General questions and considderations about upgrading to Windows 11... Its long

Operating Systems & Open Source Windows
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So I have done some research about upgrading from 10 to 11 but none of the information I found about it were detailed enough. So here is some general information about my situation and what I have heard or read and some questions as well as thoughts. OK so I have used 11 on other peoples PC’s occasionally in general just to do some trouble shooting but that’s about it. When I build a new PC depending on what I’m using it for I just copy my drive and use my already preconfigured over the past 12+ years OS rather than do a fresh install and start all that over from scratch. I’m assuming that will no longer be the case… I do a fresh install if I am only going to use the system for something specific or non personal in nature and most of the time I use Linux on those systems because I no longer trust Microsoft or want the bloat of Windows on every PC I use. I only use windows where I have to these days which includes my main rig.

I would switch to Linux and I do use Linux on my other systems but Linux still is not yet streamlined enough for my daily use unfortunately and not all of my games and misc other software will run on Linux. Tho funnily enough most of the software I do use other than games is generally open source and I use it on Linux to.

The only reason I was considering upgrading to 11 was because I hear graphics performance and the scheduler improved and I heard that the HDR and multi monitor experience improved tho I read the multi monitor thing can be fixed in 10 with a bios tweak. I have just been a little lazy…

It does seem clear that I would be forced to use the Microsoft store a lot more in 11 from what I have read and I really prefer not to and avoid it at all cost how ever that is not a deal breaker unless Microsoft prevent software from installing that is not from the Microsoft store at some point… I have a feeling this will be the case at some point and that is probably when ill go full Linux.

Also I have a 3960X and a 6900XT if that makes a difference for anything?

Speaking of AMD I’m not so happy AMD went and built the TPM into my CPU enabling Microsoft to push for locking my OS to my hardware even harder. Maybe it will benefit AMD some how like you have to buy a new CPU after 1 OS has been tied to it or if you want to switch motherboards? Like what happens if I want to give away or sell the CPU my OS is tied to can that CPU be used again? I have also heard that AMD will be releasing new Radeon features that will improve performance for their newer GPU’s on 11 but not 10 in the future…

I would also be upgrading a 10 install that I progressively upgraded from 7 ultimate to 8 ultimate to 8.1 ultimate to 10 which still retains all the features Microsoft stripped out since they dropped ultimate and just in general since they introduced 10. Oh right some where in their was Vista LOL. I read Microsoft pulled a bunch of stuff from 11 and though I’m not sure it sounded like they are pulling features from upgraded systems as well?

OK so copied 10 install and I was going to test a migration to 11 but I read that my drive is going to just be encrypted automatically? Does it do this during the upgrade? That would take forever and hit my drive pretty hard I imagine…

Also their is software I use occasionally that requires secure boot to be disabled… What happens if I disable it later to run certain software will the system even boot? Or what if I disable it and force the upgrade then enable it and disable it occasionally?

I have also read that 11 will steal system resources from non focused windows and give them to ur focused window? I really dont need that happening say if I’m rendering or running some other heavy load in the background and I’m watching Netflix or YT while I wait. Netflix and YT doesn’t need the system resources the larger task I’m waiting on does. Though I haven’t extensively used 11 yet and I’m not sure if that behavior can be tuned? I hear Intel CPU’s will do that on their own to by switching the unfocused application to the e cores?

I have also read that in 2025 10 will automatically upgrade to 11 I think it was with in 65 days after support ends for 10. I’m wondering what it will do with systems that have TPM disabled or dont have TPM capability or dont have UEFI at that point. In any case I disable TPM and Secure Boot in the BIOS since day one… I also told windows not to upgrade in the group policy editor because I updated my BIOS and that included the TPM feature or fixed it or something (Gigabyte no longer gives detailed documentation about their BIOS updates) and I didn’t want to reboot my PC to a windows 11 upgrade at some point.

Any ways any thoughts in general or answers to any of my questions would be appreciated. Sorry this is so long…

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Maybe I’m missing something, but TPM can just be simpily wiped. It’s that the OS has data stored in the to the TPM, not that the TPM is tied to the OS as far as I know. There could of course be something new, but for TPM 2.0, it’s basically just secure storage for crypto keys used for bitlocker and stuff.

So if you use bitlocker (and maybe other features?) and the TPM is wiped, then you have to use the bitlocker recovery key to boot again.

AMD does have a “feature” to tie motherboards to CPUs, which is enabled by default by Lenovo and some other OEMs last I knew, but that happens at the firmware level, not at the OS level.

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An operating system is a tool, not a religion like most Linux “opensource preachers” make it out to be. Fair choice.

Just HDR is a bit better, but it’s only worth considering if you’re daily driving an OLED or MiniLED display. Else it’s not worth in my opinion.

Never heard of anything like that and never had issues with multi monitor setups in Windows 10. What the issue with it?

Why’s that? Windows 11 is just Windows 10 slimmed down kernel wise (it just carries on all the latest tweaks Windows 10 accumulated over a decade) and the use of the Microsoft Store is entirely at the user discression. At least Microsoft is not doing that!

Doesn’t make any difference.

Nope, the TPM is a platfom module and not part of the CPU. There’s no way for Microsoft or AMD to lock you down, you can do whatever with your hardware.

