Windows 11 has been out for nearly two years. After being announced on June 24, 2021, it officially started rolling out on Oct. 5 that same year. From the beginning, it was a breath of fresh air. It had a beautiful new design, new apps, and new features, while delivering a more simplified experience that was more user-friendly.
We've recommended upgrading to Windows 11 since the very start, and in the two years since, it's only gotten better. Updates like version 22H2 and 23H2 build on that foundation while adding more capabilities and bringing back some of the more dearly missed features that were removed for the original release.
Can you upgrade to Windows 11?
The first big question is whether you can upgrade to Windows 11 in the first place. Compared to Windows 10, it comes with some new system requirements that leave a lot of older PCs behind.
The biggest change is the CPU requirements. You need one of the following:
- Intel 8th-generation CPU or newer
- Intel Core i7-7820HQ (this is the only mainstream seventh-gen chip supported, and it's also the one in the Surface Studio 2)
- AMD Zen 2 or newer
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 or newer
There are other requirements, such as a minimum of 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage, both of which are double the requirement of Windows 10. The other big one is TPM 2.0; however, that's been a requirement of new PCs since 2016, and all the supported CPUs started shipping after that anyway. In other words, if you've got a supported CPU, you should also have TPM 2.0.
I understand that a lot of people with unsupported hardware are upset about this, but to be fair, this is the first time that requirements have been raised since Windows 7 came out. And still, Windows 10 is going to be supported until October 2025.
If you're still running a five-year-old (or older) PC, Windows 11 is probably worth buying a new device for.
Windows 11 redesigns the OOBE
Ding-dong, the witch is dead. And by witch, I mean Cortana. I despised the digital assistant being part of the out-of-box experience (OOBE). It was jarring and, frankly, terrible. Moreover, if anyone complained about it, Microsoft acted like they were some kind of villain who hates people with special needs. Windows 11 works the way it should have worked this whole time. If you didn't interact with the OOBE for a certain amount of time, it audibly asked if you need assistance.
The whole OOBE has been redesigned, too, and it's a lot prettier. It has a white background now, rounded corners on buttons, and it's just more graphical. You might recall that when Windows 10 first launched, it just had these flat blue screens, and then it was redesigned later on with deeper blues and more windows. Now, it's much better.
One other thing to note is that you can finally name your PC in the OOBE, something that was in the Windows 8 OOBE and was removed in Windows 10. It might seem crazy that it was removed, but you have to think about that in terms of building an OS. When creating the OOBE, you tend to start with a certain amount of screens or steps for the user to experience, and things get prioritized. But it's really nice to once again be able to name a PC. With Windows 10, you had to go into Settings to do it, and then you still had to reboot.
A new Start Menu, rounded corners, and an all-new Windows 11 design
Once you boot into the desktop, you'll notice that Windows looks completely different. In my opinion, this is Windows 11's biggest feature. I always thought that Windows 8 and Windows 10 were ugly, and I'm not just talking about bad ideas like Live Tiles. I'm talking about the design language as a whole, from the bright colors to the sharp corners.
Windows 11 replaces jarring system sounds with pleasant ones.
To me, there are two kinds of popular designs. One category is what I'd call classic and the other I call trendy. With trendy designs, we look back on them in a decade or two and wonder what we were thinking. A classic design is something that, even after it's gone out of style, is still beautiful. Windows 8 and Windows 10 had trendy designs. I think Windows 11 is more classic. It replaces the sharp corners with rounded ones, and just by doing that, the OS is so much more pleasant to use. Gone are the jarring system sounds, as they've been replaced by softer ones.
While these visual changes aren't everywhere yet, Microsoft has been bringing them to more and more places, like the volume and brightness indicators, the Task Manager, or the accessibility flyout on the lock screen. Things look better and more consistent than they have in a long time.
And there's so much more. There's an all-new Start Menu, and the Live Tiles are finally gone. Don't remember Live Tiles? I'm not surprised, even though you're using an OS that supports them. Live Tiles originated on Windows Phone as a way to see notifications and other app information inside the shortcut, similar to a widget. Unfortunately, they just weren't as practical on Windows, and I would unpin all tiles from the Start Menu on Windows 10.
