What you need to know
Microsoft will officially end support for Windows 10 on 14 October 2025. After this date, Windows 10 will no longer receive free updates, technical support, or security patches.
As a result, many users will upgrade their existing machines to Windows 11 or purchase new computers running Windows 11 to host Front Desk.
The latest version of Front Desk is fully compatible with Windows 11. However, there is a known compatibility issue affecting Microsoft SQL Server—the database system used by Front Desk—on some newer computers with certain hard disk configurations.
This issue only affects the machine hosting your Front Desk database. It does not affect Front Desk client machines that do not host the database.
You can find more technical information from Microsoft here:
Microsoft SQL Server: Troubleshooting errors related to system disk sector size greater than 4 KB
What is the issue?
Microsoft SQL Server may not run on Windows 11 if your system drive has a sector size greater than 4 KB, a configuration found in some newer hard drives. If affected, this will prevent SQL Server—and therefore Front Desk—from running until the issue is resolved.
Recommendation
As per the Microsoft article above, please follow these steps to confirm if your disk is affected:
1) Open CMD as an Administrator
2) Enter the following command, repeating for each disk on your computer (C:, D:, E:, etc)
fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo C:
3) Look for the values PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity and PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance, and confirm if either if these values are above 4096, which indicates that your disk will be affected by this issue.
If either of these values are above 4096, any installation of Microsoft SQL Server on this disk will likely fail.
Please consult with your preferred IT provider, referencing the Microsoft article above for further details.
If these values are equal to or below 4096, you should not be affected by this issue.
Considering a System Upgrade?
If you’re thinking about upgrading, now may be a great time to consider our modern, cloud-based solution – PracSuite.
With PracSuite:
There is no software to install or maintain.
Your data is securely hosted in our Australian data centre.
We handle software updates, backups, and server security for you.
We’ve used over 30 years of practice management and software development experience to create the next generation of practice management software—designed to take your practice to the next level.
Front Desk users with a current support agreement can migrate to PracSuite at no cost, with a detailed free data migration path provided by Smartsoft.
For further information or assistance, please contact us:
