Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, so moving to Windows 11 stopped being a someday decision. The good news: if your PC qualifies, the upgrade is free and keeps your files, programs, and settings in place. This guide covers the whole thing, why the move matters, whether your machine can do it, the upgrade step by step, the ways it goes wrong and how to fix them, and your options if the PC can't make the jump.
- Windows 10 stopped getting security patches on October 14, 2025. It still runs, but every month it's a softer target.
- The upgrade to Windows 11 is free if your PC meets Microsoft's requirements, and it keeps your files and installed programs.
- Back up first anyway. It's the cheap insurance that matters the day something goes sideways.
- A lot of "This PC can't run Windows 11" messages come from TPM or Secure Boot just being switched off in the BIOS, which is a quick fix. A processor block is the real wall.
- If you can, roll back to Windows 10 within ten days of upgrading.
Why upgrade now: Windows 10 is out of support
Windows 10 didn't stop working on October 14, 2025. What stopped is the monthly security patch. Microsoft is no longer fixing the holes that attackers find, and they find new ones constantly. So every month that passes, a Windows 10 machine has a few more open doors than it did the month before, and nobody is coming to shut them.
This is a security problem, not a performance one. An unpatched machine runs at the same speed it always did, which is exactly why the change is so easy to ignore. But when a new vulnerability gets found in Windows, patched machines get fixed and unpatched ones stay open. Attackers know the fix exists, they know what it plugs, and they go looking for the machines that never got it. Anything you log into on that computer, banking, email, anything with a password, is worth protecting.
If you need more time, Microsoft offers paid Extended Security Updates for Windows 10, which buys extra patches for a while longer. Treat it as a countdown while you plan the move, not a way to keep Windows 10 alive forever.
If you'd rather skip the whole exercise, our Windows 11 upgrade service handles it start to finish, backup included. We come to you anywhere in Calgary, usually same day.
Step 1: Back up your files first
Do this before anything else. An in-place upgrade almost never loses data, but "almost never" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. If your hard drive is already tired, the extra load of an upgrade is exactly the kind of thing that pushes it over.
Copy your photos, documents, and anything you'd hate to lose to an external drive or a cloud service. Don't rely on the drive being upgraded to hold the only copy.
The upgrade keeps your files in place when it goes smoothly. The backup is for the time it doesn't, a stalled install or a drive that quits mid-way. Ten minutes of copying now beats a data recovery job later.
Step 2: Check that your PC qualifies
Not every Windows 10 machine can run Windows 11. Microsoft raised the bar. The main requirements are:
- TPM 2.0 enabled
- Secure Boot enabled
- A supported processor (this is the one that trips up older PCs)
- 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage, though you'll want more than the minimum for a machine that feels good to use
- UEFI firmware
The easy way to check is Microsoft's own PC Health Check app. Download it, run it, and it tells you pass or fail, and usually which requirement failed. That one detail changes everything that follows: a TPM or Secure Boot failure is usually a five-minute BIOS change, while a processor failure is a real wall no setting fixes. Same red X, very different outcomes.
If it says you're fine, skip to step 4. If it says you're not, read the next step before you give up, because the fix is often simpler than it sounds.
Step 3: If it says "This PC can't run Windows 11"
This message scares people off, and it shouldn't always. TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are built into most computers from roughly 2018 on, they're just turned off by default in the BIOS. Flip them on and the same "unsupported" PC becomes eligible.
- Run PC Health Check and note exactly which requirement is failing, so you're not guessing.
- If it flags TPM or Secure Boot, restart and tap the BIOS key during boot (often Delete, F2, or F10, it flashes on screen).
- Look for TPM (sometimes called PTT on Intel or fTPM on AMD) and Secure Boot, switch them on, save, and exit.
- Re-run PC Health Check to confirm the machine now passes.
Turning Secure Boot on can stop a PC booting if its drive was set up in the older Legacy/MBR mode. If the machine won't start after the change, go back into the BIOS and turn Secure Boot off again, then get the disk converted before trying once more. This is an easy place to get stuck, and an easy one to hand off.