Now, the Start menu just shows your pinned apps with their icons, which looks more in line with other platforms. With the update to Windows 11 version 22H2, the Start menu also supports folders in the pinned area, so you can organize your apps a bit better and have more apps readily accessible.
Windows 11 is more enjoyable to see, hear, and even touch.
That taskbar, along with the Start Menu, is centered too. This is a big change, and it seems to be a bit polarizing. It's muscle memory that if you move your pointer all the way to the corner, you'll get the Start Menu. It's been that way for decades. Even with Windows 8, when the Start button was infamously taken away, moving your mouse to the bottom-left corner of the screen and clicking brought you to the Start Screen.
With Windows 11, not only has the button moved for the first time, but it doesn't even stay in the same spot. That's the issue about when things are centered. When more icons get added to the taskbar, the Start button moves further to the left. Personally, I think it's fine. I haven't had any issues with things being where they are. And you can align things back on the left if you want to.
In the initial Windows 11 release, the taskbar was missing a lot of features from previous versions, however. You couldn't drag and drop files onto apps on the taskbar, and taskbar ungrouping was removed, meaning apps were always shown only with their icons and with all windows for the same app being shown under the same icon. Windows 11 version 22H2 fixed the drag-and-drop issue, and version 23H2 thankfully brings back taskbar ungrouping as well, so Microsoft is acting on user feedback, and that's great to see.
Snap Layouts and Snap Groups
Moving past the design, my favorite functional change in Windows 11 is called Snap Layouts. Windows has had snapping for over a decade. That's where you drag a window to the side of the screen, and it snaps to one side. You can also snap to a quarter to keep an app in a quadrant. Windows 10 introduced Snap Assist, which automatically lets you select a second app for the rest of the screen after you snap an app.
Snap Layouts takes this to the next level. If you hover over the maximize button in a window (or hit Win + Z), it will display an array of window layouts, and you can pick the one you want. You'll also select which window in the layout you want that app to be in. It's pretty great.
Snap Layouts finally makes ultra-wide screens a delight to use.
It also makes life a lot better with ultrawide monitors. Companies used to send me them for review, but I couldn't stand them because Windows 10 wasn't made for the resolution. With two 16:9 monitors, I can have two apps side-by-side on each screen for four apps total. With an ultra-wide, there was no easy way to do that. Snap Layouts now has a way to let you have three apps side-by-side.
Snap Layouts was originally part of PowerToys, a utility that does work on Windows 10. It's nice to see it make its way to the OS, though. It's also nice that with version 22H2, Microsoft added a way to access Snap Layouts with a touchscreen by dragging a window to the top of the screen. This brings up all the Snap Layouts available, and you can choose which one to start with.
A bit of a smaller addition is Snap Groups, but it's still super useful. When you minimize your windows, you can hover over an icon, and in the window previews, you'll see each window, along with groups of windows. Previously, if you had two apps snapped side-by-side and minimized them, you had to restore them separately. Now, there's one option to open all of your snapped windows.
Widgets are back in Windows 11
There's a new Widgets icon that you'll see in the taskbar, and clicking it will bring up a selection of first-party widgets. Unlike the widgets of yesteryear, you can't pin them to the desktop. They're going to stay sandboxed in their own little area.
For the first year or so after launch, all widgets came straight from Microsoft, based on web services like MSN Weather, Sports, and OneDrive. However, starting in early 2023, third-party widgets are also now supported, with options like Messenger (from Meta/Facebook) and Spotify. Widgets can also be based on apps now, so things like Microsoft's Phone Link and Xbox apps also have widgets. They've definitely become a lot more useful since their debut, but they're still pretty far from mass adoption, so it's hard to consider them truly great.
It's also worth noting that Apple recently brought widgets to the desktop itself on macOS, and Microsoft still hasn't done that. They're still in their individual area, which makes them not as convenient to get to. Not to mention the fact that you're basically forced to look at the awful news feed powered by Microsoft Start, which has become even more prominent in recent updates. It's ridiculous that the widgets panel now shows just one column of widgets and two for so-called news.
