Microsoft Releases Windows 11
After more than six years since the release of Windows 10, Microsoft finally unveiled Windows 10 to the general public on October 5, 2021. A free upgrade from Windows 10 has been selectively offered to compatible systems, and all new computers being shipped to stores now come with Windows 11 preloaded.
Not wanting to rock the boat with drastic layout changes (as we experienced with the release of Windows 8), the Windows 11 desktop has a familiar appearance, the biggest notable change is that the bottom taskbar with start button and program icons has been moved to the center, somewhat like the dock you see on Apple Macintosh systems.
Some of the key new features include:
- A customizable widgets page for weather, news, stock market updates etc.
- Snap Layouts and Snap Groups.
Snap layouts allow you to arrange open app windows in a tile like grid format, while Snap groups allow you to create multiple Snap layout sets and then easily switch between them without having to restore each app individually.
- Chat from Microsoft Teams, a chat and video based collaboration system originally aimed at business organizations, is integrated into the taskbar and now available to personal accounts so you can keep in touch with friends and family members via text or video calls.
To find out if your older Windows 10 machine can be upgraded to Windows 11, download and run the PC Health Check App:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11#pchealthcheck
For more features and details about Windows 11, check out Microsoft’s Windows 11 page,
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11
Or check out Windows 11: Everything you need to know on techadvisor.com.
For those of you who prefer to stick with Windows 10, no worries, Microsoft will continue to support Windows 10 until October 14, 2025.
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions about upgrading a Windows 10 system or migrating to a new Windows 11 system.
~Ted Eiler
