Windows 11 is heading into its fourth year and runs on hundreds of millions of PCs worldwide.
When it debuted in 2021, the new version of Microsoft's flagship operating system was arguably an incremental change to Windows 10, with a fresh look and feel on top of core code that was practically identical to its predecessor. The more important change, it turned out, was a new set of hardware compatibility requirements that made many existing PCs ineligible for upgrades. That marked a bold shift in direction for Windows, which has historically prized backward compatibility as a key requirement.
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We published the first edition of this FAQ when Windows 11 was brand new and we all had plenty of questions about this thing most of us had only seen in demos. Today, Windows 11 is much better known, and it soon will be the only supported version of Windows for most PC owners.
With the end-of-support date for Windows 10 less than one year away, even people who haven't paid attention for the past few years are ready to ask some serious questions. We have answers.
Windows 11 was initially released to the public in October 2021. In the three-plus years since then, it has steadily added new features and refined existing ones.
The most obvious change is the user experience, which makes major changes to the Start menu and taskbar and extensively reworks the Settings app; Windows 11 also includes a Widgets pane designed to deliver bite-sized chunks of news and reminders, and a greatly improved way to snap windows into position. Subsequent updates include a tabbed File Explorer and the AI-powered Windows Copilot.
Hardware-assisted security, an optional part of Windows 10, is mandatory in Windows 11, which means Secure Boot and device encryption are available by default to protect against increasingly sophisticated online attacks.
If you've been unimpressed with the paltry selection of apps in the Microsoft Store, you're not alone. Windows 11 offers a major update to the Store, including the option for third-party developers to make their conventional Win32 desktop apps available for secure downloads through the Store.
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The initial release of Windows 11 included a Windows Subsystem for Android, which allowed Android apps to run on the familiar Windows desktop. That feature was abruptly discontinued in 2024 and will be officially discontinued in 2025.
The Quick Settings panel (lower right) now lets you scroll through all the buttons at the top instead of limiting you to six.
File Explorer gets the same visual refresh as the rest of Windows, with a simplified ribbon and shortcut menus. It retains the familiar three-pane arrangement, but the contents of the navigation pane are different, as is the ability to open folders in separate tabs. The new home layout in the center pane offers a view of recently used documents with the option to pin favorites as well.
The Settings app, on the other hand, gets a complete makeover. A new navigation pane on the left provides ready access to the main categories, with sections on the right that slide open as needed to enable adjustments to system settings and personalization options. One noteworthy improvement is a detailed display that shows battery usage on an hour-by-hour basis, allowing you to identify which apps are responsible for unusual battery drains. A recent addition is a new home page that consolidates access to recent and commonly used settings, personalization options, and devices, along with prominent access to Microsoft 365 features.
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On touch-enabled devices and tablets like the Surface Pro, you'll find big changes in the way that the pen and touch elements work, with more graceful transitions from PC to tablet mode and vice versa. On conventional PCs with multiple monitors and docking stations, the system is finally smart enough to remember the arrangement of windows when you reconnect. There's also a new Voice Typing feature that lets you dictate text to be automatically typed into any app or text box. (Press Windows key + H to activate this feature.)
Options for arranging windows on large external displays are significantly expanded compared to Windows 10. The familiar "snap" shortcuts still work to position windows side by side, but hovering the mouse pointer over the icon in the upper right corner of any window displays additional options for arranging three or four windows, as shown below. Those arrangements are also available from the taskbar, allowing you to restore a specific arrangement with a single click.
Hover the mouse pointer control over the Minimize button (upper right) to display this selection of one-click buttons to snap a window into position.
Despite the significant UX refresh, you'll still encounter places where bits of older, even ancient Windows elements peek out. That's especially true for the last remaining bits of the legacy Control Panel and any app hosted by the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
Finally, there's Microsoft's AI chat tool, Windows Copilot, which is now installed as a separate app in all Windows 11 editions.