Personal experience installing Windows 11

Patrick

Well, decided to install Windows 11 after it’s release. Current experience is that it installed with no problems at all with SmartSDR or it’s sub applications. BUT getting there was a difficult journey. My computer is fairly new and uses a the i9-9900 processors with most up to date version of Windows 10 Pro. With all updates. Never the less the windows test application indicated that TPM 2.0 was not present and my computer could not be upgraded. Checking with Microsoft and ASUS (maker of the Mother Board) indicated that it was supported, but needed application. Sounds simple but it was not. Further few hours of research indicated that bios needed upgrade in order to provide the path in bios to turn on TPM 2.0. It actually required 2 files as it need an EM file upgrade to do the bios upgrade. Once I had that done bios install nicely via the internet directly. A very well done improvement in installing bios upgrades. But still no joy… could not find the door to the TPM COMMANDS. Another hour or so searching the internet found the answer. Solution was simple but, not obvious. The answer was I did not have an administrative pass word enabled in bios! Set that up, did bios search, voila, one simple selection to turn on TPM 2.0…. Did the compatibility test and everything was there, finally! Did the down load, and Windows 11 Pro downloads and installs. Something I do after new software installs is to clean do a cleanup with two apps that check the a number of things in Windows, that do sometimes get corrupted or keep outdated files while processing the new install. The apps are CleanMyPC, and Restoro. I started all all my Radio apps SmartSDR etc, all worked as normal. I am still evaluating the new OS, but first experience, indicates it runs, to my perception, a little faster. Of course they changed how you access the same old stuff, but in settings it was a bit of an improvement. So far so good, no operating issues at all. Advice, if you do not pass the compatibility test. Do some research with the computers manufacturer. The answer, may be similar to my experience. Good luck and lots of DX….

W2JV_

Patrick, Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with the WIN11 upgrade. I used my IT logic which says if you cant find five good reasons to make a change, don't do it, so for now I will hold off.

Peter

W2JV

Patrick

Not trying to convince any one to do it, but for those that attempt the task, I thought it would be good to share what was needed. I truly think that this is mostly a security update in the guise of an upgrade. Just my opinion. Apple has been using the TPM hardware security for a while and also does the same on the A series and M series of processors. So the upgrade has more to do with the security issues then actual improvements. They did improve a few things, but it is mostly cosmetic. Anyway I survived the upgrade and not regretting it, so far.

KT5N Jeff

Thanks Patrick. Your experience was probably typical (I haven't installed W11 myself yet), but your thoughtfulness in documenting the obstacles you faced will help the rest of us!

Patrick

Jiyonmn, thanks for your sentiment, it is mich appreciated. Mahalo and Aloha from Hawaii…

AJarosik

I decided to install Win 11 on a new machine that was clearly "on the safe side" of the system requirements. SmartSDR CAT had some troubles, so I uninstalled all SmartSDR stuff and reinstalled. No further grief. Only thing that doesn't work is the pinned taskbar icon for SmartSDR. Generic icon comes up, not the SmartSDR icon. Works fine, just looks wrong. So far, no trouble with Win 11, but again, this machine is well within the published requirements.

Patrick

Ajarosik, great, wonder what PC you have?

AJarosik

Dell XPS8930, i9-9900 @ 3.1 GHz, 32GB RAM, 256 SSD and a spinning disk as well. About 18 months old. Sounds similar to your machine. Original OS was Win 10 Pro.

As you mention, Win 11 seems to be a little faster, and things are moved around, otherwise no issues have popped up as of yet.

Patrick

Yes, processor wise, very close, but I use a mid size box and ASUS Prime Z390-P mother board and liquids cooling on the processor. 2x1 Terabyte SSD Drives and 32 G RAM. I use two apps that help me maintain a clean PC. Clean My PC and Restoro. CMPC is a simple program to use and keep things in order. Restoro is more involved and will actually detect pieces of the system that have been changed due various reasons and will upload new code to fix the broken code. With these two apps I never have a problem with any of the SmartSDR pieces. I did have a com port problem where I lost some access to some ports. I ran Restoro and it fixed the problem. Got my missing ports back. Anyway, my two cents on how I maintain a clean computer.

W4AFK Bruno

My experience - Upgraded my ham radio computer to Windows 11 (the only one I have that per Microsoft supports Windows 11 LOL) and all went very well. The update went smoothly and I had no issues, My ham radio programs still work. Just had to re-learn the O/S UI changes that are part of Win 11 :-).

Flex 6400 & Win 11 - My 6400 is remote (2684 miles away) and I rely on SmartLink. After the update to Win 11, I only had to re-login to SmartLink and everything worked just as well as when I was running Windows 10.

I will not update my 5-year old Microsoft Surface Pro 4, which I use to access my 6400 when not at home, as per Microsoft, it's not supported. In any event, SmartLink works just fine in Windows 10 Pro on the Surface Pro 4, so I will NOT "break it". I have a small ~$26 USB "Volume Control" from Amazon that gives me a "tuning wheel" to use with my Surface Pro 4. It was "plug-and-play" and SmartSDR recognized it right away. I do have a FlexControl at home (bought that with my Flex 1500, which I still have) but I didn't want to buy another once. Also, this low priced control is smaller and fits in the Surface Pro 4 case.

FYI - My PC is a modified HP Pavilion 590 w/ i5-8400, 8GB RAM, 1TB SSD (Samsung 860 EVO), Integrated graphics. The changes I made to the stock computer were removing the 16GB Intel Optane Memory (which gave me problems) and replacing the (failing) HDD with a 1TB SSD. I only use this computer for ham radio so I don't need more horsepower. My "workhorse" uses an old but reliable 3rd generation i7-3770K Black edition, which is overclocked and liquid cooled (w/32GB, 2TB SSD, 4TB HDD, GTX1070OC, Oculus VR, etc.). That one was home built and is not Win-11 ready, but it works fine as it is.

Grant VK4JAZ

I have a new HP laptop (Intel CORE i7) that was running Windoz 10. Decided to take the plunge and upgrade to Windoz 11. I was a little apprehensive as I have a fair few amateur radio applications installed for things like programming Yeasu hand helds and DMR radios (that rely on the old version of Prolific driver). Anyway, the upgrade was super smooth and I have suffered no ill-effects. Everything works just as it should. I am currently using SmartSDR v 3.2.37 because that is what I was advised to run by my club, which has a Flex 6400 installed on a local mountain (Mt Cotton) for us to use via SmartLink.

Patrick

One thing I did not state is that I am running SmartSDR v 3.2.39, the latest version. All is still going well, no got ya’s.