Yes, you can still use the address to receive funds as many times as you want. It's the request that expires and not the address.

For bitcoin core, you can simply keep the wallet.dat file as mentioned above.

For other wallets, it's a bit different. Since the wallet format is not supported by other software, you'll have to export the private keys [1] (or this[2] if want to export everything) so you can then import/sweep them elsewhere.

[1] https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/4203/how-can-i-export-the-private-key-for-an-address-from-the-satoshi-client
[2] https://bitcoincore.org/en/doc/0.16.0/rpc/wallet/dumpwallet/

Updating Bitcoin Core on Windows (any version, including Win11) is super easy.  Like others have suggested you should back up your wallet first, just as a safety precaution.

1. Open bitcoin core and backup your wallet.
2. Shutdown bitcoin core; File > Exit
3. Download the latest version and verify authenticity.
4. Locate the .exe file (probably in your "Downloads" directory, unless you saved it elsewhere.)
5. Double click on the executable installation (.exe) file.

That's it.  Super simple.  If you try to update with your current version of core running you'll get a warning that the installation cannot continue. 

If everything goes well, bitcoin core will start with the new version.  All your configurations will be will remain as they were with the older version, and the your wallet will be imported as well. 

Like 99,999 times out of 100,000... simply installing the new version of Bitcoin Core over the top of the previous version will work without causing any issues. But it can depend on your setup and which Operating System you are using... you haven't specified, so it's difficult to be 100% sure. I know with my Windows 10 setup, I just shutdown Bitcoin Core, then run the new installer.exe and then start Bitcoin Core and it all "just works" to update the node without affecting anything.


If you're at all worried, then I would definitely recommend using the "File -> Backup wallet" option... or manually backing up the wallet.dat as recommended by the users above.

Just back up your wallet.dat - preferably encrypted and on a different drive - and the install the new update and you'll be fine (although you should try to backup your wallet file before you send funds to it).

I tried creating to reproduce the problem (by enable "descriptor wallet" and "encrypt wallet" when creating new wallet) and managed to reproduce the problem. It happens because Bitcoin Core doesn't support such command for descriptor wallet according to https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/descriptors.md.

Can you try it again and show us the exact error/warning message?


Or use dumpwallet if you plan to get private key from many address.

Do you mind posting the commands you've used? Is it a standard wallet? If so, all you should be using is the walletpassphrase command to unlock the wallet, then dumpprivkey afterward.