Windows 11 vs Windows 10 the key differences

Date:
Mon, 06 Oct 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Description:
Get to know your TPM from your Mica and Copilot in our guide to the key differences between Windows 11 and Windows 10.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Windows 11s new features include multitasking skills, AI integration, and a polished interface Gamers can benefit from boosts including Auto HDR and DirectStorage But many PCs wont be able to upgrade due to stricter hardware requirements

After 10 years, Microsofts support for Windows 10 is finally coming to an end . For most people who are still using Windows 10, the most obvious step is to upgrade to Windows 11 , which includes lots of slick new features and design choices that bring it in line with Apple and Googles minimalist, AI-centric approaches.

But it also aggressively bumps up hardware requirements and removes some much-loved touches.

The question of whether you should go one louder and upgrade from 10 to 11
has already been answered by Microsoft (you should!), but if youre still on the fence about making the jump, or youve upgraded and you want to know whats new, this is the guide for you. Can you upgrade?

Lets start with the biggie: you might not be able to upgrade to Windows 11 . Microsofts heightened approach to security requires Windows 11 computers to have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chip , and its minimum system requirements include a relatively recent 64-bit processor.

This means that millions of older (but still perfectly functional) PCs will lose security patches as of October 14, 2025 although there are potential workarounds . Fundamentally, If youve got one of these ageing machines, you face a tricky decision: buy a new PC and contribute to the global mountain of e-waste, or continue with Windows 10 and face an increased cybersecurity
risk.

Of course, there are advantages to the TPM requirement: Windows 11 boasts a superpowered immune system, which is kind of important in one of the worlds most-hacked operating systems .

Secure Boot cryptographically verifies the OS before it even starts, while Virtualization-Based Security sandboxes crucial cybersecurity components within Windows. Together, they make life extremely difficult for hackers, which is a good thing. Unless youre a hacker.

As well as a TPM chip, youll need a minimum Intel 8th-gen or AMD Ryzen 2000 series 64-bit processor. While these chips have been part of computing since the late-2010s, there are still millions of computers that are performing perfectly fine on this older hardware. Mica and the shapes (Image credit: Future / Microsoft)

If you can upgrade , youll find a whole new interface in Windows 11. The latest evolution of the Fluent Design System introduced to Windows 10 in 2017 makes Windows 11 feel more like ChromeOS or macOS, centring the taskbar and consigning Windows 10s eye-grabbing Live Tiles to the recycle bin of history.

While you can no longer move your taskbar to the top or sides of your screen, at least your Start menu doesnt look like Times Square on Black Friday .

For an operating system called Windows it seems ironic that Microsoft is moving away from transparency but thats exactly what Mica, Windows 11s
design language, does.

Ive spent far too much time understanding how it works and what makes it different, but essentially, Windows 11 will tint your active window with the dominant color of the desktop wallpaper beneath it. So if your wallpaper is the classic Windows XP shot of a grassy meadow with clear sky, your app will be colored blue if its in the top half of the screen, or green if its at the bottom.

Thats not to say that Windows more, er, windowy effects have disappeared entirely. Transient elements, such as the Start menu, notifications bar, and widgets panel (the news bit) will refract the wallpaper beneath. And the
final aesthetic touch is Smoke, which comes into play when a pop-up window appears, giving its parent app a smoggy, industrial-revolution gray wash.

While these changes are subtle, Microsofts aim is to simplify the user interface so it maintains coherency while reducing system resources which does seem a little odd given Windows 11s higher system requirements. But theres no denying that Microsofts Oreo-like mixture of hard and soft textures makes this the best-looking version of Windows yet. The Snap (Image credit: Future / Microsoft)

Just as Apples macOS has caught up with ChromeOS and Windows split-pane tasking, Microsoft has taken things a step further with Snap Layouts and Snap Groups.

Drag your window to the top of the screen and Snap Layouts will let you
choose from defined setups, such as one big pane and two stacked smaller
ones, or a Hieronymus Bosch-style triptych.

Once youve perfected your precious bespoke layout, Snap Groups saves these windows under their own icon, so you can switch to another full-screen app or Snap Group without losing the original one.

In an era of tall videos and wide monitors, Microsofts approach to multitasking makes perfect sense. Your AI wingman (Image credit: Future / Microsoft)

Cortana is dead. Long live Copilot . While Microsofts AI interface was available as a standalone app in Windows 10, Copilots Windows 11 integration goes deeper into the tissue of the operating system, like a fungal infection but more useful and less itchy.

In Windows 11, Copilot gets its own dedicated icon on the taskbar for quick launch, plus a keyboard shortcut ( Windows Key + C ), and the ability to understand whats happening on your screen and control certain elements, like turning Bluetooth off or adjusting volume.

Copilots AI skills are enhanced with Copilot+ PCs and tablets , which have dedicated Neural Processing Unit ( NPU ) chips. Recall now an opt-in feature after it sparked controversy remembers just about everything youve done on your PC and allows you to access it via natural language, so you can ask it about that cafe you were searching for last week, or find specific documents you were working on.

Click to Do provides an overlay with quick actions for text and images on
your screen, and while Paint 3D has been dropped, Paints new Cocreator adds text- and sketch-to-image capabilities.

Finally, Microsoft has introduced AI-powered Auto Super Resolution , which improves detail and frame rates in supported video games. Gaming power-ups (Image credit: Future / Microsoft)

While were on the subject of gaming, Windows 11 includes a couple of new features for anyone who likes to kick back with a controller or mash up their mouse and keyboard.

Auto HDR (High Dynamic Range) began its life as an Xbox feature designed to boost the quality of games that were not designed with HDR in mind. While
Auto HDR was trialled in Windows 10, Windows 11s system-wide implementation results in consistent and dependable results across many titles and it even includes an intensity slider so you can dial the look in.

DirectStorage is also a gaming feature that poked its head up a few times in Windows 10, but in Windows 11 it takes center stage. Taking advantage of the latest NVMe SSDs, DirectX 12 GPUs and an all-new optimized storage stack, DirectStorage bypasses the CPU when decompressing game assets and sends them straight to the GPU, resulting in faster loading times while freeing up resources. The bottom taskbar

Heres the thing with Windows 11: other than the hardware requirements, which are set in stone, Microsoft seems open to customer requests.

Initially, Windows 11 came without a search bar in the taskbar, but it was reinstated when customers complained. Recall sparked privacy concerns when users realised it was taking screenshots every few seconds, so Microsoft removed it, then made it opt-in-only and part of Copilot+.

Microsoft makes mistakes, but to be fair it seems to course-correct quickly, so the Windows 11 of today might be a different beast to the Windows 11 of tomorrow.

So if your computer can run Windows 11, its a total no-brainer to upgrade. If it cant, Windows 11 offers the carrot of a shiny new interface and useful new features to alleviate the stick of forcing you to potentially have to buy a whole new PC. You might also like... These are the best laptops if you're looking to buy a new one Gamers, don't wait for Windows 10's demise - it's time to upgrade to Windows 11 or even SteamOS Windows 7 market share jumps by 10x as Windows 10 EoL deadline looms and Windows 11 usage drops in September



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/windows-11-vs-windows-10-the-key-d ifferences


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