How to install Windows 11?
News of Windows 11 dropped earlier this year and its stable version has now arrived for users. The upgrade is free. If you wait, you will eventually be able to download the OS via Windows Update. If you can’t wait, you can force the upgrade right now.
Install Windows 11
Microsoft is distributing Windows 11 the same way it did Windows 10; there is a media creation tool. The media creation tool will download the Windows 11 ISO file and burn it to a USB drive that’s connected to your system. You can also download just the ISO file and use your tool of choice to burn it to a USB.
How to download Windows 11
Method 1
To download Windows 11, decide first how you want to burn it to a USB. If you want to use the media creation tool, follow these steps.
- Visit the official Windows 11 download link in your browser.
- Click Download now under Windows 11 Installation Media.
- Run the media creation tool.
- Accept the end user agreement.
- Select the language and Windows edition that you want to download.
- Select the USB flash drive option.
- Connect the USB drive to your system.
- Click Next and select the drive.
- Begin the download.
- Once the download completes, the ISO will be burned to the USB.
Note: You may run into an error when using the media creation tool since the servers are going to be under heavy load. You can try the direct ISO download method.
Method 2
To download the ISO directly, follow these steps.
- Visit the official Windows 11 download link.
- Click Download now under Download Windows 11 Disk Image.
- Allow the download to finish.
- Use a tool like Rufus to burn the ISO to a USB drive.
How to Install Windows 11
If you want to upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11, follow these steps.
- Boot to your Windows 10 desktop.
- Connect the Windows 11 USB to your system.
- Open File Explorer and go to This PC.
- Open the USB and run the Set Up file.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to upgrade the system.
To clean install Windows 11 on your Windows 10 system, make sure you’ve backed up everything that’s important and then follow these steps.
- Connect the Windows 11 installation USB to your system.
- Restart the system.
- Go to your BIOS.
- Set the first boot device to USB disk.
- Restart the system again.
- The system will boot from the USB disk.
- Select a language and proceed with the installation.
Windows 11 compatibility check
We’ve covered an app for checking if your system is compatible with Windows 11 but there’s an official app from Microsoft that you can use. It’s the Upgrade Assistant tool. You can download it from the official Windows 11 release page and run it on your system.
Conclusion
Windows 11 may take some time to download. It has just released so the servers may be under more load than usual. One thing you should know is that Windows 11 is 64-bit only. There are no 32-bit versions and the OS will not install on a 32-bit system.
Thank you for the info but I have some concerns like what is the chance that all of my files get erased or become corrupt? and is it possible to downgrade back to Windows 10 if I didn`t like it or in case of any issues?
Nope, not going to install it. Not until they remove the TPM chip dependency. And yes, they can and do. Just read an article (https://www.makeuseof.com/why-chinese-users-cant-upgrade-windows-11/) and the one tiny tidbit of info that actually jumped out at me was this…
“According to the South China Morning Post, Microsoft has made an exception for some of their bigger clients in Russia and China, so they don’t have to include TPM chips in their machines to get Windows 11.”
So, this tells me you CAN run Windows 11 without TPM. ‘Nuff said.