Windows 10 update to W 11

I apologize if this was posted before. I did simple search and that didn't help.
I have a laptop with W 10 that says it's ready for W 11. When I do Windows Update, it offers to upgrade to W 11. So I know it's ready.
My question, and I'd like a yes or no.
Can I do the upgrade that way - and not lose anything? i.e. Not lose add ons, like Foxit or LibreOffice?
I don't want to have to go through all those online addons after the upgrade.
If this is not possible, I will wait until W 10 is no longer supported/sometime in 2025?
With my new Desktop W/11, a brand new install was required. So with my laptop, if it requires all the extra work. But with a straight upgrade direct from Microsoft, I'd hope it would not require all that extra work - downloading everything all over.
Or should I post this on tenforums?

PennsyNut said:

I apologize if this was posted before. I did simple search and that didn't help.
I have a laptop with W 10 that says it's ready for W 11. When I do Windows Update, it offers to upgrade to W 11. So I know it's ready.
My question, and I'd like a yes or no.
Can I do the upgrade that way - and not lose anything? i.e. Not lose add ons, like Foxit or LibreOffice?
I don't want to have to go through all those online addons after the upgrade.
If this is not possible, I will wait until W 10 is no longer supported/sometime in 2025?
With my new Desktop W/11, a brand new install was required. So with my laptop, if it requires all the extra work. But with a straight upgrade direct from Microsoft, I'd hope it would not require all that extra work - downloading everything all over.
Or should I post this on tenforums?

Click to expand...

The question posed, can I do the update and not lose anything, doesn't have a direct yes or no answer. The general answer is that usually it will complete the update without a major issue, but (of course, there is always a "but" with an upgrade) there is always a possibility of a flawed update. As a precaution, you could do a system backup prior to the update and have that as your safety blanket. You could, also, just wait as you mentioned.

I think I understand. You are saying it might or might not be a problem.
But isn't there a way to know for sure? Since this is based upon the upgrade being offered direct via Windows update? My thinking is that it should be no problem because of that. But yes, we know that Microsoft don't always do what we think.
Another opinion, please.
I guess when I ask for a yes or no. It should get a response from someone that has already done it this way. And when done that way, did it require all that extra work or did it upgrade with Foxit and LibreOffice still on the laptop/PC.

There are some partitions layout requirements.
Please post a whole window Disk Manager image of ALL your drives. Don't forget to expand the columns so we can read them. How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management
If you have a MiniTool or AOMEI Partition use it instead or Windows disk manager.

If it does upgrade to Win 11 all your software will remain. Only old hardware can have drivers issues.

Is this what you want?

Whoops. Sorry. That was off my desktop. Laptop don't have email or such. I have to go to the laptop, scan the DM and bring it over to here to send. Ignore previous image.

I tried. The laptop responds to "Disk Management.msc" with an error message:
You do not have rights to Disk Management on DESKTOP-24FIGOJ."
And of course, being a normal human being. I don't have the slightest idea of what that means.
That error message says "DESKTOP" and it's not, it's a laptop.
It also says something about a virtual disk management or disk manager.
I also tried to get Disk Manager like I did on this desktop, and that didn't work either. Again, something about no access to virtual disk manager.
i.e. NOW WHAT?
Also, I have no idea what "If you have a MiniTool or AOMEI Partition" is or are.
This is totally over my head.

PennsyNut said:

I guess when I ask for a yes or no. It should get a response from someone that has already done it this way. And when done that way, did it require all that extra work or did it upgrade with Foxit and LibreOffice still on the laptop/PC.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have done it that way. I migrated my old 'main machine' laptop's Windows 10 to a new supported laptop to be ready to get the Windows 11 update when offered. It was offered on 20th October 2021 and I let Windows Update do the upgrade. Yes, all my previously installed software was still there and working after the upgrade.

I didn't have Foxit, and my LibreOffice is the Portable Apps version. What I did have was a collection of some quite old software I didn't want to loose, including PaintShop Pro 7.04, Microsoft AutoRoute, Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker 2012. All worked as well in Win11 as they had in Win10.

All the above could have been reinstalled if they hadn't survived the upgrade, but there was one in particular that would have been impossible to reinstall - that was Microsoft Office Starter 2010. That is a free version of Excel and Word that was only ever available on an OEM install of Windows 7. My old 'main machine' had retained it when upgraded from its original W7 to W10. That too remains present and working under Windows 11.

Did you run Disk Manager "as administrator"?

To clarify my previous message, here's the screen shot from the laptop.
More to follow based upon Bree's response.

My main concern is that I do NOT want to have to reinstall LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Foxit, etc. When I bought this new desktop with W11, I had to re-install everything. It took me over a week to get it the way I had it on W 10.
With the laptop, and the darn stupid awkward keyboard, plus needing to use a mouse. Just call me a klutz with a laptop. But it is very useful for reading and keeping files updated. It's just not good at updating or installing.
Windows 10 update on my laptop takes so long - overnight in fact. The same update for Windows 11 on my desktop takes 3 minutes.
That's why I'm so concerned about how this will work on the laptop.
So, to Bree. I thank you very much. I will wait until I have plenty of time to do that upgrade on the laptop from 10 to 11. And, just for curiosity, I will go back and try as administrator to see if that works. I'm not in a rush, so this will take more time. Thanks to all.

can be BitLocker

have you turned it on?
If so, turned off 1st before any new OS install.

