Microsoft is Done With Major Windows 10 Updates 163
Windows 10 22H2 will be the final version of the operating system, Microsoft said in a blog post on Thursday. From a report: Moving forward, all editions of Windows 10 will be supported with monthly security updates until October 14th, 2025, when Microsoft will end support. (Some releases on the Long-Term Servicing Channel, or LTSC, will get updates past that end of support date.) Microsoft is encouraging users to now transition to Windows 11 because Windows 10 won't be getting any new features.
why...!!! (Score:2)
For once I had EVERYONE on the same OS, it was so easy to provide support to the entire user base at my company :-/
Re:why...!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:why...!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
The fuck you is the secondary reason. The primary reason, for most things in the world, is money. Indirectly often, but at the end of the string of reasons there is money. Probably someone might say "we don't want to fuck you but you're standing between me and your wallet..."
So why does Windows 11 have curved corners on windows? Money! Not that it makes money per se, but that it's cheaper to hire dumb graphical designers. All the stuff in there can ultimately be tracked to money.
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The 'why' is pretty easy. A blind man could have predicted this. The flat design trend eschewed curves and gradients. The only thing left to change was to get rid of color or add curves and gradients.
I don't mind. I like curves and gradients. They can add helpful information. Why windows 11 decided to go crazy with the curves is a bit of a mystery, but that's what they did. If I had to guess, it was so they could reduce them a bit in the next refresh.
Or do you mean 'why does the design need to change
Re: why...!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Unless you've got a machine that meets MS's dumb fucking over-the-top specs, you CAN'T UPGRADE to 11 without a LOT of hocus-pocus under the covers. I suspect they're in cahoots with computer manufacturers to force people to upgrade perfectly good working machines to the latest-greatest so that Win11 will run.. Fuck MS!
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I know, right? Windows 11 should damn well be able to run on my DX2-66. Is it backward compatible or isn't it? I agree they're absolutely in bed with the hardware folks.
Re: why...!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
I know, right? Windows 11 should damn well be able to run on my DX2-66. Is it backward compatible or isn't it? I agree they're absolutely in bed with the hardware folks.
Ha! But, seriously, there's no end-user reason to require a system that runs perfectly well on Windows 10 to be required to have the latest CPU, TPM v2+ and SecureBoot just to "upgrade" to Windows 11. Despite MS claims of benefits to the end-user, the only apparent real reasons are increased MS control of your system. The only end-user effect is that many people will/would have to buy a new PC. My Dell XPS 420 runs Windows 10 well as does the VM on my DIY Linux Mint 21 system (ASRock Z77 Extreme3, i7-3770, 32GB RAM) all given to me by friends when they upgraded their systems (I upgraded the RAM for both).
The only thing MS did for me was push me to finally moving to using Linux full time.
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Well, in two years machines able to run Win 11 won't be that high end anymore. But then, by that point Microsoft might have Win 12 coming...
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When you control your updates, this doesn't happen. I'd pick an operating system that I can control. Okay fine, control better than, since I too am not reviewing source code of my updates.
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> For once I had EVERYONE on the same OS, it was so easy to provide support to the entire user base at my company :-/
Well, you're sweet until at least the 2nd half of 2025.
Or do you like additional "features" appearing for you to support in your company?
Yay, two+ years of stability! (Score:5, Insightful)
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What's the "stable OS" that MS sells, pray tell?
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I've only ever had Windows 10 crash on failing hardware. In fact, when Windows 10 does crash, in my experience, it's a safe bet that something in the machine is broken; RAM, PSU, GPU, etc. in that order of likelihood.
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I generally start with 3rd party drivers and work out to hardware, but you must be a hardware guy. I've had plenty of blue screens from out-of-date drivers.
Never Microsoft drivers, though.
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Windows NT onward, which went mainstream with XP. Maybe you need to update your 1990's memes.
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Somehow MS makes this sound bad.
From their perspective, it kinda is. New Features = New Revenue.
And if people wanted stable, every consumer would run the stripped-down LTSC variants that are supported for a decade after release. And Microsoft would allow it. They don't. For feature reasons.
So it will be stable then (Score:2)
Microsoft is encouraging users to now transition to Windows 11 because Windows 10 won't be getting any new features.
Just about every update to Win10 has involved some sort of "new feature" that was questionable. It almost seems like each was a test of tolerance for systems.
Is there a version of Windows that is stable, not constantly "improving" with "new features"? Apparently Win10 will be that for a couple of more years, if you can tolerate what features it has now.
