Upgrading from Win 10 to Win 11

Madness10 · Sep 7, 2024

Hello all. I haven't had any inclination to upgrade to Win 11 with all of the problems it was having. My work forced all of our employees to upgrade to Win 11. It has been ok to use. I have Win 10 pro and am eligible for the upgrade with my system meeting the requirements. I'm on a local account and do not wish to use the MS account. What would be the best way to upgrade to Win 11 without having to use a MS account? Is MS still giving out free Win 11 activation with qualifying Win 10 account?

zbook · Sep 7, 2024

1) Run healthcheck > https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp

2) Upgrade to Windows 11 Tutorial

Most computers running Windows 10 can upgrade to Windows 11 in a supported or unsupported fashion.

If Windows 10 is activated without piracy /crack then Windows 11 should not have issues (consumer).

Bree · Sep 7, 2024

Madness10 said:
What would be the best way to upgrade to Win 11 without having to use a MS account?

You can let Windows Update install the upgrade, or do it yourself with an in-place upgrade using the ISO. However you choose to upgrade nothing about your account(s) will change, you'll still have your local account (as I have). My personal choice it to upgrade through Windows Update, if only because that's the only way that records the feature update in Update History. Using the ISO is quicker though.

It's only a clean install that tries to force you into a MS account, and even then there are ways around it.

Madness10 said:
Is MS still giving out free Win 11 activation with qualifying Win 10 account?

Microsoft does not make a distinction between Windows 10 or Windows 11 as far as the keys or the digital licences are concerned. They are all valid for both 10 and 11. It doesn't matter if you have 10 or 11, the same digital licence activates both.

TraderGary · Sep 7, 2024

Madness10 said:
Hello all. I haven't had any inclination to upgrade to Win 11 with all of the problems it was having.

I upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 three years ago and did not have any problems with Windows 11.

Madness10 said:
My work forced all of our employees to upgrade to Win 11. It has been ok to use.

As I would have expected.

Madness10 said:
I have Win 10 pro and am eligible for the upgrade with my system meeting the requirements. I'm on a local account and do not wish to use the MS account. What would be the best way to upgrade to Win 11 without having to use a MS account?

I will let someone else answer this as I've always had a Microsoft account. Without my Microsoft account I could not have my Microsoft 365 subscription which includes all of Microsoft Office and 1 Terabyte of Microsoft cloud OneDrive.

Madness10 said:
Is MS still giving out free Win 11 activation with qualifying Win 10 account?

Yes, Microsoft is still offering free upgrades to Windows 11 for users with a qualifying Windows 10 account. If your current Windows 10 installation is activated and meets the system requirements for Windows 11, you can upgrade for free. You can use your existing Windows 10 product key to activate Windows 11.

Bree · Sep 7, 2024

Madness10 said:
I have Win 10 pro and am eligible for the upgrade with my system meeting the requirements.

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

You may want to wait until 24H2 is released, we're expecting it in late September/October. The 23H2 to 24H2 upgrade will be a full upgrade replacing the system files with new ones, so will take just as long as an upgrade from 10 to 11. No point in going through all that twice :wink:

Madness10 · Sep 7, 2024

Bree said:
Welcome to Eleven Forum.

You may want to wait until 24H2 is released, we're expecting it in late September/October. The 23H2 to 24H2 upgrade will be a full upgrade replacing the system files with new ones, so will take just as long as an upgrade from 10 to 11. No point in going through all that twice

Thank you for the tip. That is a great idea.

bobkn · Sep 7, 2024

Bree said:
Welcome to Eleven Forum.

You may want to wait until 24H2 is released, we're expecting it in late September/October. The 23H2 to 24H2 upgrade will be a full upgrade replacing the system files with new ones, so will take just as long as an upgrade from 10 to 11. No point in going through all that twice

This is more of a question than a statement:

What happens to people running an RP build of 24H2 outside of the Insiders program?

Will we see the release version as an update, or something more major?

Bree · Sep 7, 2024

bobkn said:
Will we see the release version as an update, or something more major?

I expect that it should be just another CU to the release build.

hsehestedt · Sep 7, 2024

TraderGary said:
I will let someone else answer this as I've always had a Microsoft account. Without my Microsoft account I could not have my Microsoft 365 subscription which includes all of Microsoft Office and 1 Terabyte of Microsoft cloud OneDrive.

