Now that I can disable Defender without too much hassle, I can use 11 when I want to use Windows at all
I am still staying on Windows 8.1 (Enterprise) and will only consider switching to Windows 10 LTSC 1809 once (some of) the Windows 8.1 systems go out of support. I will stay away from Windows 11 for as long as possible. Having installed a copy of Windows 11 on VMware Workstation 15 (using BIOS mode / no TPM / MBR disk) I only get the impression it is even worse than Windows 10. In particular I hate the "new" system menu and the "new" right-click menu.
Is your configuration enterprise-hardened? Because if it is not, then you should be very careful with anything you browse and install and what runs and what updates itself in your system, even as a limited user. There are tons of execution of privilege flaws in 8.1 that were never fixed, there are vulnerable services remaining unpatched, 8.1 is pwnable, more-so than windows 7. Even 10 LTSC 2019 is sub-par security-wise. In fact, any windows 10 version older than 1903 is flawed on pre 5th gen intel. Malicious actors are getting greedier and the automatic toolkits better, the malware more sophisticated, and the s**tty Defender won't protect you since it's easily fooled. Dealing with ransomware is no fun. No 2FA and you can even lose online accounts and waste a lot of time getting your digital life back. I have constantly recommended people to update to newer windows versions despite performance loses and annoyances - just for the added security benefits in a consumer environment. You can tame the other unwanted aspects like fluff ui stuff and bloat with the scripts and tools shared here at MDL. But to answer the poll, no, you don't need 11 to be more secure - in fact, it might prove to be less secure since it's alpha-quality garbage atm compared to a matured 10..
Upgrading? No. Doing a clean install? Yes. Already done on my 3 not supported device - On one, without TPM and supported CPU : Installation by hand using DISM - On the second one, which only had TPM 1.2, no SecureBoot and unsupported CPU : Installation by hand using DISM - On the third one, which only has an unsupported CPU (Surface Pro 3) : Installation was OK without any warning - On the fourth one : 100% compatible laptop : Everything was OK Only my main computer taht I also use for work that I have left to reinstall. Working on my check-list for the before-during-after installation job since there is lot of things to do!
This thread should really be in the Win10 section. Anyway, I will be forced to use Win11 because I just upgraded to Alder Lake 12600KF. Bahh Humbug!!
I just 4 days ago upgraded my main desktop to Windows 11 Enterprise. The motherboard has TPM 2.0, but the CPU is too old – Intel I5 7600K. I used the latest Rufus to write the MSDN ISO image (en-us_windows_11_business_editions_x64_dvd_3a304c08.iso) to a flash drive, with the install checks disabled. I also purchased a new 512 Gig M2 SSD for the install, so I could leave my existing installation of Windows 10 intact in case I needed to roll back. As this was a clean install, I have spent quite a few hours getting things back the way I want them. So far so good. There are some things I like, and some things I don’t like. But no deal breakers. At this point it is extremely unlikely that I will move back to Windows 10.