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that's a bad thing though.
if a company releases something that's anti-consumer garbage, with the "fuck you, that's why" mentality -- and it's tolerated because there are x number of hoops to jump through, it's just training them to force more bullshit down their user's throats.
at some point those work arounds will no longer exist.
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well, you have something that's worked a certain way for a decade and a half or so, then your UI/UX guys decide in a soy-frappuccino fueled manic episode to just change things up just for the sake of change -- for absolutely no benefit whatsoever, and no option to just keep things the way they were. Yeah i don't get it? it's definitely consumer friendly though.
and no, i'm saying it's bad excusing that kind of crap with
>"you can just download this 3rd party add on to fix it"
>"you can just edit these r
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Is there a version of Windows that is stable, not constantly "improving" with "new features"?
LTSC. You're welcome.
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And MS makes it hell to get that LTSC version.
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Is there a version of Windows that is stable, not constantly "improving" with "new features"?
There's an industrial version of Windows that's intended to support IOT that has nice aspects like not randomly rebooting to install updates (which, y'know, you might not want for something controlling a machine on a factory floor). Although I haven't looked very hard, the only place I've seen it was on Lenovo's ThinkCentre Nano IoT line.
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This is my problem with most modern software.
I often complain about SaaS but forced Windows updates from Microsoft are the exact same problem. I don't want software that I pay for to suddenly change on me without careful consideration on my part as to whether or not I want to "upgrade." You know that menu item or short-cut key that you use every single day to do your job? Well one day some product owner decides that they want it moved somewhere else.
While software's value is its ability to change, I'm not c
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What happens is when subset of users are vulnerable to, that turns into everyone must update, which is wrong.
Consider the initial rounds of Intel security vulnerabilities that were not demonstrable on AMD, but the OS patches and their performance degradations were pushed onto AMD hardware also, none-the-less. "Security" == "Think of the children"
Welcome, Windows 12 (Score:5, Funny)
Hopefully this means I can totally skip Windows 11 and move on to Windows 12 where you get free apostles to help you along.
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The Star Trek rule hasn't applied to Windows in a long time.
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You mean "Beam me up, Scotty. There is no intelligent life down here."?
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Hopefully this means I can totally skip Windows 11 and move on to Windows 12 where you get free apostles to help you along.
But one will betray you.
Microsoft almost got it right (Score:2)
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Yep. MS is creating a massive problem there. I hope it will be bad enough to break their back, but likely too many people will continue to think their crap smells like roses as things get worse.
Too bad if.. (Score:2)
...your machine that's old but still running fine can't be upgraded to Win11.
The last Windows OS sees its end (Score:2)
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Windows 11, afterlife edition.
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Windows 11, afterlife edition.
The Windows 95 campaign used the Rolling Stones. Get ready for Ray Parker Jr. music.
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What will we do? (Score:5, Funny)
No more exciting night mode changes?!
No more new place to put the Start button?!
This is the END of the cutting edge of UI innovation in this country. We are doomed.
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There is no reason why TurboTax can't run on windows 7 but alas it does not.
The reality is that Windows 10 contains enough API additions vs. Windows 7 that app developers have to give up stuff to remain compatible with Windows 7. Does tax software really need to use any of those API's? Probably not. But all it takes is one critical dependency that uses them, and the application is forced along for the ride.
Also, most developers simply don't want to deal with keeping applications running on older OS versions. It's a pain in the ass, and at some point there is no financial incentive
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The problem with Virtualbox is that it is trash compared to literally any of the credible alternatives. Install virt-manager, and qemu/kvm will come with it. You can convert your VDIs to qcow2s and load your existing virtual machines into the system. VMware player is also a far better tool than Virtualbox, but they don't keep up with the kernel so you have to use a workalike for some of their kernel modules, and those modules were flaky for me (I was having network failures) so I converted my vmdks to qcow2
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What exactly is wrong with VirtualBox? I use Hyper-V, KVM/QEMU, VMware, and VirtualBox and can't tell a difference in performance or otherwise.
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The reason is simple. There's an embedded version of Google Chrome that app makers can plug into their software to make a native HTML UX so they don't have to design a GUI interface. This Chrome Embedded ended support for Windows 7/8/8.1 at the beginning of the year. That why suddenly so many apps no longer support them all at once.
