Microsoft's update server is rolling out Windows 11 upgrades to more and more PCs. However, before you say yes, please consider what might go wrong.

Ed Bott is an award-winning technical writer with more than 20 years of experience writing for mainstream media and online publications.

Today, Microsoft's phased launch of Windows 11 is accelerating, which means that your Windows 10 PC can receive an upgrade invitation at any time. When that day comes, you will make a decision: whether to continue upgrading or stick to Windows 10?

The good news is that you will not be forced to migrate to Windows 11. At least for now, the upgrade requires you to approve the installation by clicking the button shown here.

Not ready to upgrade? Click that faint link to stay in Windows 10

If you are not ready to upgrade, you just need to click "Keep on Windows 10 temporarily". This action will hide the upgrade option and delete the associated notification icon from the taskbar.

If you are ready to upgrade, you can start by clicking the big download and install button. However, before you do this, please consider what might go wrong.

If your PC is brand new, it may have Windows 11 preinstalled. If this is the case, you can choose to downgrade to Windows 10, but I don't recommend this. Most people just stick to the operating system, hardware drivers, and utility software that their PC designs use.

For older PCs, the hardware requirements of Windows 11 complicate the situation. These are not just technical issues. The biggest obstacle is the CPU compatibility requirement, which excludes most PCs designed before 2019. If your PC has a 7th generation (or earlier) Intel CPU, its CPU is not supported, which means you will not get all the upgrades.

On those older PCs, you still have the opportunity to migrate to Windows 11, but you have to do this the hard way by downloading the installation files, performing a clean installation, and then restoring your programs and data. (For more information, see My Windows 11 FAQ: Our Upgrade Guide and all the other information you need to know, titled "What if my system does not meet the minimum system requirements?")

Some people like the way Windows 10 works. I mean, they really, really, really like it, and they worry about changes in some aspects of the user experience in Windows 11.

For example, you can dock the Windows 10 taskbar at the top or either side of the display, but the Windows 11 version is limited to the bottom of the display. The upgrade also removes your ability to drag files or application icons onto the taskbar and pin them as shortcuts and organize Start menu shortcuts into folders.

Everything you need to know

What are the new features in Windows 11? What are its minimum hardware requirements? When is your PC eligible for upgrade? We have got the answer to your question.

The list of removed or deprecated features in Windows 11 is long. If anything on this list is a must for you, please consider postponing the upgrade.

Of course, this factor also works in reverse. Do you use the docking station with a laptop computer? Do you use multiple monitors? If so, the changes in Windows 11 are a major improvement over their Windows 10 equivalent, and the upgrade may be positive for you.

Since the core of Windows 11 is a functional upgrade of Windows 10, most devices and applications compatible with Windows 10 should be able to run after the upgrade. But "most" is not "all", when you undo the upgrade and restore the system to the previous operating system, you will not be able to complete any work.

It should be clear that the best time to evaluate compatibility is before the upgrade. For hardware devices, this means installing Windows 11 on a separate device (or a new partition of the main device) and confirming that it is working properly. For software and services, compatibility testing can usually be done using a virtual machine. (For more information, see "How to create a perfect Windows 11 virtual machine.")

If you encounter compatibility issues after the upgrade, rolling back to Windows 10 is always an option, but your best course of action is to avoid this necessity through thorough testing first.

For a brand-new operating system, a certain degree of instability is inevitable. Although the Windows 11 preview version has been tested by a large number of people as part of the Windows Insider Program, these tests simply cannot cover the almost unlimited number of hardware and software variants in the huge Windows ecosystem.

The pattern is predictable. After a major upgrade, Microsoft recorded the initial wave of errors, which were patched as part of the security and reliability updates provided on the second Tuesday of each month. Most errors are just annoying, but some are real productivity killers.

If you are worried that the new upgrade will negatively affect your workflow, the first thing to do is to monitor the list of known issues on the Windows 11 release history dashboard. The list includes detailed descriptions of errors and compatibility issues, and will be updated when the issues are resolved or solutions become available.

If you prefer to postpone these issues, please consider waiting until Windows 11 becomes more mature. In the new annual update plan, the first major feature upgrade of Windows 11 will arrive in October 2022. This update will be equivalent to Service Pack 1 as the old man knows it. If you wait until a few months after the release, you will have an excellent opportunity to avoid all the problems encountered by early adopters.

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