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Question Win 11: I can't believe I'm About to be Assimilated

C

Caveman

Platinum Member
Per title... I've been pushing the "upgrade" from Win 10 out 11 for at least a few more years to "hopefully never." Last night I was installing TurboTax 2025 and it only works with Win 11. I absolutely need TTax to work.

I typically do a clean install for a new OS but the laptop related to the TurboTax install is for business only. If this was one of my gaming rigs, I'd do a fresh install (not just update from 10 to 11). In most cases from what I've seen and read, Win 11 is loaded with more telemetry and annoyances than Win 10...

So... What can I expect if I update vs install clean. Are my files at more risk? Will the performance be worse? Can I revert? I was almost thinking of installing a clean version of TTax with Win 11 using its own partition. Thoughts? What would you do?
 
I've been doing in-place upgrades of Win10 to Win11 left right and centre, no serious issues. The only issues I can think of are the occasional incident of a AIO printer not working quite correctly with Win11, but IIRC updating the printer software tends to do the trick.

"Are my files at more risk" - not sure why.
Performance - IMO the Win11 UI is not as responsive as Win10's.
"Can I revert" - I haven't tried. Win10 upgrades used to allow a temporary rollback for something like 30 days to Win7/8.
"Win11 using its own partition" - presumably you mean dual-booting. I dual-boot myself, and my advice is: do it if you feel you have to.

May I suggest another option if you really don't want Win11 as your primary OS, or you want to test it out first - put it in a virtual machine. You don't need a licence for that, Windows won't let you personalise the appearance but that's about it.

The only reason I can think of to upgrade to Win11 is Win10's lack of security updates, though you could kick that can down the road with the enrol option for ~12 months more security updates, all MS needs is some MS account credentials.
 
I've done it both ways without issue. My criteria is -
If you have NO issues with your current Windows 10 install, then do and in-place upgrade.
If you have ANY issues at all with your current Windows 10 install, then gather any needed drivers, software and install Windows 11 clean.
I also take a snapshot of the screen and menus, to be sure I reinstall all programs and apps, when doing a clean install. (and yeah, I still always forget something 😳)
 
It's not like old windows. I've seen many ugrades FIX issues with windows. It completely replaces the old system (keeping your programs and files). It can be rolled back for 30 days. The old install is saved in a windows.old folder.

It even leaves all your privacy settings the same.

If paranoid, create an image first.
 
Use the online version of TurboTax. I have been using it for over 20 years and I use Linux Mint without any issues.
Allows you to stop and save the filing and pick it back up as you wish.

TurboTax® Official Site: File Taxes Online, Tax Filing Made Easy

Prepare and file your taxes with confidence through TurboTax. Have an expert do your taxes or do them yourself. 100% accurate, however you choose to file taxes, guaranteed.
turbotax.intuit.com turbotax.intuit.com
 
I'm sure that Microsoft paid through the nose to Intuit for the exclusivity tie to Windows 11 (especially given lots of Windows 10 machines are in extended support status).

If your machine actually supports the hardware requirements for Windows 11, try installing the free version of vmWare Workstation Pro (it became free for personal use in 2024), install Windows 11 as a virtual machine, followed by your install of Turbotax.

I always used to run Turbotax in a virtual machine back when I previously had to use the desktop version of Turbotax Premier, and never had a problem with it.

The above download link above for vmWare is from Techspot. You can download it directly from Broadcom here, but you have to establish a Broadcom account in order to do the actual download.
 
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