All about Windows 11

Windows is the most popular operating system by far and Windows 10 has seen a lot of adoption over its sixyear run especially with gamers It will be hard to beat such an influential OS and Windows 11 will have to be a significant upgrade to competeWhat are its featuresWindows 11 will change a lot of familiar things about Windows while keeping a lot of things similar The first most significant one is the death of the Windows bar and the corner Windows logo This will instead now be centred much like the dock on Mac OS For hardcore Windows users like myself this will require a lot of retraining to fight the muscle memory of guiding the mouse to the left corner of the screenThe look of Windows has also been revamped to give it a sort of lightly frosted glass look So there is a lot of transparency and rounded corners The wallpapers and themes have also got a makeover making them more dynamic The OS will also use GPU acceleration to display flawless and smooth animations throughoutMicrosoft has built chat directly into the OS so you can now collaborate with colleagues or meet with friends directly from your desktopWorking with a big screen will be especially easy in Windows 11 thanks to a fancy new Snap Layouts option You can use it by dragging a window to one of the corners to activateNot to be left behind by Mac OS Windows will now be capable of running Android Apps This means Windows will have access to a huge plethora of applicationsWidgets will also play a big role in the new windows and you can bring up the dedicated widgets pane at any time to quickly check information like your calendar weather news or todo listWindows 11 is optimised to work properly with touch and also without it Windows 8 was a nightmare because of the focus on touch which caused all sorts of problems to users who didnrsquot use a touch display While Windows 10 went back to the way things were there was a little bit of support added for touch screen computers With Windows 11 Microsoft is attempting to walk a fine line where their OS works well in touch as well as with the keyboard mouse They have achieved this balance to a significant extent Moving the start button to the centre a swipe touch keyboard and swiping gesture to bring up different things have made Windows 11 easier to use in touch modeWindows 11 will have an upgraded focus on gaming It will include Direct X 12 Ultimate access to direct storage like it does with the Xbox console and of course all the gaming goodies that come with Xbox Game Pass UltimateWhen is it releasingMicrosoft has yet to announce a release date for Windows 11 However if rumours are to be believed we could have the new Windows by October this year If you still want to try it there are insider test builds floating around on the Internet Though I wouldnrsquot recommend installing these if you are a novice as they may have significant security flaws or bugsHow much will it cost to upgradeWindows 11 is a free upgrade for Windows 10 users That means if you have a registered Windows 10 machine and your machine can support Windows 11 you can have it for freeWill my machine support itWindows has a PC checker tool that lets you check if you can upgrade to Windows 11 The sad part is most desktops and a few laptops may be incapable of running Windows 11 The PC checker tool doesnrsquot tell you why your computer is ineligible There is a communitybuilt tool called WhyNotWin11 from Github that can check and tell you what you need to get to make your computer eligible for the Windows 11 upgradeMost computers are not eligible because of the compulsory requirement of the TPM 20 Trusted Platform Module chip The TPM chip is designed to keep your computer safe by preventing attacks on the boot process and the hardware of the computer Most laptops post2017 should have the TPM 20 chip preinstalled but it isnrsquot all that common with desktop computers Even some modern desktop computers donrsquot come with TPM built in That said most motherboards have an empty slot where a TPM 20 module could be installed Since this tech was mostly used at the enterprise level few chips make it to the consumer market and have either disappeared or have seen a significant rise in the asking price If you arenrsquot in a hurry most component manufacturers have already ordered for stocks scheduled to reach before Windows 11 makes an appearanceIs it worth upgradingWindows 11 will have significant security upgrades along with its fresh look and design This may impact the way you work and if your computer is eligible to upgrade you should go for it Though I would say wait for a month or two before taking the plunge in case all the bugs are not ironed out Most users especially gamers will have to wait to add a TPM chip to their existing motherboard to even install the upgrade which may impact the adoption of Windows 11