Still on Windows 10? Your Options and How to Upgrade to Windows 11

Windows 10 stopped getting security updates on 14 October 2025. That's over a year ago now, and I still see a steady stream of machines coming in running it. Some belong to people who were nervous the upgrade would break things. Some belong to people who clicked "remind me later" until Windows stopped asking. And a fair few belong to people who tried, got an error about TPM 2.0, and gave up.

For most of them the upgrade turns out to be easy. Windows 11 looks different for about a week and then you stop noticing. This post covers where Windows 10 stands today, what your options are, and then the full how-to: checking eligibility, fixing the two settings that block most upgrades, and doing it without losing anything.

Where Windows 10 stands now

Your PC still works. Files, programs and settings are all where you left them, and nothing about how it runs day to day changed when support ended.

What changed is that the security fixes stopped arriving by default. Every month Microsoft's Patch Tuesday closes dozens of vulnerabilities in Windows, and attackers go looking for machines that haven't had them. The March 2026 update alone fixed over 80. A Windows 10 PC only gets those fixes if it's enrolled in Extended Security Updates (more on that below). Ordinary bugs stay as they are either way, and over time new printers, peripherals and programs stop being tested on Windows 10, so things start not working for reasons nobody will fix. Chrome and Firefox have kept supporting it for now. That won't last forever.

If you enrolled in ESU, you're covered until October 2027 and nothing else needs doing for now. If you didn't, your PC has had no security fixes for a year, and you can still enrol. You need Windows 10 version 22H2, then look for the enrolment option in Settings → Windows Update. Treat it as breathing space, not a plan. A year from now you'll be making the same decision with an older PC.

Your options

Upgrading is where most people should start, and the rest of this post is about doing it. If your PC can't make the jump, the other two are covered further down.

One more thing if you upgraded early. Anyone who moved to Windows 11 back in 2025 may still be on version 24H2, which lost support for Home and Pro on 13 October 2026. Run Windows Update and let it move you to 25H2 or 26H2 (the current release, out since 29 September 2026). An upgrade done today lands on a current version anyway.

Before anything else: back up

Upgrades go wrong occasionally. Not often, but occasionally. A backup means that if something does go sideways, you can recover without losing your files. I've written about how to back up your PC if you haven't got anything in place. It doesn't take long to set up and it's worth having before you start.

Check if your PC is eligible: PC Health Check

Windows 11 wants a few things Windows 10 never asked for:

• TPM 2.0, a security chip that's often present but switched off
• Secure Boot, again usually available but sometimes disabled
• An Intel 8th generation or AMD Ryzen 2000 processor, or newer
• 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which almost nothing fails on

Microsoft's free PC Health Check app runs through all of it and tells you exactly where your PC stands. Download it from microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-11. There's a "Check for compatibility" section on that page. Run it, and it'll come back with either a green tick (you're eligible, just upgrade) or a list of what's failing.

The two most common failures are TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Both are usually fixable without any hardware changes. They just need switching on in the BIOS. The processor is the one that catches people out, because a perfectly quick 7th gen i5 or i7 counts as unsupported.

Fixing TPM 2.0

TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module. On most modern PCs it's built into the processor rather than being a separate physical chip. Most PCs from 2018 onwards have it, but it might be disabled in BIOS settings.

To enable it: restart the PC and get into the BIOS (usually by pressing F2, F10, Del or Esc during startup; the exact key varies by manufacturer and is usually shown briefly on screen). Look for a Security or Advanced section. On Intel boards the option is called PTT (Intel Platform Trust Technology). On AMD boards it's fTPM (firmware TPM). Enable it, save and exit.

Menu names vary by motherboard brand. If you can't find it, search for "[your laptop/motherboard model] enable TPM Windows 11" and you'll find the steps for your specific machine.

Fixing Secure Boot

Secure Boot is another BIOS setting. If the PC is set to Legacy boot mode (sometimes shown as CSM), Secure Boot is likely disabled. You need to switch to UEFI mode.