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newsflash: you don't need to install turbotax on a computer. go to turbotax.com
Don't let the door hit ya (Score:2)
Since Win11 update fails on my system, guess I'll be learning how to run my games on Linux.
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Does it fail the old fashioned way, or does it just tell you that you don't meet requirements? Because if the latter, you can bypass that.
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Cool, thanks!
I built my first windows box a decade ago (for Skyrim), after kid got hooked on watching play throughs. Have a few more Steam and GOG games since then; sounds like the tricky stuff has been ironed out.
Looking forward to being down with Windows once and for all!
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Windows 11 Features (Score:2)
Hopefully this will give their developers more time to put the features they removed in Windows 11. I'm looking at you, ability to hide the sound icon from the taskbar.
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I mean... obviously I don't have hard numbers here, but I imagine that particular feature is used by maybe 0.000001% of users.
Not that that is full justification for removing it, but since Windows 11 fully overhauled the taskbar it's not surprising that some niche functionality wasn't brought across.
Not a MS-supported solution and updates to Win11 will probably break it, but: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/wiki [github.com]
Install that, use Win10 taskbar, run shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9} a
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Can you still not move the taskbar to the left? (Score:2)
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I place my taskbar on the right edge and I am never going to compromise
I'm so glad to be Windows-free (Score:2)
anyone remember this quote? (Score:2)
So how is MSFT going to handle all the E-waste? (Score:2)
So how is Microsoft going to handle all the E-waste?
Millions of computers can't run Windows 11 because of arbitrary requirements, like TPM 2.0 and something-something processor requirements.
I suspect government action may be forthcoming to force Microsoft to support older PCs in Windows 11.
Upgrade path (Score:4, Insightful)
Fine, give us an upgrade path for perfectly working hardware to get to 11. My wife's laptop even has a TPM 2.0 on the processor die and it won't run Windows 11 because the processor isn't recent enough.
Do not ask us to buy hardware we don't need. The promise with Windows 10 was that it was going to work until your machine no longer works. Now it's planned obsolescence instead. Your machine works? Too bad, take it off the Internet in 2025 or else.
Build a subset of Windows 11 for 10 users. FFS, you still have WOW64 running Win32 apps and WinSxS, don't tell me it can't be done.
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I ran a Core 2 Quad since 2008 as my primary PC. Upgraded to a Ryzen 1800X with 64GB of RAM in 2018 and that won't run Windows 11 now...
I've given up (Score:2)
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Piracy
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I guess It's time to find a new hobby. Any suggestions?
Piracy
Ok but is the parrot optional? Also, which makes a better boat anchor, an out-of-support Windows 8.1 machine or an out-of-support Mac Pro?
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Video device driver programming for an open source kernel?
Re:Giving up my favorite things (Score:5, Interesting)
I love gaming, but given the lack of support in linux for video cards
This is only barely a thing. The only video cards not better-supported on Linux are the very newest ones. And you don't want to run the windows drivers for those cards on day 1, either, because they will be chock-full of bugs. I literally get better performance and fewer crashes with Windows games on Linux than I do on Windows. My AMD-based laptop was having driver crashes in Windows 10 (what it came with) simply sitting at the desktop. Yes, with the driver version it shipped with. And I've had absolutely Zero GPU problems with it under Linux.
What's often not supported is the software itself, especially when it has kernel-based DRM. But the GPUs? The support is better.
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My impression is that in the last few years, Linux Sound and GFX support has eclipsed Windows and is getting bette, while Windows is getting worse. Not in terms of performance, but in terms of reliability. I think MS may have lost control of significant parts of their OS by now, meaning they cannot really change anything without creating a ton of problems. That tends to happen when you pile up technological debt.
Re:Giving up my favorite things (Score:5, Interesting)
My impression is that in the last few years, Linux Sound and GFX support has eclipsed Windows and is getting bette, while Windows is getting worse.
Yep. The Linux driver for AMD graphics tends to get worked on first, and the nvidia Linux driver is now generally keeping up with the Windows driver, with the same version numbers in most cases even. Sadly most distributions are still using pulseaudio though, even though pipewire exists. Pipewire can now satisfactorily replace both pulse and JACK, and even can broker connections from ALSA clients (with no support for audio daemons.)
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The Linux driver for AMD graphics tends to get worked on first, and the nvidia Linux driver is now generally keeping up with the Windows driver
Wishful thinking but woefully incorrect.
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The only video cards not better-supported on Linux are the very newest ones.
