1. Intel processors from the 9th Generation or higher can generally upgrade to Windows 11 free. If not, you will need to purchase a new PC to meet the requirements for Windows 11. The reason for the generational limit is due to a piece of Security Hardware inside your computers knows as a TPM chip. This chip was relatively new before 9th Generation CPUs and thus cannot support the security implementations of Windows 11 on older models.

2. If you cannot upgrade for free, you need to account and plan for project time as we have not had reliable results with migrating profiles from one physical device to another as we used to do. With that being said, Continuum will be setting up new computers from scratch and only the users' documents and favorites will be migrated. Per user preferences and settings will need to be re-applied per computer.

3. As of October 14, 2025, companies are expected to upgrade their systems to Windows 11. This is a Microsoft decision and is not new although it feels as if time is flying these days. The information on the windows 10 life cycle can be found at the following address: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-home-and-pro

For most businesses this is not an optional upgrade. Most Cyber Insurance and regulatory agencies will be requiring this transition to be completed. Anyone in the Engineering, Finance, Manufacturing, Legal spaces will be forced to upgrade by the end of 2025. This same process occurred in 2020 with Windows 7 to Windows 10 so this is not a new process.

If you know that you need to move to Windows 11, schedule time now for your conversions and new PC setups. If you need consulting, reach out to Continuum and we can run the agent through your infrastructure to advise on what will need replaced and what can be upgraded. This service is a flat rate of $400 per location that is scanned. Remote employee machines will need to be manually scanned and quoted in addition to the main infrastructure analysis.

New computers are still the same 2-hour setup fee per PC and will be based on current labor rates. For those customers on the Managed Services platform, the billing rate will be the rate in your tier of service. I encourage all customers to look into this project sooner than later as we only have so much bookable time each year and we already have over 100 machines going through replacement next year.

Please email clipp@ctgfw.net when you are ready to discuss your 2025 plans.