Teams Chat puts the service in the OS, but it's already looking dead
One of the big features that Microsoft announced for Windows 11 was Teams integration. It was called Teams Chat, but it seems to already be on its way out with Windows 11 version 23H2. Microsoft is removing the taskbar integration for Teams, and instead, now you just get Microsoft Teams (Free), basically the standard version of Teams meant for personal use.
In terms of functionality, it's not much different, but it's actually better in a few ways. The new Teams has a mini mode that's similar to what Teams Chat was, except you can move it anywhere on your screen, which is a nice improvement. However, you can't shake the feeling that Microsoft is already giving up on Teams, and it makes sense, considering the company never really put enough effort into Teams.
One of the big features that Microsoft announced for Windows 11 was Teams integration, but it seems to already be on its way out.
You can send messages to your Skype contacts and others with a Microsoft account set up in Teams. You can also send SMS messages to phone numbers, which prompts them to download Teams or respond via SMS. It can be a little confusing for the recipient, but obviously, Microsoft wants to get everyone to use Teams, too.
The initial version was buggy and very incomplete, but by now, Teams has matured a bit and functions decently well. The problem is Microsoft has still split the personal version of Teams from the version designed for work and school, meaning that if you're invited to a meeting with a company, you'll have to download a different version of Teams that supports meetings. This version is strictly for personal Microsoft accounts. You'll also have two Teams apps with nearly identical icons on your app list, so things are a bit confusing.
The big problem with all this is that Microsoft keeps supporting Skype instead of putting more resources into developing its primary app. With Skype no longer being included in Windows 11, you might think it's gone, but it still gets updates, and sometimes major ones. Meanwhile, Teams in Windows 11 has mostly received fixes and smaller improvements since its debut, and it still doesn't work the best.
There's an all-new Microsoft Store for Windows 11, and Windows 10 too
Microsoft showed off an all-new Store for Windows 11, but as it turns out, it's coming to Windows 10 as well. Firstly, it's totally redesigned, something that you're going to hear about a lot of inbox apps. But the redesign isn't the big story.
The bigger story is that Microsoft is accepting all apps that run on Windows into the Microsoft Store. Now, it's once again time for a history lesson because, as it turns out, a lot of Windows 11 is still about fixing mistakes that began in Windows 8. The Windows Store was born in Windows 8, and the problem was that you had to rewrite your app in order to be in the store. No one was about to do that, and this idea failed.
Then came Windows 10, where Microsoft promised four bridges. Project Westminster let you package a web app as a UWP app, Project Astoria promised to run Android apps on Windows, Project Islandwood would let you recompile your iOS apps for Windows, and Project Centennial let you package your Win32 app to go in the Store. Astoria never shipped outside of preview, and Islandwood never took off because Microsoft really couldn't keep up with Swift. The desktop bridge has been key though, but more complicated apps have still not made it into the store.
Now, Microsoft has let its guard down completely. Apps no longer need to be packaged, and for those apps, you probably won't even get updates through the Microsoft Store. With Windows 11, the Microsoft Store is really just a gateway to where you're going.
Even third-party app stores can be here. The two big ones you'll see are the Epic Games Store and Amazon Appstore, and that last one is something we'll get to in a bit. But yes, Windows 11 can now run Android apps, though this feature initially missed the launch date in 2021.
The bigger story is that Microsoft is accepting all apps that run on Windows into the Microsoft Store.
You'll also be able to get third-party browsers from the Microsoft Store, such as Opera. Microsoft used to have similar rules as Apple for browsers in the Store. They were fine, but they had to use the platform engine, that being EdgeHTML. When Edge was rebuilt, the plan was to change that policy to Chromium, but again, Microsoft has let the guard down. If you like a browser, the vendor should be able to put it in the Microsoft Store. Of course, browsers like Chrome still aren't there, but that's Google's choice. Browsers like Vivaldi, Brave, Opera, and Firefox are all there now.
One other thing that was promised was an Entertainment tab that would offer content from different services. Right now, that only seems to apply to Microsoft's own service and Amazon Prime Video, so we haven't made a whole lot of progress in the last two years.
