Windows 11 has arrived, should I upgrade?

The current advice for our business clients, is “no, not yet”. 

As you may be aware, Windows 11 was released last month. To get an idea of the new features that Microsoft are touting, you may want to watch this introduction video. 

Some of the headline features are: 

• An overhauled user interface 
  
• Better “virtual desktop” support 
  
• Teams integration (personal accounts only) 
  
• Widgets 
  
• Xbox gaming features 
  
• Android App support 

Here at Computer Culture we are assessing the new version of Windows to look for ways our clients can make use of the new features, and to make sure it is compatible with the multitude of third party apps and services that many business rely on. 

When new operating systems like this get released, third party vendors can often take a long time to support them, and with Windows 11, this is no exception. Software that handles things like security, backups and line-of-business applications, should all be in a supported state by the vendor before you make the jump, so that you do not hit compatibility issues that may cause disruptions to your business. Currently, there needs to be more testing and verification before Computer Culture can recommend or “support” business computers running Windows 11. 

By “support”, we mean we know all the core products and services that you rely on are compatible with Windows 11, for example the antivirus and patching components that are so critical to keep your business safe. It is for this reason, that we are advising our clients not to upgrade to Windows 11 at this stage, as doing so may cause disruption to your services. These disruptions may not be covered by support agreements you have in place with us until such time as we verify Windows 11 as a supported operating system for our managed services. 

Furthermore, you may notice many of the new features being advertised by Microsoft for Windows 11 are very much consumer focussed. Things like Xbox gaming features and Widgets are unlikely to provide gains for business, and an important thing to note is that the Teams integration is for personal accounts only, i.e. for communicating with friends and family. It is not designed for business use, for which you will continue to use the same dedicated Teams app that you do now. 

Windows 11 does offer a nice new user interface, and reportedly has performance gains over Windows 10, but the case for upgrading is not compelling at this stage. After it has undergone more testing and verification, we will update our position to support it, and advise when that is the case. Microsoft will also be supporting Windows 10 until late 2025 so we recommend that’s where business computers are kept for now.