Processors that just won't work

Intel 7th generation processors (Core i7-7xxx, i5-7xxx, i3-7xxx) and older are hard blocked by Microsoft. AMD Ryzen 1000 series and older are in the same boat. There's no official upgrade path for these, full stop.

If PC Health Check flags your CPU as incompatible, you're in this group. If the machine is already 7 or 8 years old and the processor is the blocker, that's probably your sign to think about replacement rather than forcing an unsupported install. My repair or replace guide has the 50% rule I use: if keeping the old machine going is costing close to half the price of a new one, replace it. A decent everyday laptop starts around £350–400, and refurbished business laptops like a Dell Latitude or Lenovo ThinkPad often come in cheaper with Windows 11 already on.

There are bypass methods. A tool called Rufus can create a Windows 11 installer that skips the TPM and CPU checks. These installs work but come with caveats: Microsoft says unsupported PCs aren't entitled to updates, so there's no promise the patches keep coming, and big feature updates sometimes refuse to install until you bypass the checks again. I'm not going to tell you not to do it, but go in with eyes open.

The other route for good hardware stuck on an old CPU is Linux. Linux Mint in particular looks and feels surprisingly close to Windows and runs well on older machines. The catch is that some Windows-only software won't run, and there's a learning curve. It suits people who mostly browse, do email and use office documents. LibreOffice opens Word, Excel and PowerPoint files without fuss.

Three ways to do the actual upgrade

If your PC passes the health check, you've got three options. Pick one:

1. Windows Update - the easiest. If Microsoft has rolled it out to your hardware, the upgrade appears in Settings and you just click install. Takes 30 to 60 minutes. Your files, apps and settings stay put.
2. Installation Assistant - same in-place upgrade, but you trigger it yourself instead of waiting for Microsoft to push it. Good if Windows Update isn't showing the offer.
3. Clean install from USB - wipes the drive and installs Windows 11 from scratch. No leftover clutter, but everything on the drive gets erased, so you reinstall your software and restore files afterwards.

For most people, option 1 or 2 is the right call. Option 3 is for people who want a fresh start or have a particularly slow, cluttered installation they'd rather not carry forward.

Option 1: upgrade through Windows Update

Option 2: use the Installation Assistant

Option 3: clean install from USB

After upgrading: check your drivers

Once Windows 11 is running, open Device Manager (right-click the Start button → Device Manager) and look for anything with a yellow exclamation mark. These are devices Windows couldn't find drivers for, often graphics, audio or network adapters.

If you see any, go to the manufacturer's website (Intel, AMD or Nvidia for graphics; Realtek or Conexant for audio; your laptop's maker for everything else) and download the drivers directly. Don't rely on Windows Update for drivers. It often installs old versions. And if the machine feels sluggish after the move, my speed up Windows 11 guide covers the usual culprits.

The 10-day rollback window

Windows keeps a copy of your Windows 10 installation for 10 days after upgrading, in a folder called Windows.old. If something's wrong and you want to go back: Settings → System → Recovery → Go back. The option disappears after 10 days, so if you're going to use it, do it within that window. Bear in mind that going back puts you on an unpatched Windows 10 again, so treat it as a stopgap while you fix whatever went wrong.

If the upgrade went fine and you want the disk space back early, remove it yourself: Settings → System → Storage → Temporary files → tick "Previous Windows installation(s)" → Remove files.

If the upgrade stalls, throws errors, or something stops working afterwards and you can't sort it yourself, my computer repair service in St Helens covers Windows 11 upgrades and moving files, programs and settings to a new PC so nothing gets lost.

Mark

Mark has been fixing computers since the late '90s and went self-employed in 2008. Based in St Helens since 2013, he works evenings and weekends from his home in Laffak, doing friendly, affordable repairs for PCs, laptops, and Macs. See reviews on Google