Microsoft release Windows 10 in 2015, promising 10 years of support, which comes to an end on Oct. 14, 2025. The company is now offering seven reasons to upgrade pronto.
In a new support document, Microsoft explains seven tips to get the most out of Windows 11, sounding a little as though the company is struggling to persuade Windows 10 users to move on up to the new version.
Microsoft urges users to swap from Windows 10 to Windows 11.
The tips include praise for the new Start Menu, although, as ZDNet points out, “The Windows 11 Start menu has annoyed many people with its clumsy layout and lack of customization. Instead of enhancing and improving the previous menu designs from Windows 7 and 10, Microsoft opted for a backward redesign,” Lance Whitney suggests, noting that an overhaul is expected.
Microsoft’s document encourages users to “master Snap layouts,” saying they result in a boost to your productivity, and to create multiple desktops to keep work, personal and entertainment separate as this “helps keep everything tidy,” which is always good, right?
There’s a tip which focuses on widgets, to provide personalized news, weather, calendar reminders and more, explaining that they’re accessed by pressing the Windows and W keys.
And it talks about breaking work up into manageable chunks and using Focus sessions, logging in with Windows Hello and facial recognition instead of the bore of entering passwords, and advocates Dark mode for being easier on the eyes.
Finally, it reminds readers that a deadline is approaching, on Oct. 14, from which time no software updates will arrive for Windows 10.
The tips have been met with mixed reactions, to say the least. Windows Latest says the support document, “isn’t interesting at all, and it fails to give reasons that might actually convince users to try Windows 11. It also looks like the document was written by an intern at Microsoft or AI because the document confuses ‘icons’ with ‘live tiles’ in the Windows 11 Start menu,” it says, before going on, “This list feels underwhelming,” it concludes.
Microsoft needs to do better to persuade users to upgrade, it seems.
