Solved How long does the Windows 11 upgrade take using Windows Update?

Early last year I asked myself the same question for Windows 10 version 2004, the most recent major Feature Update for Windows 10. The PC I tested this on was not a top end machine, rather a modest spec processor with an HDD. Perhaps representative of an average consumer machine any ordinary user may be running Windows 10 on.

The conclusion was that allowing Windows Update to perform the upgrade was perhaps the slowest possible way to get the upgrade. The whole process took over four hours, while an in-place upgrade of the same machine using an ISO was known to take less than two hours. Of course, a PC with a high spec processor and an SSD would be faster, but I would expect the 2:1 advantage of an ISO upgrade over a Windows Update upgrade whould remain about the same.


This was consistent with the results from the same machine with the previous major Feature Update, 1903.


So I was interested to see how the upgrade to Windows 11 through accepting the offer in Windows Update would compare. That original test machine was not eligible for the Windows 11 upgrade, so I have transferred its W10 OS, installed apps and user files to a new machine, my System One below. This too has a modest spec and an HDD, so the results should be comparable. It was offered the upgrade on 20th October.



The first stage after clicking 'Download and install', downloading the upgrade files, is almost entirely dependent on your broadband speed. The 3.8GB downloaded for me in 25 minutes.

The next stage has Windows Update showing an 'Installing' percentage count. That took 3 hours 10 minutes to get to 100%...



...followed shortly be saying 'pending restart'. Unlike using an ISO, throughout this process the PC was useable for other tasks, so it can perhaps be forgiven for taking so long.



From this point on we are now on the same process path as an in-place upgrade and the timings should be the same. From clicking 'Restart now' to the Windows 11 desktop took a further two hours and ten minutes.


So the conclusion remains the same. Windows Update is still by far the slowest way to upgrade to Windows 11.

Bree said:

So the conclusion remains the same. Windows Update is still by far the slowest way to upgrade to Windows 11.

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Exactly. I always recommend the ISO method when doing large feature updates or new OS versions.
Also an image backup to external media as well.

I downloaded the (Create Windows 11 Installation Media) tool and used it to create a Flash Drive for W11 installs and repairs. Much easier to have it all on a Flash Drive because you can use that Flash Drive on all computers in your home with the same Operating System. NOTE: I have W7, W10 and now W11 flash drives, all downloaded from Microsoft Downloads. :). W10 and W11 at Microsoft will be around for years to come. Here is the W11 download page and here is the W10 download page.

1. Download time for the tool is seconds with my 1GB down speed.
2. The download and creation of the media on the Flash Drive took about 15 minutes
3. I had to uninstall Start 10 before I could begin the installation/upgrade to W11, that took two minutes with a reboot
4. Plugged the Flash Drive (USB 3.0) in my extension USB cable that sits behind my keyboard (extension USB cables 3.0 to 3.2 are very handy)
5. The upgrade over W10 and all large and small programs along with Store Apps took about 30 minutes

Having given you my scenario you want to keep in mind the specs on my hardware. I built this computer in 2017 and upgraded it twice, so it's finely tuned and has lots of horsepower. A person with a low end performing computer is a whole other story.
These are my userbenchmark.com scores

Wherever your computer falls in-place between low end and high end makes a huge difference in (time spent to upgrade).

Always Why said:

Wherever your computer falls in-place between low end and high end makes a huge difference in (time spent to upgrade).

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That is very true, which is why I presented my machine as, perhaps, being more typical of a low end machine a casual Windows user may own. But whatever the performance, it will always be faster to avoid using Windows Update and use a usb or ISO to upgrade.

Bree said:

So the conclusion remains the same. Windows Update is still by far the slowest way to upgrade to Windows 11.

Click to expand...

And usually the most unreliable (prone to failure).

The opening post did not report whether the in place upgrade was done with or without Windows updates.

Which method did you choose?


Windows 11 updates should be different from Windows 10 updates according to Microsoft.

Maybe I've been lucky (I do keep my hardware up to date) but I've never had any PC take anywhere near 4 hours to upgrade

That said, I do agree speed is hardware dependent.

zbook said:

The opening post did not report whether the in place upgrade was done with or without Windows updates.

Which method did you choose?

Click to expand...

The comparison with an in-place upgrade was made for the W10 upgrade to 1903, as I recall I chose not to check for updates. Checking for updates however should add very little to the time. The majority of the time is spent installing the upgrade.

These were the reported changes for Windows 11 updates:

zbook said:

These were the reported changes for Windows 11 updates....

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Yes, but those changes are not new. A '35% reduction' was actually first claimed by Microsoft for W10 updates starting with 1903.

