Upgrading my laptop

[Scarlett]

I’m one of the luddites still happily using a Windows 10 based (small and portable - Dell XPS13) laptop who sees no need to replace the laptop just because I can’t upgrade it to Win11. There’s no ‘pull’ factor, or ‘want’ to upgrade to something newer. My laptop functions fine, does everything I need of it at home or when travelling and honestly still looks great. I like it as a ‘thing’. (Interestingly my smartphone is just an object or a tool to me and I have no attraction to it)

Now, Microsoft of course, WANT me to upgrade to a newer machine and previously next week was going to be end of life for Win10 (the ‘push’ factor). So I’d been looking at a used/refurbished newer model of my laptop that runs Win11. Microsoft have recently relented on the forced change (in part thanks to EU rules!) and are now going to provide continuing security updates for another year for Win10.

In theory I therefore don’t need to do upgrade. But, and this question is for those IT professionals lurking on AFF, should I upgrade anyway? Is there something I don’t know about older tech versus newer tech that I’m missing and mean I probably should upgrade to something newer? Or is this a classic example of planned obsolescence from the IT industry designed to get me to buy yet another newer laptop?

 

[SYD]

Is your laptop operating ok?

My desktop boots like an 80yo walking knee deep in porridge - so it’s been on my “to do” list to replace it….

 

[moa999]

just because I can’t upgrade it to Win11.

There are some tools that can help you update laptops or PCs that fail the default Win 11 checks, normally secure boot or TPM.

I can recommend Flyoobe (formerly Flyby11) which is hosted on GitHub. Upgrades to Win11 and helps you to turn off some of the bloat that may slow older machines.

GitHub - builtbybel/Flyoobe: Fly through your Windows 11 setup 🐝

Fly through your Windows 11 setup 🐝. Contribute to builtbybel/Flyoobe development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I've updated a 2012 era Toshiba Z830 (possibly similar era to the first Ultrabook XPS13s).

As always would recommend backing key files up first. The tool will do checks first and then basically downloads straight from windows just bypassing checks.

 

[kookaburra75]

If there is no urgent or desperate need, stick with what you have. My Acer Swift laptop is 5 1/2 years old and ticking away ok, although I am running Windows 11 on it without any issues. I did have to replace the battery as the capacity had dropped to 20% of its original capacity - $80 and an hour's work (Youtube is your friend for doing computer repairs or maintenance).

The big thing though, is making sure you have everything backed up, preferably cloud based (Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive) and at least one other source. I use a 512GB SD memory card as it's small and quick and can carry it with me. The free Microsoft back up tool SyncToy works well. If the laptop dies/breaks/stolen all I need is another computer I can plug the card into.