W11 Blog 003 | When will I get the upgrade?

The very first starting point to be crystal clear on here is, you only be offered the upgrade via a Windows 10 computer, if your computer meets all the minimum requirements. As we talked about in our last article, one such requirement is a compatible processor, just as one example.

Let’s assume that your computer does meet all of the minimum requirements, so you have a nice big green imaginary tick against your computer, when can you upgrade?

Well, how long is a piece of string? It’s a little more structured than that to be fair, but given there will be millions, if not billions of Windows 10 computers out there, which can be upgraded, this isn’t going to happen overnight for everyone.

Based on what we’ve read/what other people have reported from official “Microsofties” then, it would appear to be along the lines of:

Brand new computers, which have been officially tested with Windows 11

We’ve seen, having been setting up new computers over the last few weeks at Lucid Towers, that this is definitely the case. We found that as soon as you get into Windows 10 if you check for updates, you will be offered the upgrade to Windows 11.

Newish computers, which are quite new

Using my own Windows 10 laptop as an example, which is less than six months old, these computers should be offered the upgrade to Windows 11 over the coming months. Logic says here because these are newish computers, they will easily meet the minimum requirements to upgrade to Windows 11.

Older computers

Once the update has been “dripped out” and offered to all of the above, next up will be older computers. Again, just to stress, you still need to meet the minimum requirements to be offered the upgrade. Realistically, I think it’s fair not to expect to be offered the upgrade until at least next year (2022).

I appreciate there are no set timescales here – but you have to bear in mind, Microsoft themselves haven’t set timescales either, they have just given a “rough guide” in terms of when things will be offered and rolled out.

What can you do in the meantime?

The very first thing you could do, is check, just out of interest, if your computer is compatible with Windows 11. You can do this by downloading and running the Windows 11 compatibility checker here: 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-11#pchealthcheck

If you’re feeling brave, and your computer meets the minimum requirements, then in theory, you could download Windows 11 and install it manually, but please be careful doing this, ensuring you have all of your precious data backed up first. 

So, in summary, sit tight, be patient, and wait in line until it’s your turn!

Gavin Moorhouse is the owner of Lucid Computer Solutions, an IT Business based in Redditch, Worcestershire. He wrote this article on his Windows 10 laptop, which is yet to be offered the update.

A large part of the information regarding the potential timescales for possible upgrades to be offered came from the team over at Big Tech Question, so we of course wanted to refer to them as a source for this article.