If the message is about your processor, that's a harder wall. An unsupported CPU isn't something you flip on, and while unofficial workarounds exist, an unsupported install can stop getting updates later, which defeats the entire point of moving. If that's your machine, skip ahead to what to do when your PC can't upgrade.
Step 4: Free up space and plug in
The upgrade needs room to work. Make sure you've got at least 20 GB of free space on your system drive, and more is better. If you're tight, clear out downloads and empty the recycle bin. A nearly-full drive is a common reason installs stall or roll back.
If it's a laptop, plug it in. An upgrade that runs out of battery halfway through is one of the few ways to genuinely break an install. And unplug the extras, external drives, printers, hubs, controllers. Do the upgrade with just the essentials attached.
Step 5: Run the upgrade
Once you qualify, the upgrade itself is mostly waiting. Two ways to start it:
- Windows Update. Open Settings, go to Windows Update, and check for updates. If Windows 11 is offered to your machine, you'll see a "Download and install" option. This is the simplest path.
- Installation Assistant. If Windows Update hasn't offered it yet, download Microsoft's Windows 11 Installation Assistant, run it, and it walks you through the same upgrade directly.
Either way, pick the option that keeps your files and apps when it's offered. The machine will download, restart a few times, and land you on the Windows 11 desktop with everything where you left it. On an SSD this takes under an hour. On an old mechanical drive it can take a few hours, so start it when you don't need the computer.
Step 6: Check your drivers afterward
After the upgrade, run Windows Update again, twice, with a reboot between rounds. It'll pull down updated drivers for most of your hardware. This is where the odd post-upgrade problem lives, Wi-Fi that won't connect, no sound, a printer that's gone missing, and it's almost always a driver that needs updating rather than anything actually broken. The full fixes are in the next section.
If the machine feels sluggish after the move, give it a day, Windows runs indexing and cleanup in the background after a big update. Still dragging after that? That's usually a hardware story, and we wrote it up in why is my Windows 11 PC so slow.
If the upgrade goes sideways
The upgrade usually goes fine. When it doesn't, it fails in a few predictable ways.
The install gets stuck
A progress bar frozen at 99 percent, or a machine stuck rebooting in a loop, is nerve-wracking but usually recoverable.
First, give it real time. Some stages genuinely sit at the same percentage for a long stretch, especially on a slower drive. If the drive light is still flickering, it's working. If it's truly frozen with no disk activity for ages, check your internet connection is stable (half-downloaded update files are a classic cause of stalls), free up more space on C:, and unplug any peripherals you left attached. If it fails and rolls back, most people are better off re-running it with Microsoft's Installation Assistant rather than fighting the automatic one.
When an in-place upgrade fails, Windows rolls back to your old version with everything intact. The scary screen is usually the recovery working, not your data disappearing.
Missing drivers: no sound, no Wi-Fi, wrong resolution
This is the most common post-upgrade headache, and it's just drivers that didn't carry over.
- Run Windows Update again, twice. It pulls a lot of drivers automatically, and the first pass often isn't the last. Reboot between rounds.
- For anything still broken, go to the maker's website (Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, or the component's maker) and grab the Windows 11 driver for that exact model. This is the reliable route for Wi-Fi, graphics, and sound.
- Open Device Manager and look for yellow warning marks. Those are the devices Windows couldn't sort out. Right-click, Update driver, and if that fails, grab it manually per the step above.
Wi-Fi is the awkward one, because if the network driver is the thing that's missing, you can't download its replacement on that machine. Use your phone or another computer to fetch it and move it over on a USB stick. And skip the third-party "driver updater" apps. They're unreliable and often bundle junk. Windows Update and the manufacturer's site cover everything you need.
