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What's Happening?
What's Happening?
Windows 11 is the latest version of the Windows Operating System from Microsoft, first released in 2021. Microsoft has announced that it will stop supporting Windows 10 on 14 October 2025.
The College has over 1100 devices running Windows 10. These devices need to be either upgraded or replaced if the College is to maintain the quality, security and integrity of our devices and data.
Our testing and preparation for migrating to Windows 11 started early 2025, we've created a new deployment server to help us ensure our computers install Windows 11 efficiently, as well as all the apps used across the breadth of the college. We've been doing extensive testing on this within our team and then initially we're deploying Windows 11 to a few people within the college to get some more hands-on, various, day to day testing completed.
This allows us to prepare for deploying Windows 11 to all Windows computers in the college.
The Benefits
The Benefits
Enhanced security: Windows 11 has new security controls designed to protect users and their data, especially in a hybrid work environment.
Accessibility features: There are built-in assistive technologies to support users with disabilities. Such as Live Captions on videos and video-calls.
Consistency: Many staff and students are already using Windows 11 on personal devices, which will provide a more consistent experience.
New features: It introduces a new, updated design and new features like improved snap layouts for multitasking, a more sophisticated snipping tool, and widgets for quick access to information. The new Snap lets you save a layout of your screens to use each day.
Future-proofed technology: Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, so upgrading to Windows 11 during the summer will minimize disruption in the future.
Compliance: Using current and supported software like Windows 11 is necessary to comply with standards like Cyber Essentials, which is important for grants, partnerships and funding.
What's changed?
What's changed?
Taskbar & Start Menu
Taskbar & Start Menu
The taskbar is in a new location, at the bottom center of the screen.
Clicking the Microsoft logo opens the Start menu but with a sleek new look.
File Explorer
File Explorer
The Explorer looks cleaner and softer, with the most commonly used shortcuts available as visual icons instead of text labels.
Clicking the three little dots gives you more options.
Right Click Menu
Right Click Menu
The right click menu has been refreshed too. No longer is there a huge list of items but rather the most common items instantly.
Clicking 'Show more options' gives you every option available to you for that file.
Window Snap
Window Snap
Windows 11 Snap gives us many more options and layouts for snapping windows into place. Here's how:
Simply drag a window to the left, top or right edge or corner of your screen until the layout box appears, then select your desired layout.
Alternatively, hover your mouse over the maximise button to get the layout box below to appear. Or, on your keyboard press Windows + Z to do the same.
Screen Recording
Screen Recording
Windows 11 now has a screen recorder built into the Snipping Tool.
One slight caveat is that it doesn't record audio. However, you can always record a video then record audio separately using a tool like WeVideo.
Sound Recorder
Sound Recorder
If you need to record your voice but don't need to record your screen, you can use the revamped Sound Recorder.
You can also utilise Speech to Text with this and tell your PC what you want to type instead of typing it yourself.
Color Filters & Contrast Themes
Color Filters & Contrast Themes
These features allow you to adjust the colour on the screen to ensure you're able to see it all clearly. You can fully customise it to make sure it works for you.
Live Captions
Live Captions
This can be enabled to turn any audio on your computer into words on the screen, regardless of what app you're in.
Essentially like live subtitles for any video you're watching, any video call you're in or anything else playing audio!
It can even live translate from 44 languages into English.
Resources
Resources
We've gone through the basics of the Windows 11 differences but we've been quite brief.
If you want some further information about these features, or Windows 11 in general, take a look at the links below, direct from Microsoft:
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