I agree with siliconbeaver, it would probably be a sensible precaution to turn Bitlocker off if you have it turned on. My upgrade was W10 Home to W11 Home, so it didn't have Bitlocker.

PennsyNut said:

My main concern is that I do NOT want to have to reinstall LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Foxit, etc. When I bought this new desktop with W11, I had to re-install everything. It took me over a week to get it the way I had it on W 10.

Click to expand...

You should not have to reinstall anything, it should all still be there after the upgrade.

My experience about the Subject. I got a new Notebook in Oct. '21 when Win11 was released because nothing I had would properly install and run Win11, it came with Win10 and after setup I got the offer to Upgrade to Win11 and works fine, on it now. In Apr. '22 got a new Desktop, same thing, came with Win10 and Upgraded to Win11, now my main Desktop.

Last year I was also given a Desktop and a Notebook for any parts I could use, both from 2019 and Win10 that were Upgraded to Win11. I wiped both and started over with Win10 factory reset, no issues with Win11 on them.

I got the same message on my desktop a few weeks ago. I did the upgrade from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 11 Pro last week. I had no real problems. 99% of the programs were unaffected. All my personal data was intact. However, a couple programs had to be repaired but that was expected. I also had to repair these programs every time Windows 10 had a major update.

BTW, I was offered an upgrade to Windows 11 22H2. However, the next day I was offered an update to Windows 11 23H2.

Here's Disk Management from laptop/W 10.
Does that help? Prove anything?

PennsyNut said:

Here's Disk Management from laptop/W 10.
Does that help? Prove anything?

Click to expand...

On my comp... I had Windows 10 running clean and tight, so I just did an In-Place upgrade to Windows 11.
Didn't lose anything.

But, as others have mentioned... whatever you do, turn off Bitlocker first.





Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software


Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper Standard
Making a backup is optional, but always a smart move.
Macrium Reflect
AOMEI Backupper Standard (free)


Get the Windows 11 ISO (Option #2), and save it to your desktop...


Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.




All I had to do was a few Personalizations.

I see that your laptop has more than one Recovery partition.
What are the specs of your laptop?

Wow! A lot of what y'all are asking/recommending is way over my head. What's a Bitlocker? What's a recovery partition? What's an ISO? What's unmount the ISO? What's a program like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper Standard?
I do back up with flash drives. As many flash drives as necessary. I even have backups of some important files on more than one flash drive.
Do you try to back up the program files? I don't usually.
When I went from an old PC W 10 to the new PC W 11, I just used those flash drives and then with W 11, had to install all the software that was lost. Like Foxit, LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird. And that was what I'm trying to avoid with this laptop. Since it's showing that it's OK to install W 11, I thought it might be worth doing. Since I'm now used to W 11 on the desktop.
Do I really need to know all that stuff mentioned at the beginning?
Can't I just upgrade on the laptop by clicking Install and follow the prompts? Knowing that I have my personal files on flash drives?
Why should I have to use a 3rd party back up? Isn't using flash drives the same? Just as using the cloud redundant?
I sometimes feel as though y'all are so far over my head that I'm just an ignorant old fogy!

Bree said:

Yes, I have done it that way. I migrated my old 'main machine' laptop's Windows 10 to a new supported laptop to be ready to get the Windows 11 update when offered. It was offered on 20th October 2021 and I let Windows Update do the upgrade. Yes, all my previously installed software was still there and working after the upgrade.

I didn't have Foxit, and my LibreOffice is the Portable Apps version. What I did have was a collection of some quite old software I didn't want to loose, including PaintShop Pro 7.04, Microsoft AutoRoute, Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker 2012. All worked as well in Win11 as they had in Win10.

All the above could have been reinstalled if they hadn't survived the upgrade, but there was one in particular that would have been impossible to reinstall - that was Microsoft Office Starter 2010. That is a free version of Excel and Word that was only ever available on an OEM install of Windows 7. My old 'main machine' had retained it when upgraded from its original W7 to W10. That too remains present and working under Windows 11.

Click to expand...

PennsyNut said:

Here's Disk Management from laptop/W 10.
Does that help? Prove a

PennsyNut said:

Here's Disk Management from laptop/W 10.
Does that help? Prove anything?

Click to expand...

PennsyNut said:

I apologize if this was posted before. I did simple search and that didn't help.
I have a laptop with W 10 that says it's ready for W 11. When I do Windows Update, it offers to upgrade to W 11. So I know it's ready.
My question, and I'd like a yes or no.
Can I do the upgrade that way - and not lose anything? i.e. Not lose add ons, like Foxit or LibreOffice?
I don't want to have to go through all those online addons after the upgrade.
If this is not possible, I will wait until W 10 is no longer supported/sometime in 2025?
With my new Desktop W/11, a brand new install was required. So with my laptop, if it requires all the extra work. But with a straight upgrade direct from Microsoft, I'd hope it would not require all that extra work - downloading everything all over.
Or should I post this on tenforums

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Megahertz said:

I see that your laptop has more than one Recovery partition.
What are the specs of your laptop?

Click to expand...

The issue often occurs after a couple of Windows upgrades or in-place repairs. If the previous recovery partition doesn't have enough space for the upgrade, then Windows will create an extra recovery partition with several hundred MBs disk space.