Not true. I use a local account on all systems and have Microsoft 365. The trick is to use a hybrid account. Basically, install Windows with a local account, then open the MS Sttore app and sign-on with your Microsoft account. It will use your MS account where needed but your account remains a local account.

TraderGary · Sep 7, 2024

hsehestedt said:
Not true. I use a local account on all systems and have Microsoft 365. The trick is to use a hybrid account. Basically, install Windows with a local account, then open the MS Sttore app and sign-on with your Microsoft account. It will use your MS account where needed but your account remains a local account.

Of course, you can have both a local account and a Microsoft Account and just use the local account. But what I said was true. You must have a Microsoft account to subscribe to Microsoft 365.

Bree · Sep 7, 2024

TraderGary said:
I will let someone else answer this as I've always had a Microsoft account. Without my Microsoft account I could not have my Microsoft 365 subscription which includes all of Microsoft Office and 1 Terabyte of Microsoft cloud OneDrive.

hsehestedt said:
I use a local account on all systems and have Microsoft 365. The trick is to use a hybrid account.

Me too, local accounts on all my PCs, all of them hybrid accounts. I don't have Microsoft 365, but I do make a lot of use of my OneDrive. There's even a tutorial for it.

Add Microsoft account to Local account for Hybrid account in Windows 11 Tutorial

A Microsoft account (MSA) is a good choice if a user wants to use the same account on multiple devices, or wants to make it easy to use all / any Microsoft services. Setting up a preinstalled Windows 10 on a new device, after a clean install, or creating a new user on existing Windows...

www.elevenforum.com

hsehestedt · Sep 7, 2024

TraderGary said:
Of course, you can have both a local account and a Microsoft Account and just use the local account. But what I said was true. You must have a Microsoft account to subscribe to Microsoft 365.

My apologies. I took your post to mean that you believed it necessary to log in with a Microsoft account. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

TraderGary · Sep 7, 2024

I've always had a Microsoft Account. Over the years I've ordered many things from the Microsoft Store, even my System Two in "My Computers" below. I also wouldn't be without my Microsoft 365 subscription which includes all of Microsoft Office and a Terabyte of cloud OneDrive which requires having a Microsoft Account.

I've never had a local account. After 43 years with Microsoft, what advantage would there be for me to add a local account?

wabbit · Sep 7, 2024

TraderGary said:
I've always had a Microsoft Account. Over the years I've ordered many things from the Microsoft Store, even my System Two in "My Computers" below. I also wouldn't be without my Microsoft 365 subscription which includes all of Microsoft Office and a Terabyte of cloud OneDrive which requires having a Microsoft Account.

I've never had a local account. After 43 years with Microsoft, what advantage would there be for me to add a local account?

Back in the early days of Windows 95, if you had a MSN or Hotmail account, you also had a MS account. Prior to Windows 8, most accounts created on those were local. If one makes use of MS services, such as OneDrive, Office365, etc, then it's beneficial to log on to your PC with a MS account. If one has no desire to use those services, one can use a local account instead. MS is really making it more difficult to install Windows with a local account.

hsehestedt · Sep 8, 2024

TraderGary said:
what advantage would there be for me to add a local account?

Maybe my way of doing things is just a little odd, but I always create a local account initially so that I always have a local user by the name of HannesS. This way I have the same initial user account on every system making network sharing easier because every machine has a HannesS account.

Then, I will setup my first 5 machines to use one of my Microsoft accounts, the next 5 machines with another account, etc. This is because the family edition of Microsoft 365 allows each user to install on up to 5 machines, but you can have up 5 or 6 (I forgot which) users that you can share with and each of them can have 5 machines. It just so happens that all the users that I share with are also me

. But this allows me to legally get Microsoft 365 on more than 5 machines with a single account.

Also, there are some machines that I do not want all the settings from my primary system to sync to, but I want those machines to have their own settings synced. Having a different Microsoft account helps with this but at the same time I still have that same base local user account, again, making networking connectivity super easy.

FirasKing Air · Sep 8, 2024

Madness10 said:
Hello all. I haven't had any inclination to upgrade to Win 11 with all of the problems it was having. My work forced all of our employees to upgrade to Win 11. It has been ok to use. I have Win 10 pro and am eligible for the upgrade with my system meeting the requirements. I'm on a local account and do not wish to use the MS account. What would be the best way to upgrade to Win 11 without having to use a MS account? Is MS still giving out free Win 11 activation with qualifying Win 10 account?

What's the hurry Take your time :)