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Readers have asked me to help them decide between keeping Windows 10 and upgrading to Windows 11. It’s only natural for people to want to stick with what they're used to, especially since Windows 10 still works just fine. But you’ll only be able to keep using it safely after October 14, 2025, if you’re willing to pay. There are other ways to keep your Windows 10 PC alive, too, but none of these options is an ideal long-term solution. To help you decide whether you should take the plunge now or stand pat for as long as you can, here's how Windows 10 stacks up against Windows 11 across the categories most likely to influence your decision.
Price
You can no longer buy a Windows 10 license from Microsoft or third parties such as Amazon, Best Buy, or Micro Center. However, you can still find older PCs for sale that run Windows 10. Upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is also still free. This is an improvement over the free upgrade offer from Windows 8 to Windows 10, which lasted just a year after the OS’s release.
So, how do we compare the price of these OS versions? In a sense, both are free since they come preinstalled on a PC. If you’re building a PC from scratch, however, you can't currently buy a Windows 10 license from any reputable sources. Thus, Windows 11 is your best option. Windows 11 Home costs $139.99, while Windows 11 Pro goes for $199.99. Here's how they differ.
Winner: Tie
Interface
Windows 11 features a slicker, more consistent user interface than Windows 10 and uses rounded corners on program windows. Its Settings interface is more uniform, too, though you still might occasionally encounter a dialog box reminiscent of Windows XP for some deeper options. At launch, Windows 11 centered the taskbar, but you can now set it to the left-hand side as in all previous Windows versions. Microsoft redesigned the Start menu itself, arguably reducing its functionality by removing Live Tiles and not showing a scrolling list of all apps.
Snap Layouts are a Windows 11 exclusive, letting you easily choose app window layouts that exactly fill half, a quarter, or a third of the screen. Windowing features are excellent in both versions, however, and far surpass what's possible in macOS.
Both OSes offer multiple virtual desktops, but Windows 11 lets you choose different wallpapers for them and save their layouts on multiple monitors. If you’re one of the few who loved the Timeline feature, hold on to Windows 10 as long as you can. Copilot+ PCs with Windows 11 at least have a comparable Recall feature.
Windows 11 comes with the Widgets feature that offers news, sports, stocks, and weather information at a glance when you hover your mouse cursor over its taskbar icon. Windows 10 has a similar (but less customizable) News & Information panel that doesn't integrate with other apps (such as Calendar and Spotify) like Widgets can.
File Explorer gets some improvements in Windows 11, including redesigned icons, a simplified toolbar and context menu, support for RAR and 7-Zip archives, and tabs. Copilot+ PCs get semantic search in File Explorer, which also works within the Windows Search box. With semantic search, the OS doesn’t require you to type exactly what you're trying to find; you can simply describe it.
Winner: Tie
App Compatibility
Windows 10 and 11 maintain nearly the same level of support for the vast number of applications out in the world. I haven’t encountered or even heard about any apps that run on Windows 10 but not Windows 11. Even if you do find one, Windows 11 has a Compatibility troubleshooter.
On Arm-based Copilot+ PCs, some antivirus software, games, and hardware drivers might not run. Their developers need to recode them for that chip architecture. Most major software, including Adobe Creative Cloud apps, browsers, and Microsoft 365, all run without issues; you can check compatibility here.
Winner: Tie
Included Apps
You get a lot of default apps with both versions of Windows: Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Edge, Mail, Maps, Movies & TV, Notepad, Paint, Photos, Snipping Tool, Teams, To Do, and the Xbox App for gaming.
Windows 11 improves on several default apps. For example, Notepad now has an autosave feature and tabs. The Media Player in Windows 11 is new, supplanting the older Groove app. The updated Clock app includes a Focus Session feature for increasing productivity. The Sound Recorder app also replaces Windows 10’s bare-bones Voice Recorder. For video editing, there’s Clipchamp, which comes after years of Windows not including a dedicated video editor.
Windows 11 also adds a Family app to help everyone maintain a healthy relationship with computing. The Quick Assist app allows you to connect to another PC to give or get support. The Sticky Notes app (which now integrates with OneNote in Windows 11) is what it sounds like, letting you place small yellow ad-hoc notes on the desktop.