What you’re thinking of is the use of hardware IDs to identify your PC and that has been part of Windows since Vista. Ever since 2007 every activated copy of Windows has a fingerprint of the PC it’s running on. This functionality is used to lock down OEM keys to the hardware it was bought for to avoid people recycling licenses. But you can get away with that calling the automated call center (I did that a long time ago to make my Windows 7 key re-activate). If you’re using a non-OEM license you can activate it for different hardwares many times, up to a certain limit (can’t recall what’s the limit). Once you exceed it just call the automated call center and unlock it again. What determines the fingerprint is the motherboard so unilt you swap that out you can infinitely upgrade all the other components with no hits to your Windows activation counter.

“in the future” and the most impact is gonna probably happen mostly on newer and newer hardware. I wouldn’t update out of fear of missing out.

Changing ANYTHING about the boot sequence after you installed Windows will result in the OS not loading. Especially if you want to enable or disable secure boot at will. If it did the purpose of secure boot would be defeated pretty easly.

That doesn’t sound right from an OS engineering perspective. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t happen all the times because, if you’re running a CPU intensive taks in the background, that task has already “booked” it’s place in the queue and got as much CPU time as it could to complete in a reasonable time. Something like video playback wouldn’t get the same priority or CPU time. Furthermore video is also GPU accelerated now so it’s almost never hitting the CPU. Tasks scheduling is a very complex problem and I really doubt things are handled like this.

With TPM off you’re automatically excluded from the switch to Windows 11. It’s a mandatory requirement so having it off scares Windows Updates away.

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Do you care on sharing this information? I also have a 3960X and am on W10 too, getting angry on those multi monitor problems, windows switching between monitors for no reason and such.

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as far as i know there’s a boot order for the gpu.
with vga being first then hdmi then display port.
so if your secondary screen is booting first, swap the input from both screens if you can.
or if you have 2 hdmi screens. make sure you use port 2 for the 2nd hdmi screen (assuming you have 2 hdmi inputs on it) windows should detect them in the correct order after that.

that way windows knows you have 2 screens 1 primary and 1 secondary. rather than 2 screens sending back, hey im hdmi 1 boot me first.

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Well I google it once than saw their was a registry tweak I also remember hearing the same thing in an LTT episode. But I lazily never solve the problem…

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Thanks for the replies. Here are my responses.

When the monitors disconnect, if you allow the displays to turn off in power settings when they reconnect ur windows are on random displays instead of being how you left them when they disconnected. The fix was for windows to just remember where stuff was. The more displays you use the more annoying it gets. I use 4.

I read an article that mentioned that they are pushing several independent mainstream applications in the Microsoft store on 11 like Steam. And if I recall getting applications from the Microsoft store enables some integrations maybe which will encourage devs to release in the Microsoft store. I also recently had an experience where stuff that used to be available for download from Microsoft like PowerToys is now only available from the Microsoft store and further I recently realized that my Skype instillation was broken because I had installed it along time ago and the only way to get it now is threw the Microsoft store.

Thanks again!

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Got it. I usually just turn off my PC or put it to sleep, I never let the displays go to sleep on their own. To fix that on Windows 10 you can use Powertoys and Fancy Zones. There’s a setting that allows to keep the window size when changing resolution. That should allow you to keep the windows where they are even if a display goes to sleep. I bet it’s a pain in the ass with four displays.

Here’s the release page for PowerToys and here’s the page to download Skype from. I regularly get those two programs updated so it’s really weird that you’re not getting “desktop” Skype updates through the program itself or can’t get to the PowerToys download page. Let me know if these pages work for you and you can get your programs from them. I installed Skype the first time two years ago on my machine and it’s still updating.

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I’ve disabled and enabled secure boot before, and Windows still booted. Granted, this was on 10, so 11 could have changed things.

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Thank you. Those links worked. Not sure why I was having trouble finding the standard downloads at the time.

My PC is always on and Im heavily overclocked and have all power states disabled. But I do allow my displays to turn off to extend the backlight lifespans. I do have that setting enabled in FancyZones which works for snapped windows but unsnapped windows will just go where ever. Also it not 100% reliable for some reason even for snapped windows.

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As far as I know, there is no difference between 10 and 11 on this. There are things that have been moved to the store exclusively, like calculator, and WSL, but as far as I know, those apply to both 10 and 11.

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It seems to me like they still had the regular download links until somewhat recently. Now they seem to have removed the links or made them harder to find. But yes they were always pushing towards the Microsoft store since its inception.

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Yes, secure boot is labeled as a “requirement” now. You can force 11 to install with it off but theirs a warning from Microsoft on the installing 11 on an unsupported system support page about not getting certain updates with it off. Security updates were specifically mentioned but it mentioned possibly “other” updates to. It might be worth testing installing it on an unsupported system and trying these things to see if it brakes. At least for that I can do a fresh install and not compromise my data. But it will still not be a true test of variables considering how my OS is configured and had been upgraded repeatedly.

If I recall corectly i was also able to disable secure boot on my 10 instillation a long time ago. But I dont remember it being easy.

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I never tired with Windows 10, but for Windows 11 it’s surely more strict.

I always have them snapped or fullscreen so never had that issue. It’s surely a design flaw in Windows 10. If you don’t find a software that can work around that in Windows 10 is surely worth switching to Windows 11 to solve the hassle.

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