It’s getting better and I think the way it looks and feels today is the version that Microsoft should have come out with when it was released as an unfinished product (my words) in the Fall of 2021.  Boy was it brutal. At this point, Windows 11 feels mainstream to me.

Standard menu items like Google Chrome, the Edge browser, Word, Excel, Outlook, and Firefox work just fine. 

There is no rush to adopt Windows 11 however.  Microsoft will keep bugging Windows 10 users.  If you are a Windows 10 Pro user — there is some programming I can do to tone down the bugging. The absolute drop dead date for Windows 10 will be Oct 2025.  At that point if you have a pre 2018 computer (*with a couple exceptions) you will be buying or have bought a new computer.  If you have a 2018 and later computer (generally Intel 8th gen or equivalent processor) you will need to upgrade to Windows 11 by that date (or Windows 12 or whatever the next one is called). 

I just helped a business client upgrade to Windows 11 last week.  It was a very smooth process and everything seems to be working just fine.  We are mindful of the 10 day grace period to roll back to Windows 10 — just in case.

My greatest fear for anyone upgrading to Windows 11  is old software.   Outdated, unsupported, obsolete programs that ran perfectly in Windows 10 — may not run well or at all in Windows 11.  There is a chance they work just fine but you may want to ask yourself why you are hanging on to those old versions first.   A big potential hang up that comes to mind is older versions of Quick Books Pro (desktop).  The truth of the matter is that as of 2023, I believe any version of Quick Books desktop prior to 2020 is considered unsupported.  That is the reality check.  It may still work but it is susceptible to security attacks and also being partially / fully disabled by Windows updates in the future. I am saying this not to cast stones but as someone who also uses an older version of Quick Books.  The purchase price for Quick Books 2023 is $549 per year (no more one time purchases) and they even make this hard to get because Intuit / Quick Books whole objective here is to get you to subscribe to Quick Books Online — where a functional version will cost you about $55 / month, at a minimum.    Tying this back into the Windows 11 discussion — I am holding off on upgrading one of my computers to Windows 11 because of the Quick Books issue.  Eventually I will have to bite the bullet on a modern version of Quick Books, but I am trying to delay it as long as possible.  However, even with all of my cynicism — I do get Intuit’s point.  They are saying isn’t your bookkeeping worth at least $50 / month to you on average.  I’m sure when really pressed most business owners would say — of course.   There aren’t many good alternatives.

If you don’t have the issue of older software to worry about and you are sticking to the browsers and Microsoft Office — I don’t think Windows 11 is something to fear — especially with a new computer.