Finally, with a more recent update, the Microsoft Store also has an AI hub, which is where you can find apps that leverage AI capabilities, which have become more and more popular. This can include a lot of things, like image editors, speech transcription, and more. It's just a way for Microsoft to bring AI to the forefront of the store, really. It's even the only section with a colored icon.
Windows 11 comes with all-new inbox apps
Calculator
Still open source, Microsoft says that the Calculator app has been rewritten in C#. As you'd expect from a Windows 11 redesign, the buttons have rounded corners. You can use it as a scientific calculator, a graphing calculator, with a programming mode, and it can convert between 100 units and currencies.
Clock with Focus Sessions
The Clock app now has a feature called Focus Sessions, and it's pretty significant. It's not just a redesign for the new OS. It's a customizable way of setting up periods of time that let you focus on things.
First of all, there's a timer. This lets you set how long you want the Focus Session to be, and it will automatically give you breaks depending on the length. There's a 'skip breaks' checkbox too. Next, there's a dashboard that shows a daily streak, how many hours you've set Focus Sessions for today, how many hours yesterday, and more. You can also set a daily goal.
Here's where it gets really cool, though. Focus Sessions comes with Microsoft To Do and Spotify integration. That means that you can set music to play during your Focus Sessions, and with Microsoft To Do, you can choose certain tasks to work on.
Here's what really annoys me. This isn't a new problem, but ever since Microsoft killed off its in-house Groove Music service, it's deemed Spotify to be the music streaming service of choice for Windows users. I understand To Do being integrated since it's a Microsoft service, but playing favorites with third-party services is frustrating. If you look at things like the Microsoft Store, a big theme is about letting third-party developers have front-row seats on Windows, so maybe we should stop showcasing Spotify throughout Microsoft apps.
Other than that, the feature is really cool. I'm always up for new and inventive ways of being more productive.
Photos
Throughout the Windows 10 era, it was commonly known that the Photos app was bad. With Windows 11, it not only received one redesign; it's actually had two.
First of all, when you're viewing a photo, you'll see a filmstrip at the bottom, with thumbnails of next and previous images in your folder. You can obviously click through these however you want, but it's something that feels like a big step forward from the Windows 10 app. You can also select multiple images to see them side-by-side. At the top, there's the toolbar where you'll find regular options like rotate, trash, inking, and so on.
The new Photos app also has some basic photo editing tools, which is super cool. The goal here isn't to be everything to everyone, but rather, Microsoft wants this to be an app that does the things it does well.
The second redesign of the Photos app also brought along a new look for the gallery itself, with an updated look that aligns more with the rest of Windows 11. It also now has a section for OneDrive photos specifically, but perhaps more interesting is support for iCloud Photos. Indeed, if you install iCloud on your PC, you can now see your iCloud photos directly in the Photos app, so you don't have to jump between different apps. I don't have an iPhone, so I can't say how useful this is, but it is cool to see Microsoft play nice with other services.
As for the OneDrive integration, it's actually very disappointing. You can see your OneDrive memories — albums created based on your photos — but you can't actually open them in the app. It just takes you to the OneDrive website, which feels very disjointed.
Another thing you might notice is that there's no longer a video editor in the Photos app. That's because Windows 11 comes with another new app, Clipchamp.
Paint
Microsoft Paint got its first big overhaul in a very long time in Windows 11. It wasn't very long ago that Microsoft Paint was deprecated, meaning that it was no longer being developed and would someday be removed entirely. After blowback from the many, many users, the Redmond firm promised to put it in the Microsoft Store. That didn't happen, though, because the company ended up killing off Paint 3D instead.
At first, the new Paint was just a fresh coat of paint (pun intended) over the old app, but that's changed since then. First, the company added a dark mode to the app and a centered canvas (which were promised around the Windows 11 launch).
But Microsoft is going further than ever with Paint. The company is implementing some AI features with background removal, and it's even adding layer support. Yes, Paint is finally going to support layers, meaning you can open and save transparent images. You can even open multiple of them and superimpose them to make more complex images. It's no Photoshop replacement, but having these features built-in makes Paint so much more useful to the point where it's actually surprising Microsoft is doing this.