Microsoft said:

We are excited to begin releasing PC builds to Windows Insiders using differential download packages! As we discussed in November, as we roll out UUP in our retail release, users can expect their download size to decrease by approximately 35% when going from one major update of Windows to another. For retail users, the first time they get the UUP client code is part of the Creators Update, therefore, they will see the benefit of differential download packages when they go from the Creators Update to the next feature update of Windows.

Click to expand...

zbook said:

The opening post did not report whether the in place upgrade was done with or without Windows updates....

Click to expand...

Bree said:

The comparison with an in-place upgrade was made for the W10 upgrade to 1903, as I recall I chose not to check for updates. Checking for updates however should add very little to the time. The majority of the time is spent installing the upgrade.windows Update

Click to expand...

As that was not a fair comparison of like with like I have now tested restoring the same W10 image that was upgraded by Windows Update, then upgrading with the ISO instead. This is now directly comparable as it was upgrading the same system on the same hardware. Note that this is a low spec processor and the system has an HDD. It would be expected to be slow however it was upgraded.

To give the ISO as much of a handicap as possible I let it check for updates as part of the upgrade. The result was that the upgrade completed nearly a hour faster than using Windows Update. Watching the stages carefully, it seems that another 15 minutes could have been saved by not allowing the check for updates. The ISO was on the same HDD as the system being upgraded, it may have been a little faster still if it had been run from a separate external drive, or from usb install media.

Hi,
I always mount the iso
Did x99 system yesterday install was around 30 minutes hopped over all new requirements.

Bree said:

As that was not a fair comparison of like with like I have now tested restoring the same W10 image that was upgraded by Windows Update, then upgrading with the ISO instead. This is now directly comparable as it was upgrading the same system on the same hardware. Note that this is a low spec processor and the system has an HDD. It would be expected to be slow however it was upgraded.

To give the ISO as much of a handicap as possible I let it check for updates as part of the upgrade. The result was that the upgrade completed nearly a hour faster than using Windows Update. Watching the stages carefully, it seems that another 15 minutes could have been saved by not allowing the check for updates. The ISO was on the same HDD as the system being upgraded, it may have been a little faster still if it had been run from a separate external drive, or from usb install media.

Click to expand...

Another thing where (apples to apples) is not being covered. SSD vs HDD. In my post about downloading the upgrade onto a Flash Drive for W11, I forgot to mention that my main drive (C Drive) is an M.2 NVME Samsung SSD. These types of SSD's are incredibly fast. My other two internal drives are SATA SSD, also Samsung. One is for System Images and the others are general backups.

Those of you using an HDD can upgrade to a SATA SSD and will see amazing speed increases on your computers. Older motherboards do not have the PCIe capability for (M.2 PCIe) but will certainly benefit from a SATA SSD. We are talking about 4 to 6 times the performance speed of an HDD. Especially nice when installing, uninstalling and most importantly - making a System Image Backup.

If anyone decides to clone their HDD to an SSD there is an excellent Free program called Macrium Reflect 7 Free version on the site below.

And here is a Snip of the correct choice for this task:

Always Why said:

I forgot to mention that my main drive (C Drive) is an M.2 NVME Samsung SSD. These types of SSD's are incredibly fast.

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Yes. I did a clean install on a supported system which has an M.2 NVMe. From booting the install USB to a Windows 11 desktop took just 10 minutes

Bree said:

Yes. I did a clean install on a supported system which has an M.2 NVMe. From booting the install USB to a Windows 11 desktop took just 10 minutes

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That is outstanding! A good post for others to use as a guide. :)

Might be a stupid question but I would prefer to upgrade to Windows 11 via an update so that I do not lose any of my installed apps and settings. So is it that slow to do this that way??

ICIT2LOL said:

I would prefer to upgrade to Windows 11 via an update so that I do not lose any of my installed apps and settings. So is it that slow to do this that way??

Click to expand...

You can upgrade to 11 through Windows Update, or you can mount the ISO made by the MCT and run the Setup.exe you'll find there to start an in-place upgrade. The end result is exactly the same, your Windows 10 will be upgraded to Windows 11 keeping all your files and installed apps. The only difference is that Windows Update will take longer than an in-place upgrade.

See from Step 4 onwards in this tutorial.

Thanks, Bree I think I will start with the update mode as I am afraid of messing up the one and only machine I have that can be upgraded. Plus forgive my ignorance but what does MCT stand for ??

ICIT2LOL said:

Plus forgive my ignorance but what does MCT stand for ??

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Media Creation Tool.

I went with the Installation assistant and it took about an hour.

ICIT2LOL said:

I am afraid of messing up the one and only machine I have that can be upgraded.

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Then use Macrium Reflect Free to make a system image before you try anything. Then if it all gets messed up you can restore the image and be back where you started.


The Installation Assistant that @Scott mentioned is another way to get the upgrade. I haven't tested the speed of that but it's probably closer to using Windows Update.