Moving from Windows 7 to Windows 11 will require a clean install

Microsoft's free upgrade offer for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users ended way back in 2016, but you can still upgrade to Windows 10. As expected, Microsoft says it will continue to support Windows 11 users upgrading from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 as long as they meet the minimum system requirements.

However, there's a catch - Windows 7 to Windows 11 upgrade could wipe your apps, settings and customizations. That's because a proper direct upgrade path is not available for Windows 7/8.1 users, according to a support document from Lenovo, which was published on June 24 and spotted by us earlier today.

This isn't entirely unreasonable. Windows 7 was released 12 years ago, and received its last (and only) service pack 10 years ago. Mainstream support ended 2015, six years ago. I think this is a fair point to say - no more in-place upgrades. I mean, I think most people do fresh Windows installations anyway.