What to do after upgrading to Windows 11

Windows 11 has been here for sometime now and many users are upgrading to the early build of the new operating system. Though Windows 11 is still new and may come with a lot of bugs, some users are going to upgrade anyway. Here are some recommended things to do right after upgrading to Winddows 11.

You can change the centred start menu and buttons

The start menu by default is aligned to the centre. This requires a bit of a learning curve if you are used to the previous left alignment of the start menu. To align the start menu to the left, follow these steps:

1. Right click on the Taskbar
2. Select Taskbar settings
3. Go to taskbar alignment and select left

Alternatively, you can

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on Personalization.
3. Click the Taskbar behaviors settings.
4. Use the Taskbar alignment drop-down menu and select Left to align the Start menu and buttons to the left

Update drivers

Windows 11 is a major upgrade and therefore switching might cause compatibility issues with some of the drivers installed on your previous OS. It is therefore important to update your drivers. When I first upgraded to Windows 11, I had issues with the sound and bluetooth drivers. The issues were fixed after updating drivers. Follow these steps to update your drivers:

1. Go to settings
2. Select Update and Security
3. Click Windows update
4. Go to advanced under update options, turn on receive updates for other Microsoft products.
5. Click the left arrow at the top left to go back
6. Select check for update and install all recommended updates
7. Restart your PC

Alternatively, you can update drivers from Device Manager by following the steps below:

1. In the search box on the taskbar, enter device manager, then select Device Manager.
2. Select a category to see names of devices, then right-click the one you’d like to update.
3. Select Search automatically for updated driver software.
4. Select Update Driver.

Add desktop icons

Your newly updated Windows may come without some icons on the desktop like This PC, Network etc. You would have to re-add them to your desktop by following the steps below :

1. Right click on an empty space on the desktop
2. Select Personalize
3. Select Themes
4. On the right side of the screen, select desktop icons settings
5. Check all the icons you want to add and select OK

Update Windows Store App for Android support

Windows 11 comes with support for android apps through the amazon app. A Microsoft developer has confirmed that Windows 11 will support installing Android apps using an APK. Hence users will be able to sideload android apps in future builds. Until then, you can get android app support by updating the Microsoft Store app. To do that:

1. Open the Microsoft Store app
2. Click on the three dots at the top right corner
3. Select Downloads and Updates
4. Select Microsoft store and update to the latest version.

Clean unnecessary files

Your computer might contain some redundant files from your previous installation. It is important to clean these files. Follow these steps to clean unnecessary files :

1. Search disk clean up frlm the start menu and launch it.
2. Select the drive you want to clean. e. g Select C: for your operating system
3. Check the files you want to clean. You can select clean system files as well.
4. Choose delete files and allow the process to complete.

Create a system restore point

Restore point creates a snapshot of your computer system at the time your system was working well so you can restore if something goes wrong. To do that,

1. Search for restore point at windows search
2. Select create restore point.
3. Turn on system protection for drive C or other drives.
4. Click configure to set space to be used by the restore point
5. Click Ok to create the restore point.

In conclusion, Windows 11 is still at its infant stage and therefore contains some bugs. Users who don’t mind these few bugs can go ahead and upgrade. We do not recommend upgrading now if you use your computer for work related stuffs as this may cause some issues. Those who want to upgrade can do so and follow the instructions I have provided above.