False. Nvidia's and AMDs Linux drivers seriously lag behind their Windows releases. It's not the more recent cards which aren't supported. It's the more recent *games*, and in many cases driver updates are borderline needed to get modern highly optimised games running well.
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You could use AMD video cards, the open source drivers of em tend to be pretty good, at a point AMD themselves should consider just adapting em for windows.
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I love gaming, but given the lack of support in linux for video cards I guess it will be unmodded old games for me only as of 2025.
I am confused. I haven't had any issues with my video card or any of my games.
Proton and WINE work wonders for almost everything. I think I had to get Glorious Eggroll for a really niche title.
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Same here. I do have problems modding some games but that's because I want the mod programs to do all the work for me:)
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Re: Giving up my favorite things (Score:2)
Not sure what you are talking about Steam for Linux is extremely stable and usable. You may not get the same performance you got in windows, but it's totally usable. Both AMD and Nvidia provide functional and regularly updated drivers.
Re: As if Win 10 wasn't bad enough! (Score:2)
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That hasn't been a problem for over a decade.
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Win 11? I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. For myself, I like Windows 7 in a virtual machine running on Linux. I wouldn't presume to advise others, but this works for me.
Most software is dropping or has dropped support for Windows 7. I keep Windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10, and 11 VMs around just in case, but seldom actually use any of 'em. In fact I use the XP VM more than the Win7 VM because of the specific software I still use that runs best there...
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I actually have an ancient, non-internet machine with XP on it. It's the only thing standing between my scanner and one old (but excellent) colour laser printer and the scrapyard.
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Thanks for that!
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No SANE support, huh? I've had pretty good luck in that department, the last couple scanners I got were supported. One of them was even an Epson that required a special driver, but they actually provided one that worked.
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Yes, I am going there too. I will probably keep a single native Win11 machine (when this becomes unavoidable) without MS account for gaming, but that will be it for native installations. Some VM installations ow Win11 on top of Linux because I have to use MS Office and MS Teams in come contexts.
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This is the way. It annoys me that we still need to fork out real money to license 11 when it's basically a pile of junk we want nothing to do with, but for now we still use enough Windows-only software that is essential our business that we need at least a VM available.
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Now I need a big roll of mental floss to get that image out of my mind. That's entirely too much info about your intimate relationship, TYVM!
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I'm incredibly lucky. My employer doesn't require me to use any proprietary MS stuff, even Teams, though most of my dealings with them are from home or out of the office.
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That is very nice!
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Including recent versions of Windows, sadly. :-(
Re:Not newsworthy (Score:5, Insightful)
....because Windows 10 won't be getting any new features
Good. They should have stopped adding "features" years ago.
--Fix bugs
--Look for ways to improve performance
--Add support for new hardware as it becomes available (e.g., USB 4)
That's it. Stop the constant tinkering. JUST. FUCKING. STOP. Windows 11 is completely unusable shit because of the constant tinkering.
Re:Not newsworthy (Score:5, Insightful)
exactly this, i don't want any new features, hell i haven't wanted any new features since windows 7.
Also I don't get the idea behind forced/automatic updates being a good thing. if something works, why keep updating it?
okay security updates are a thing, but that shouldn't trump user choice. let people opt out.
I've got a machine that's essentially just an appliance, it has no keyboard or mouse attached to it, just a gamepad. The nagging pestering about updating this or that, or whatever contrived new 'feature', or random reboots in the middle of the night.. it's just a god damn headache to deal with.
i'd sooner update my fucking toaster.
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you really shouldn't have to do any of those things. it's your computer after all.
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But their operating system. Don't like it, don't license it.
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This is actually amazing, I never thought I'd live to see the day that on Slashdot (Slashdot!) of all websites posters simping for multi-billion dollar corps -- nevermind it's Microsoft.
Amazing times we're in.
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If that's what you want, use LTSC
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They have to keep tinkering. How else will they figure out how to make money off of Windows?
Sure, they sell windows for $200, but no one pays that. I buy 'grey-market' for $8 for computers I build, and for computers I don't build, the OEM pays close to or exactly $0.
Windows is a loss-leader at this point. I prefered when Windows was a for-profit product that everyone paid for...
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Drat, no mod points left. But you are correct.
For what it's worth a substantial part of the OSX community wants Apple to do the exact same things.
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Yes and no. Newer machines tend to be more power efficient, high-end GPUs notwithstanding. Whether the cost of dumping/recycling old hardware outweighs the benefit of lower power consumption depends on the hardware.