The one thing you need to know about updating to Windows 11: Don’t.

At least—not yet.

While Microsoft began rolling out its newest operating system—Windows 11—in early October, the SUCCESS team’s official recommendation is that you hold off on making the change to your business’s devices any time soon.

Why?

Though the new OS has only been available for a few weeks, there are myriad reports of compatibility and performance issues, including the fact that Windows 11 can slow some Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processing speeds by up to 15 percent. Other hiccups include audio “stuttering” during video calls, problems with the Start menu, email searches in Outlook are failing, display issues on applications.

Below, some members of the SUCCESS team address some of the common questions they see cropping up in response to the most recent Windows update.

Will I sacrifice any cybersecurity by not updating right now?

Not at all.

“The security behind the scenes is just as strong in the most recent version of Windows 10  as it is in 11—the same feature parity,” explains Jamie Wolbeck, Vice President of Operations at SUCCESS.

And if you’ve already worked with SUCCESS, you know that robust cybersecurity is a key focus in everything we do. We are fully confident our clients are not sacrificing the safety or efficacy of their cybersecurity frameworks by remaining with Windows 10 instead of moving to 11.

What are the major differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11?

In short, the looks of it.

Wolbeck points out that the new interface has more of a Mac aesthetic and is intended to be more mobile- and user-friendly.

While Morris notes that the updated Windows does have a great deal of potential, it’s not worth the upgrade at the moment— at least not until the current compatibility and performance kinks are worked out.

What if I’m prompted to update?

SUCCESS is working with current clients to ensure their operating systems won’t prompt for this update. As always, you can reach out to your MSP team to address this issue if it did occur.

What if I buy a new machine that comes with Windows 11 automatically installed?

“We haven’t seen that yet,” Morris says. However, Microsoft has placed the end-of-life for Windows 10 as October 2025, meaning the operating system will no longer receive updates or support after that time.

Still, there’s no cause for concern. You have several years to work with your account manager at SUCCESS to strategically determine when and how you should be updating your hardware and software.

If you do wind up with an automatically installed Windows 11 operating system right now, Wolbeck recommends reverting it to Windows 10. “We would downgrade that device,” he says. “Our recommendation would be to put it back on Windows 10, due to some of the issues we’re seeing. There’s some compatibility concerns that arise as well, the whole extent of which we don’t even know yet.”

Okay, but when it is time to make the upgrade—what do I do?

As with any major operational or procedural change, SUCCESS employs the change-management tenets of the ADKAR strategy—Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement.

“If we’re going to introduce a new operating system, we want to do it with a power user—someone who expects to run into issues and who knows how to work with us to work through them,” Morris says. “There’s a path to take.”

And of course, you don’t need to figure out this process on your own. The team at SUCCESS can help you develop the best technology strategy for your unique business needs, and guide you through the next steps.