WARNING, BRICK MESSAGE NOTICE!: Computer geeks with extensive advanced knowledge in programing crap can skip this message, which is intended for monkey-brained rednecks like myself. You have been warned...
Amidst all this turmoil of issues with CSP, CM, etc, I'm happy to report that I was able to upgrade to Windows 11 without my friend, the Nuclear Kitten, hitting the fateful meltdown button. I know it's not a great feat, but if any of you clumsy human find yourself in the same situation as me and don't dare to take the step, you should know that it's safe to update the operating system without ruining Assetto Corsa. If I've done it, anyone can do it.
My first hassle was backing up to an external drive the three folders
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/assetto-corsa-pc-mods-general-discussion.307899/post-13589428 needed to be saved in case of disaster while upgrading or messing with Windows. In severe cases of hoarding, these folders are so large that they become unwieldy. The SSD on my PC is 2 TB, the same as my external hard drive for backups, and ONLY in mods I have 1.19 TB (uncompressed), which thanks to the magic of the Assetto Corsa compressor takes up 212 GB on disk.
If the destination disk is formatted in exFAT (as usual in external hard drives), Windows does not automatically recompress the backed up files, so if the destination disk is not a lot larger than the source disk, the operation cannot be performed for lack of space. The solution is to format the external hard drive as NTFS and enable the option that allows Windows to compress files saved on it. In theory and according to scientific literature, the NTFS format has some drawbacks compared to exFAT, but it's ok for working with Windows and saving files that we are not going to access constantly, and this has been the trick that saved my derriere.
The next step was the proper upgrading from Windows 10 Home to 11. I took the coward's route cause I didn't want to get bogged down with pre-cooked debloated operating systems, opting to do it with the official options. There are several ways, but in my case, I used the "Windows 11 Setup Wizard" from the official Microsoft website. This method preserves your previous files, apps, and practicallly all your settings, which is the point.
Needless to say that the ideal is to have all programs, drivers, etc. as updated as possible, but it shouldn't be a problem either; my only scare came when the update was interrupted with a warning message that my PC's SSDs weren't up to date, to avoid the (now fixed) problem that arose with one of the latest versions of Windows. Once the latest SSD drivers were installed, the update went smoothly.
Now I'm just finishing updating some programs, trying to optimize Windows to improve its gaming performance (with the help of thousands of geeky YouTube tutorials) and testing Assetto and so far, everything is working fine... Well, FINE within the parameters of Assetto Corsa, you know... 😅
(Of course, take this message with a grain of salt; the facts described worked well in my particular case, and there may be some inaccuracies in my statements, as I'm no expert on the subject, but I think it can serve as a basic guidance. Good luck.)
EDIT: While writing this long message, what a coincidence you were talking about the same matter...