An app won't open or keeps crashing
An app that worked on Windows 10 and now won't launch is usually one of two things: it needs updating, or it needs a runtime it's missing. Update the app first, the current version is far more likely to be Windows 11-ready. If it's older software with no update, right-click it, Properties, Compatibility, and try running it in compatibility mode for Windows 10. Some older programs need the Visual C++ Redistributables or .NET installed; a "missing DLL" style error is usually that.
Windows won't activate
If Windows shows as not activated after the upgrade, don't panic and don't buy a key. A valid Windows 10 licence carries forward to Windows 11 automatically. Sign in with the same Microsoft account you used before, then run the Activation troubleshooter (Settings, System, Activation). If your licence was tied to your Microsoft account, it usually sorts itself out within a day or two as things sync.
If you don't like it, you can go back
Windows keeps your old Windows 10 setup for ten days after upgrading. If something's wrong or you just prefer the old layout, Settings has a "Go back" option that returns you to Windows 10 with your files intact. After ten days it deletes the old files to reclaim the space, so decide within that window.
If your PC can't upgrade
Your PC works fine, but it fails the check on the processor and always will. Now the real question is whether to upgrade the hardware or replace the machine, and it comes down to the specific computer in front of you.
| Worth keeping | Time to replace | |
|---|---|---|
| Age | Roughly three to five years old | Seven or eight years plus |
| What failed the check | TPM or Secure Boot (a BIOS setting) | The processor |
| How it runs now | Fine, or slow for fixable reasons | Crashing, overheating, failing |
| The slow part | An old hard drive or thin RAM | Everything, even after upgrades |
A three-to-five-year-old machine that's just slow often needs an SSD or a RAM bump more than it needs a new Windows version, and that plus the free upgrade beats a new machine on cost every time. We ranked the drives in the best SSD upgrades for Windows 11 and covered memory in how much RAM you need for Windows 11.
Replace it if the processor is the block, the machine is genuinely old, or it stays slow and flaky even after upgrades. At some point the parts to keep an old machine going cost more than a new one that just works.
We'd rather tell you a repair isn't worth it than sell you one that isn't.
You can also keep running Windows 10 unpatched, and it'll work. Just do it with your eyes open: back up your files somewhere off the machine, don't do banking or anything sensitive on it, and understand the risk grows the longer you wait. That's the option for a machine that's offline, or one you're retiring soon anyway.
Common questions
Yes. If your PC meets Microsoft's requirements, upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 costs nothing, and Microsoft doesn't charge for the licence. Any cost that comes up is for work around the upgrade, like a hand with the BIOS settings or hardware the machine needs, not for Windows itself.
No. The in-place upgrade keeps your files, installed programs, and settings where they were. That said, back up to an external drive or the cloud first anyway, because the rare failed install or a hard drive that quits mid-upgrade is exactly when a backup earns its keep.
Yes, for ten days. Windows keeps your old installation and offers a "Go back" option in Settings that returns you to Windows 10 with your files intact. After ten days the old files are deleted to reclaim space and the easy road back closes, so decide within that window.
No. A valid Windows 10 licence carries forward to Windows 11 automatically during the upgrade. If Windows shows as not activated afterward, sign in with the same Microsoft account and run the Activation troubleshooter rather than buying a key you don't need.
It still works, but Microsoft stopped patching security holes in October 2025, so the machine becomes a softer target every month. For casual offline use the risk is lower. For banking, email, or anything with passwords, plan the move, or use Microsoft's paid Extended Security Updates as a short bridge while you do.
When to hand it off
Most upgrades are boring, in the good way. Hand it off when they're not: the BIOS changes make you nervous, the machine has data on it you can't afford to lose, or the install has already gone sideways and won't boot. Businesses with several machines and a network to keep running are usually better off having it planned rather than doing them one at a time and hoping.
We handle Windows 11 upgrades across Calgary, at our SW Calgary shop or in your home. We back up your files first, sort the TPM and Secure Boot settings safely, and tell you honestly if a machine isn't worth upgrading. The diagnosis is free and you get a flat quote before any work starts.
