Should I upgrade

[Pofoo]

I use a older HP desk top computer with windows 7 pro. Lately, I've gotten a few notices that some programs will not be supporting windows 7 anymore, and I should upgrade to 10/11.
I can get a installation with key on ebay for $50, so money is not a issue, but would I have problems switching to 10/11?

[Iknownot]

Does your PC support win 11. (General rule is it needs a 8th gen CPU or newer. Ms has a list up to check ) . If so why not ? The only potential issue you may have is if you are using any older software that is pre win 10 only. You may have to get a newer version. But pretty much anything that is win 10 is also win 11 with few issues. So if the stuff you are doing is newer or had current versions you should be fine

[Pofoo]

thank you

[C.G.]

If you started with W7 chances are that W11 will not be supported on your PC without a hack and W10 won't be supported anymore.

[Garbcollector]

Just picked up a Asus laptop from costco on sale ($400) a few weeks ago seems like a solid device

[Iknownot]

/\/\/\/\. Plenty of good laptops for general use on sale for $350-500 or even desktops for $400- 500. Easy to find. Wait for a sale at Bestbuy and check your local store for open box excellent or good condition. Easy way to get another 10-20% off.

[saudadeii]

There are a bunch of ways to bypass the Win 11 hardware check if you don't have the right CPU or TPM version. The question is "does your HP have enough resources to run Win 11?"

I have 2 old Lenovo Desktops, both came with Win 7 and I upgraded to Win 10 a few years ago. One is a M91 with an older I7 processor, 16 GB ram and 1TB SSD. Win 11 said NO. I bypassed the hw check and installed Win11. Runs fine for what I do with it. Gaming is a No Go with the embedded GPU but everything else runs great (social media, email, online banking, streaming video/music, etc.)

One is an even older M58 with an Intel Core Duo, 8gb ram, 500g ssd. WIn 11 said NO. I bypassed the hw check and installed Win11. Ran like doodoo. Tried to get it to run but couldn't. Reverted back to Win 10. When Win10 support goes away, I'll either replace it or install Linux. It's really just a "backup" PC that rarely gets used unless one of the others takes a dump.

My guess is I could find the right drivers under Win11. Of course, Lenovo doesn't support these old boxes under Win11.

[Iknownot]

[saudadeii]

My CPU is a i7-2600 (Sandy Bridge) so it's a 2nd gen I7. It also has TPM 1.2. Both of these caused the Win11 install to fail. All other Win11 requirements were met. So if the hardware checker squawks and only these 2 items fail, you like have a good chance Win11 will run OK (maybe not great, but OK).

Since my Windows was activated with a digital license (from when I upgrade from 7-10), Win11 was automatically activated.

The only real issue I encountered was trying the "Upgrade" first. This allows you to keep all programs, settings and data. This did not end well. Had frequent crashes and freezes. Sometimes the "3 finger salute" worked, others required a "power off" reboot. After a few days trying to resolve the issues, I did a clean install to clear out all the old apps, registry hacks and who knows what else lurked on the drive from years of installing/uninstalling stuff. Restored all my data from backup and freshly installed the apps I actively used.

I ended up doing the same to my other desktop (Lenovo M58) but even with a clean install, it ran slower than Win10 (was already pretty slow). I restored my Win10 backup to it.

[Iknownot]

Fresh win install is almost always a better choice than upgrade. Upgrade has a much higher chance of Instability

[nishanh]

Even if 11 runs on it, it will be dog slow. W11 is way more resource hungry than W7