Snipping Tool
You might notice by now that flip-flopping in the direction of certain apps is a theme with Microsoft, and what it's done with the Snipping Tool is another example. The app was officially deprecated at one point, and it was promised to be replaced by Snip & Sketch. Now, we're back to Snipping Tool, though it's actually closer Snip & Sketch with the old Snipping Tool name.
The Snipping Tool can now record any area of your screen
At launch, that was exactly what it was, barring some smaller design tweaks. It let you take screenshots of any area of your screen and draw on them. But Snipping Tool has gained some big capabilities. For example, it can recognize text in screenshots now. After taking a screenshot, you can click the text actions button and it'll scan your image for text. You can then select text to copy it or redact it, or use the quick redact features to automatically hide things like phone numbers and email addresses.
There's another big update, and that's screen recording. Indeed, the Snipping Tool can now record any area of your screen (as long as it's within a single monitor) and save a video of it. Previously, if you wanted to record your screen, you'd need a third-party app, or you could use Xbox Game Bar as a workaround for most situations, but now, it's where you'd expect it to be, and it works great.
Clipchamp
A brand-new app in Windows 11 is Clipchamp, which was a huge addition. Ever since Microsoft killed off Windows Live Essentials and Movie Maker, Windows has always lacked a proper video editor that could stand on the same level as Apple's iMovie. To fix that, Microsoft bought Clipchamp, a web-based video editor that supports features like a multi-track timeline and has some stock assets you can use for your videos, in addition to some premium things you can pay for.
Originally, Clipchamp wasn't a great deal. Video exports couldn't be in Full HD without the premium plan, and the pricing structure was insane. But Microsoft has mostly fixed those issues, and now the paid plan (called Essentials) supports 4K video output. Plus, it gives you premium stock assets and filters and the option to create a brand kit.
You shouldn't expect tools on the level of Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. Still, Clipchamp offers a nice set of features for casual users who just want to throw some clips together, add effects, transitions, text, and so on. It has a fairly robust feature set, including the ability to separate the audio track from a video so you can manipulate them individually. If you're someone who's never edited a video before, and you're trying to do something for the first time, Clipchamp is probably all you need, and it saves you the time of doing research on more advanced tools. And you can read our Clipchamp guide to learn how to use it, too.
Notepad
Don't get scared yet; Notepad received some updates for Windows 11, but it still works as well as it always has. The big thing with Notepad now is that it supports tabs, so you can edit multiple files within the same window. It also has indicators in the title bars to let you know there are unsaved changes in a document, so you're less likely to lose your work. And, of course, it supports the dark theme.
Sound Recorder
Another relatively small update also came to the Voice Recorder app, now called Sound Recorder. Again, it's been updated with new visuals, now showing the waveform of recorded audio as you record/play it, and it also makes it easier to choose a microphone to record with.
The touch keyboard is prettier
Microsoft brought some of its SwiftKey chops over to Windows 11 in the Touch Keyboard. One way it did that is with themes. You can choose from any of the pre-made themes, or you can upload your own image. It's a nice touch, and it makes the Touch Keyboard more pleasant to use.
It's one of those things that always felt lacking in Windows to me. Sometimes, things in Windows are fine, but when you look at how well they work on other platforms, it's worth wondering why Microsoft doesn't do better. The truth is that people don't use touch on a PC as much as they do on a smartphone or tablet, so it gets overlooked. And when it gets overlooked, people don't use it. It's a real chicken or egg problem.
Windows 11 gives much-needed love to Windows on Arm
Windows 11 on Arm comes with some big improvements, and this isn't just old news — it's really old news. Both x64 emulation and Hyper-V support for Windows on Arm has been in testing with Windows Insiders since 2020. They were originally going to ship in Windows 10 version 21H1, back when that was going to be a major update. Then, Windows 10X was going to steal the show, so the 21H1 update became an enablement package, and the features got pushed back to the fall. Windows 10X got scrapped and the big visual overhaul landed as Windows 11.
It's a worthy update for Windows on Arm, though. These devices have been able to run native ARM or ARM64 apps, and emulated x86 apps. The ability to run x64 apps has been the missing part of the equation, especially since Apple came out of the gate with ARM PCs that just work with all the apps you use.
Now, the software will be there. The hardware will be an interesting space to watch.