Windows 11 upgrade, drivers etc.

[DahPython]

I kind of don't really want to upgrade to windows 11 after nearly 10 years of using windows 10, but with the security updates I guess i have to right? One thing that im slightly worried about is how i obviously have motherboard drivers and wifi drivers etc that I installed from my motherboards website specifically for windows 10, is that going to matter at all when upgrading to windows 11? Or should I do a clean install of windows 11 on my pc, i only built it a year ago so its not old. Any compatibility issues I should look out for? or no.

[Tetras]

It doesn't matter if you have an old driver. If Microsoft knows the driver is bad then they'll update it automatically as part of the upgrade process.

[Hinjima]

13 minutes ago, DahPython said:

I kind of don't really want to upgrade to windows 11 after nearly 10 years of using windows 10, but with the security updates I guess i have to right? One thing that im slightly worried about is how i obviously have motherboard drivers and wifi drivers etc that I installed from my motherboards website specifically for windows 10, is that going to matter at all when upgrading to windows 11? Or should I do a clean install of windows 11 on my pc, i only built it a year ago so its not old. Any compatibility issues I should look out for? or no.

That has not been an issue for me at all.

I actually upgraded from windows 10 to 11 on Sunday last week and all programs, drivers and files work exactly as they did on Windows 10.

The switch was seemless and I haven't encountered a single issue.

 

Most drivers are the same between win 10 and win 11 even if you can pick win 10 or 11 when downloading them.

[thevictor390]

I had a strange issue where my motherboard drivers were blocked due to the new core isolation security setting in Windows 11. I had to turn that off and reboot to get networking.

My motherboard is very old, probably the oldest that will support Windows 11, first gen Ryzen era.

[GuiltySpark_]

Here is the thing, Windows 11 isn't new. Its been the main MS OS for just over 4 whole years now. This basic stuff like compatibility is more or less all figured out.

 

The only real problem areas are when a few things combine together and those are:

• Inexperienced users
• upgrading old Windows 10 installs instead of a full clean wipe and fresh install

That's where things have a tendency to go downhill to varying degrees depending on the severity of both points. 

 

Clean install is the way! Especially if its an old 10 install!

[adsii]

Personally Windows 11 has been crap for me, so I just got this

[PDifolco]

1 hour ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

Here is the thing, Windows 11 isn't new. Its been the main MS OS for just over 4 whole years now. This basic stuff like compatibility is more or less all figured out.

 

The only real problem areas are when a few things combine together and those are:

• Inexperienced users
• upgrading old Windows 10 installs instead of a full clean wipe and fresh install

That's where things have a tendency to go downhill to varying degrees depending on the severity of both points. 

 

Clean install is the way! Especially if its an old 10 install!

But then you need 4 hours reinstalling all your stuff, Windows is super retarded on that, for example on Android everything is installed back automatically

Plus I have a dual Linux boot, that I'd need to reinstall as well certainly - if ever it works...

[David A. Tatum]

My background includes novel writing, for which there is no small amount of "one size fits all" advice.  Most of that advice comes from a place of one person getting a piece of advice for fixing one particular issue they specifically have as a writer, thinking that applies to everyone, and then getting draconian over how every writer should follow it.  From this sort of thing we get nonsense writing advice like "never use adverbs" and "write what you know" and "Use only said for writing" and so on, and so on, and so on... all of which are good advice for people who make CERTAIN mistakes, but are terrible advice for people who are making OTHER mistakes.  And sometimes it just confuses people. 

 

In the same way, I feel the "always use a clean install" is in the same vein.  The problematic nature of an upgrade instead of a clean install are (mostly; a few caveats mentioned below) a myth, when it comes to upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 on modern hardware.  Upgrading from 7, 8, or 8.1 to 10 or 11, or any OS upgrade using MUCH older hardware, are a different story, but that's not what we're talking about here.  Most of Windows 11's bugs are from Windows 11, not from the upgrade, though most of those bugs are overblown (save for the problems with Modern Standby, which were also a problem on Windows 10's version of Modern Standby, too). Upgrade vs. Clean Install both have their own advantages and disadvantages, so making "one size fits all" statements like "you should always do a clean install" annoy me in the same way all that one size fits all writing advice does.

 

Using a clean install over an upgrade is good advice when it comes from older versions (Win7-8-8.1) to 10/11, mostly due to how drivers are handled, but the drivers are handled the same between 10 and 11.  The 10-11 upgrade is no more unstable than going from 24H2 to 25H2.  If you're using an already upgraded version, however, or if you're using MUCH older hardware -- in the OPs case, built about a year ago, probably not -- then maybe those driver issues will be lingering, and may be a problem.  For most people, the upgrade will work just fine.  However, there are pros and cons to each method:

Pros of Upgrade over Clean Install:  Your settings and other installed software are preserved.  Some legacy options are available that wouldn't otherwise be available (most notable, to me, is that Legacy Standby (S3) is only available if you do an upgrade; a clean install will wipe out those files, and you'll be locked into the more problematic Modern Standby).  It's less labor intensive than a clean install.  Also, you've already presumably removed all the bloatware that comes with Windows 10, so you only have to remove the bloatware Windows 11 comes with.

Pros of Clean Install over Upgrade:  Older hardware will get fresh drivers rather than upgraded older drivers (one of the issues between upgrading from 7/8/8.1 to 10 was how drivers were handled).  A lot of useless legacy files that would take up space on your hard drive are wiped out.  Some of those "preserved" settings from your old installation may (rarely) need to be tweaked on Windows 11, so you'll still have to tweak them anyway.  Any old system corruption will be cleaned out (better than just running the System File Checker and/or DISM would).  You do have to deal with more bloatware (because, again presumably, the bloatware that you removed from your Windows 10 installation is likely back in Windows 11, with new bloatware as well), but once you're done with that and have everything set up just the way you like it, you should get marginally better performance out of your operating system (which is why some people suggest just wiping your boot drive and doing a clean Windows install every few months, anyway).

Personally, I find the performance boost of a "clean install" is rarely significant enough to justify the time spent reinstalling and setting up my software all over again, so unless I start having serious slow downs or corruption problems that can only be resolved by a clean install, anyway (something that's happened to me all of twice in over 40 years of computing), I prefer to just upgrade.  But it's your call.