps have been redesigned, together with File Explorer and the Microsoft Retailer. The latter contains Android app help by way of the Amazon Appstore, however you may also use the Epic Video games Retailer when you’d choose. There’s no indication the Google Play Retailer shall be added to Home windows 11, however
a workaround permits you to do exactly that.
When you’d slightly persist with official providers, Google can also be engaged on a devoted Play Retailer Video games app. That is anticipated to be appropriate with Home windows 11 and Home windows 10 and launched someday earlier than the tip of 2022.
Home windows 11 additionally has a brand new Motion Middle, splitting Fast Settings, Notifications and a music controller into separate sections. Its design is impressed by Home windows 10X, making it straightforward to navigate utilizing touchpad, mouse, pen or finger.
Loads of inventory apps have additionally been redesigned to be extra in step with Home windows 11’s new design. They embrace Calculator, Clock, Notepad, Media Participant and File Explorer, with the latter proven beneath:
Home windows 11 is only one a part of Microsoft’s prioritisation of accessibility. The Floor Adaptive Package makes any laptop computer simpler to make use of, whereas the brand new Adaptive Equipment assist people who find themselves unable to make use of a conventional mouse and keyboard. Mixed, these instruments could make a giant distinction.
The Microsoft Groups integration has acquired combined critiques, nevertheless it additionally applies to the Edge browser. It means particular person tabs now present up inside Process Supervisor, with GPU and crash stories proven too. Tabs on the taskbar can even embrace the location, icon and matter title, though that is changed by a generic icon throughout personal searching periods.
Within the Process Supervisor, variations out there since February 2022 help an ‘Eco mode’. This can be utilized to allocate extra sources to particular apps by setting the precedence of others to ‘low’. This stops resource-intensive apps from consuming an excessive amount of of the CPU or GPU energy, which ought to assist enhance efficiency and battery life.
Elsewhere, Home windows 11’s Dynamic Refresh Price characteristic is now out there. On appropriate gadgets, this enables panels above 60Hz to robotically modify their refresh fee relying on what you’re doing. It prevents energy from being wasted unnecessarily.
Microsoft made it a lot more durable to alter the default browser when it launched Home windows 11, however the firm largely reversed that call in March 2022. Beginning with model KB50011563, there’ll be an choice inside Settings to set a browser as your default for HTTP, HTTPS, .HTML and .HTM recordsdata. Nonetheless, you’ll nonetheless want to alter the place PDFs open individually.
The primary important replace for Home windows 11 arrived in February 2022, including a number of new options. They embrace redesigned Notepad and Media Participant apps, new taskbar performance and a public preview of native Android app help. Nonetheless, the latter requires a minimum of 8GB of RAM and an SSD – that’s stricter than Home windows 11 itself.
Then, in September 2022, Microsoft formally launched Home windows 11’s largest replace to date. Recognized merely because the ‘2022 Replace’, it provides new performance to the Begin menu, Widgets panel and the taskbar. There’s additionally a brand new Stay Captions accessibility characteristic, higher multitasking by way of Snap Layouts and new touchscreen gestures. However there are loads extra options that it’s price being conscious of – be taught extra in our full information to the 2022 Replace.
In October 2022, much more new options have been added. The long-awaited introduction of tabs in File Explorer was the spotlight, however there are additionally enhancements to the taskbar and new ‘Recommended Actions’ once you spotlight related textual content.
Typically, Home windows and Apple gadgets don’t play properly collectively, however Microsoft is taking steps to enhance it. In November 2022, the corporate confirmed that Home windows 11’s Pictures app will supply direct integration with iCloud Pictures – which means all the photographs out of your iPhone are simply accessible.
Microsoft
It now appears like Home windows 11 shall be getting a 23H2 characteristic replace in late 2023 – it beforehand wasn’t clear. However Zac Bowden at Home windows Central says 23H2 “received’t be a serious platform launch, with Microsoft shifting to ‘Second’ updates a number of instances a 12 months.
Bowden believes we’ll see Second 2 in February/March, Second 3 in Could/June and Second 4 (23H2) in September/October.