Winner: Windows 11
Peripheral Compatibility
Windows 11 has stricter requirements for hardware drivers, so old peripherals that work with Windows 10 might not function. Peripheral hardware drivers need to use the Windows Driver Model (WDM) on Windows 11; Windows 10 supports older legacy drivers. Printers, too, need updated drivers or to support Universal Print (for corporate installations only). Windows 11 adds support for Bluetooth LE Audio, which improves battery life and music fidelity.
Winner: Tie
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Mobile Integrations
Both versions of Windows include Phone Link, which lets you make calls, see notifications, and send text messages from your PC via your phone. This works with both Android devices and iPhones. However, some Android phones offer more advanced features, including the ability to grab photos from your device and run multiple mobile apps on the Windows desktop.
On Windows 11, Phone Link now lets you perform drag-and-drop file transfers, quickly respond to notifications in a notification panel, and use a cross-device clipboard. Windows 11 also supports more devices overall.
Winner: Windows 11
AI Features
Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 now come with the Microsoft Copilot app (long live Cortana). With Copilot, you can create images or text based on a prompt, summarize a web page in Edge, and much more. Copilot now uses a very human-like voice model, and the Copilot Vision feature lets you converse with the AI about anything on your screen.
Only Copilot+ PCs build AI capabilities in at the OS level, thanks to their NPUs (neural processing units). And all of those machines run Windows 11.
AI features in Copilot+ PCs include Cocreator image creation, which lets you draw and work with AI to refine the result. You also get Click to Do, which performs actions based on highlighted screen objects; Live Captions, which generates captions for any audio playing on your PC; Recall, which lets you quickly get back to previous activities; and Studio Effects, which improve your appearance on video calls.
Winner: Windows 11
Performance and Updates
Close to Windows 11’s initial launch, PCMag lead analyst Matthew Buzzi performed comparison testing between Windows 10 and Windows 11 on the same laptop. He found the differences mostly insignificant, with Windows 11 taking a marginal lead on most tasks. With the 24H2 update to Windows 11, Microsoft engineers recoded some of the OS core for better performance, so those results might skew further toward Windows 11 today.
Another aspect of performance is how much time updates take. Windows 11 wins this one, thanks to a more streamlined process that reduces the download size of updates and gives users more choice over the process. Internal testing by Microsoft revealed about a 40% speed improvement in the 24H2 version. Even before that, updates in Windows 11 were around 40% smaller than those for Windows 10. Microsoft is looking to further streamline app updates, too.
Winner: Windows 11
Gaming
Both OS versions include the Game Bar for quick access to gaming features and the Xbox app. Windows 11 has a slight edge because it supports Auto HDR, DirectStorage for quick game loading, and improved 3D Spatial Sound. Read PCMag senior analyst Jordan Minor’s article about gaming in Windows 11 for more details. Windows 11 is on par with Windows 10 when it comes to actual gaming performance, too.
Winner: Windows 11
Security
Windows 11 has more stringent hardware security requirements. Your machine must support memory integrity and secure boot, as well as have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). The OS also implements virtualization-based security, a vulnerable-driver block list, and Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security.
Microsoft is trying to get its hardware partners to implement Pluton, an on-chip security feature that's part of the company's Secure Future Initiative. According to a Windows Experience blog post, “Pluton is embedded in the PC’s processor, enhancing many Windows 11 and all Copilot+ PCs with protection for user identity, data and apps...” To support Pluton, your PC must have an AMD Ryzen 6000, 7000, 8000, Ryzen AI, or Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 or X series processor. Intel has, to this point, shunned Pluton in favor of its business-only vPro security system, but that could always change.
Windows 11’s Smart App Control blocks you from running potentially harmful applications that bear malware or ransomware. Note that you can enable Smart App Control only after a clean installation of Windows 11. Windows 10 has a less advanced SmartScreen filter.
Finally, Windows 11 includes support for passkeys via Windows Hello.
Winner: Windows 11
And The Winner Is...
Microsoft Windows 11
I’ll say it as plainly as possible: Windows 11 is better than Windows 10. It looks more appealing, it's more secure, and it performs better. Yes, you lose a little bit of Start menu functionality, but Microsoft is working on fixing that. The Timeline feature is gone, too, but I'm not sure most people care that Microsoft got rid of it. Anecdotally, I just upgraded a non-technical friend to the new OS, and he had no problem adjusting to the system (I just moved the Start menu icon back to the left side). If your PC is compatible with Windows 11, there's simply no reason not to upgrade.
