It’s not too bad to say that Windows 11 adoption hasn’t been as big as Microsoft might have initially hoped. Just a month after the OS was released, the company began pushing the update to more systems, citing “positive” feedback. And much more recently, in February of this year, Microsoft published an ad explaining why users who are still using Windows 10 should upgrade to 11. The video was titled “Start over without starting over with Windows 11” and conveyed the idea , that the upgrade process is seamless. .
Speaking of seamless upgrades, Microsoft published a new blog post this week on its official Tech Community site dispelling all the “myths and misconceptions” surrounding Windows 11 upgrades and moving to cloud-based Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory). . The blog post is aimed at IT and system administrators.
Part of this article suggests how Windows 11 isn’t fundamentally different from 10:
The fact is that Windows 10 through Windows 11 is the same design as Windows 10 feature updates. If you’re like most organizations, feature updates aren’t big projects. Windows 11 is built on top of Windows 10 and even carries the Windows 10 version number for maximum compatibility. So you can approach this upgrade as usual.
Windows 11 is built on the same foundation as Windows 10. It’s an evolution that enhances Windows 10’s strengths and addresses its limitations.
And Microsoft has a good reason for that too. On the eve of the launch of Windows 11, extensive research showed that most enterprise systems were simply not ready for the new OS due to more demanding system requirements, and that the situation was not ideal even a year later in 2022.
Harjit Dhaliwal, senior product marketing manager for Windows Commercial at Microsoft, who wrote the article, says:
Let’s discuss the myths surrounding moving to cloud-native management with Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Entra ID and Windows 11. In this post, we’ll address some common questions and misconceptions by sharing insights and insights gained from the conversations we’ve had. with organizations of all sizes from around the world over the past year.
We understand that a big part of your role as an IT professional is to help manage change and mitigate the risks of implementing those changes. So when we consider moving to cloud-native management and keeping Windows 11 up-to-date together, why does the task seem so daunting?
These “misconceptions” were explored at several points. Microsoft broke down each one, trying to explain to administrators why they might not care about such problems or concerns. They are:
Misconception #1: To deploy Windows 11, you must also go fully cloud-native.
Misconception #2: This name change means a bigger change.
Myth #3: App compatibility is a risk when upgrading to Windows 11.
Misconception #4: Changing to Windows 11 means business productivity will be adversely affected.
Myth #5: Variation in device configuration increases total cost of ownership.
Finally, Dhaliwal summarized the gist of the blog post as follows:
While there are costs and risks associated with accepting or resisting change, the transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 can be taken with confidence and considered normal. Many organizations have already built the strength to successfully deploy the fourteen semi-annual Windows 10 feature updates to date, and Windows 11 simply represents their next rollout.
The management, process, and risk mitigation tools you have will continue to work for your Windows 11 deployment as they do today. Your organization shouldn’t be afraid of moving to Windows 11.
Microsoft once described how its onboarding process for Windows 11 was the smoothest ever, and the company likely wants administrators to feel the same way about their own organizations. Perhaps coincidentally, Microsoft recently announced that it will stop forcing the installation of Windows feature updates on managed computers.