By way of new options, the next are all anticipated in Second 2:
- Pill-mode Taskbar
- System Tray updates
- Extra search bar choices
- Vitality suggestions in Settings
- Search in Process Supervisor
- Full-screen widgets panel
- Studio Results in Fast Settings
- Voice Entry enhancements
Second 3 and past is much less clear as of December 2022, however Bowden expects modifications to the Home windows Search UI and additional updates to inventory apps and packages. We’ll additionally in all probability see new designs for many dialog packing containers and pop-ups to deliver them in keeping with the remainder of Home windows 11.
Trying additional forward, Home windows 12 could also be launched as quickly as 2024.
We mentioned Home windows 11 at launch on episode 86 of Quick Cost, our weekly podcast:
Tech Advisor’s information to Home windows 11
We now have loads of Home windows 11 protection on the location, answering all the important thing questions on Microsoft’s new working system.
The fundamentals
Tutorials
Information
- Why you won’t have the ability to set up Home windows 11’s 22H2 replace proper now
- Home windows 11 provides tabs to the File Explorer
- Don’t set up Home windows 11’s 22H2 replace when you’ve got an Nvidia GPU
- No, your Home windows machine in all probability doesn’t have a virus
- Home windows 11’s newest replace fixes a critical efficiency bug
- Home windows 11’s July safety replace breaks the Begin menu
- Microsoft releases emergency safety updates for Home windows 10 and 11
- Home windows updates can break Wi-Fi, however you must nonetheless set up them
- Microsoft’s newest Home windows patches repair a serious safety flaw
- A 12 months after it was introduced, Home windows 11 adoption stays sluggish
- Home windows 11 is accessible on unsupported PCs, however you shouldn’t obtain it
- Home windows 11’s newest replace is inflicting but extra points
- Home windows 11’s newest bug is stopping updates from putting in
- Microsoft reveals a number of recent options coming to Home windows 11
- Home windows 11’s subsequent replace reduces Blue Display screen of Demise crashes
- Home windows 11 set for brand new Search expertise and File Explorer tabs
- Home windows 11’s newest replace hides the Begin menu, nevertheless it’s not a bug
- Home windows 11 is now put in on virtually 20% of all Home windows gadgets
- Home windows 11’s Android apps want a minimum of 8GB RAM and an SSD
- Microsoft is testing much more new Home windows 11 options
- Home windows 11’s first huge replace brings Android apps to everybody
- Home windows 11’s February replace is already inflicting points
- Home windows 11 will increase market share by 3.5% in only a month
- Home windows 11 set for brand new pill performance and wallpaper stickers
- Microsoft is altering its method to new Home windows 11 options
- Microsoft releases replace to repair Home windows 11 and 10 VPN points
- A key Home windows 11 safety characteristic is inflicting AMD efficiency points
- Home windows now has 1.4 billion customers, however what number of are on Home windows 11?
- Google Play Retailer video games are coming to Home windows in 2022
- Defective Intel audio drivers are inflicting Home windows 11 to crash
- Home windows 11’s native Android app help is now out there to strive
- Microsoft releases patch for AMD-related Home windows 11 efficiency points
- Microsoft is shifting Home windows 11 to annual characteristic updates
- Home windows 11 is right here, however not a lot has actually modified
- Why Home windows 11 feels an excessive amount of like a Home windows 10 characteristic replace
- Why Home windows 11 is quicker than Home windows 10, in accordance with Microsoft
- Home windows 11 arrives on 5 October, however with out Android app help
- Home windows 11’s new method to the Microsoft Retailer has one main drawback
- Home windows 11 options you’ll have missed
- Home windows 10 options lacking in Home windows 11
- Home windows 11 will ship working darkish mode by default
- Home windows 11 is accessible in seven totally different variations
- Home windows 11’s new Microsoft Retailer has made a promising begin
- Home windows 11 House doesn’t work with out a Microsoft account
- One UI Watch, Snapdragon 888+ & Android on Home windows 11 | Quick Cost ep. 72
- Why Home windows 11 feels an excessive amount of like a Home windows 10 characteristic replace
Look out for lots extra Home windows 11 protection like this over within the coming weeks and months.
