How Much Time Does It Take To Install Windows 11?

Well, that depends.....

Microsoft has released their next generation OS and it is currently available to Windows 10 users. With enhanced features for security and performance, Windows 11 will help you work more efficiently.?However, upgrading to Windows 11 requires an enormous amount of system requirements and even the most capable machines may need extra attention based on when they were purchased or how they are implemented by your IT team.

Due to the added requirements, this is not an easy upgrade so we strongly advise our clients not to upgrade their business computers to Windows 11 by themselves. There are a lot of variables that can cause things to go sideways really quickly.

For example, a client of ours saw the "Upgrade to Windows 11 is ready--and it's free" notification on his computer. Sounds good, right? He clicked the Download and Install button and the update process started. He didn't read the memo.

Windows 11 installed, the client logged in and things didn't seem to function properly. This is typically caused by a one or two things. Peripherals and hardware or software issues.

Peripherals and hardware (think monitor, bluetooth, mouse pad, etc) use"drivers" to "talk" to the Windows OS, this allows them to function properly. Well, not all computer/peripheral manufacturers have created updated Windows 11 drivers yet, so an upgrade can render your hardware useless. The same holds true for software. Some software needs to be updated in order to function properly on Windows 11.

Our client noticed the issues and saw the option to roll back the update to go back to Windows 10. Problem solved, right?

Well not necessarily.? When upgrading to Windows 11 certain protocols, based on your environment, must be followed or you could have multiple issues that require the assistance of the network administrator, password reset tools or even re-installing the Windows system on the computer.

Besides the software and hardware/driver compatibility issues, there are a few other things to consider and this is where it gets technical:

Is the computer part of a domain?? If you have to login to your computer to access network resources, while you are in the office, you most likely are on a domain. Now, if you are on a domain and upgraded to Windows 11, you may notice that things stop working properly. This is because you lost the trust.

Not the Circle of Trust that Greg Focker was invited into. This is an issue that has been around for many years in the Active Directory environment- losing trust between the computer and the domain.? If this happens, you will get the error?when trying to login:

"The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed."

When the computer is no longer trusted on the domain, your options can become VERY limited, since even the domain administrator may not be able to login to the computer. ?But you do have options, some easier and some more extreme in these scenarios.

Option 1: Local Admin Account

Use a local administrator account to remove the machine from the domain.? Reboot, then rejoin the domain with proper credentials to establish trust. Reboot one more time and you can sign back into your domain account.?

<Warning> In some rare cases your local profile may get corrupted using this procedure and this is a nearly unrecoverable situation, so performing regular backups computers is not only best practice, but essential to prevent this situation.

Option 2: No Local Admin Account Exists

You may be able to create a local admin account using the password reset USB tool (if you created one when setting up the computer) and some 3rd party tools.? If you can gain access and add the local admin account, you should be able to login. Sometimes you may have to use the computer name/local admin convention to login (the computer name is the name given to the computer by your admin and the local admin is the admin account you created with the third party tool).

?Once logged in you can perform the steps in option 1 and rejoin the domain.

Option 3: No Local Admin and Cannot Establish an Account or Sign in.

If this is the case and you have a backup, reimage/restore the computer from backup.?Now, if you do not have a backup, your options just become fewer and more work is needed to get your computer running.

Our recommended process is to place the hard drive (HDD) in an external enclosure to copy the profile and documents to another HDD.

If this copy was successful, restore the backup image and copy the files back to the user profile.?

One other gotcha- if the domain uses roaming profiles, try a quick reimage or PXE boot from your Windows deployment tools. This may reset the issue quickly.

?

Roll Back Process

Domain Computer-

1. Backup the machine and profile data (externally if necessary) just in case the rollback fails

2. Disassociate the machine with the connected domain.

3. Establish you can access the local administrator or create a local administrator if one does not exist.

4. Perform the roll back

5. Check to make sure programs and profiles are working.

6. Rejoin the domain and establish trust

?

Non-Domain Computer-

1 If the computer is backed up to an image file you can just restore the image prior to the update.

2.? If you do not have an image, create a backup of your data, files and programs and their installers in case you need to reinstall them.

3.?If you are not the local admin on the machine, create a local admin account

4. Perform the rollback

5. Sign back into your machine and Windows 10 should now be your default OS You can check by using the WinVer utility.

If these methods don't work the only other option is backup files and clean install Windows.

Yes, Microsoft has released an upgrade that doesn't upgrade on some computers, but if you are careful and do the prep work BEFORE you upgrade, you should be on the latest and greatest Windows system.