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Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Bombards Windows 10 Users With Full-Screen Ads for Upgrade (theregister.com) 145

Microsoft has expanded its campaign to migrate Windows 10 users to Windows 11, deploying full-screen ads urging users to purchase new computers ahead of Windows 10's end-of-support date. The ads, appearing on Windows 10 devices, remind the October 14, 2025 cut-off date for OS support.
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Microsoft Bombards Windows 10 Users With Full-Screen Ads for Upgrade

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  • No (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21, 2024 @04:21PM (#64963327)
    My computer is fine and I won't buy a new one to upgrade my OS.
    • Re:No (Score:4, Informative)

      by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @05:28PM (#64963493)
      And given that it's Windows it's a best a sidegrade, not an upgrade. Possibly even a downgrade if they start bundling Recall or whatever it's called this week.
    • by dbialac ( 320955 )
      First, I'm not an advertiser for it. Anyway, Stardock makes a Windows 10 start menu simulator, but several years ago when I tried it, there was nothing like live tiles. I used it for the short period of time that I used Windows 11 before out right rejecting W11. I've ended up really appreciating the live tiles and I think it was a big mistake getting rid of them in Windows 11. I've also enjoyed the fact that there have been few significant upgrades to Windows 10, meaning I can stay focused on work instead o
  • by swan5566 ( 1771176 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @04:27PM (#64963353)
    Likely will move to ubuntu next year.
    • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @04:34PM (#64963373)

      Likely will move to ubuntu next year.

      In the same boat and will switch to using my Linux Mint 22 (Cinnamon) system full time at some point -- I'm still finding alternatives to a few apps, but mostly I've been lazy. All my systems are too old to (officially) run Windows 11, if I even wanted to, though my Dell XPS 420 runs Windows 10 just fine.

      • Yeah I haven't looked hard at it yet. I'll be curious about drivers and Steam support.
        • With Ubuntu I have an awesome Steam experience. I imagine it should be pretty much the same on Mint. I've also had a lot of good experiences with drivers under Linux. Even my computer that I built new last year worked perfectly after install Linux and updating. Everything just worked. With older hardware, I think it's even more likely to work since there has been more time to get drivers going.

          I wish you the best of luck to going full Linux. I've been on Linux fulltime since about a year before Win7 EOL. Li

      • by Mspangler ( 770054 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @07:01PM (#64963705)

        Apple just stopped support for Monterey so I updated the 2014 Mac Mini I use as a server to Mint 22. It works fine. I wasn't sure the Intel graphics could run Cinnamon, but it does just fine.

        • Most desktops are only really using the graphics card for blitting, alpha, maybe scaling, and possibly mipmapping. Compiz does all of those things, but also has optional 3d effects, and there are multiple 3D Window Managers these days. But Cinnamon is probably only really doing those first four things with the GPU even if you turn every possibly piece of eye candy on. The first three of them have been done by virtually all PC graphics chips/cards since the early nineties.

          • PC graphics in early nineties don't support modern graphics API but use their own proprietary stuff. Think of at least the Windows Vista/7 era hardware for reliable modern GPU-accelerated desktop support.
            • "PC graphics in early nineties don't support modern graphics API but use their own proprietary stuff."

              This is false.

              Windows graphics drivers even in Windows 3.x can accelerate drawing operations like the ones described. The first card I remember doing this was one which was used with the radius pivot display. While they were more popular on Macs (which did not have accelerated graphics onboard until the quadra line, and where the first accelerated NuBus card was the 8â24 GC, note this is different from

        • Good to know! I have a similar Mini at my dads house.

      • by bartle ( 447377 )

        I switched to Linux Mint this year and I'm slowly adapting to it. If your computer has the resources, I recommend using Qemu to run a Windows 11 virtual machine. I set one up with a local account (tricky), installed Microsoft Office, and activated both using Microsoft Activation Scripts. I don't plan to play games on it but it will provide a nice way to access Windows software going forward.

        • by sarren1901 ( 5415506 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @09:00PM (#64963881)

          I use virtual box to run Win11. Installation went well and any time I need it I just spin up the vm. Rarely need to though.

        • If your computer has the resources, I recommend using Qemu to run a Windows 11 virtual machine.

          I haven't tried a Win 11 VM -- just recently upgraded from Mint 21 to 22 and got access to the newer TPM 2.0 emulator. I do have a Win 10 VM and it runs just fine as well as other Linux VMs for experimenting. They all run well. My Mint system is older one I built with a ASRock Z77 Extreme3 (bare from a friend when he upgraded HW) with Intel Core i7-3770, 32 GB RAM and 500 GB Samsung EVO 870 (and two other HDs, one w/ZFS) so the available CPUs under Qemu may still prevent me running Win11 -- or Windows m

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I'm debating if I want to restore mine to its original Windows 8 factory image and keep it as a retro machine, or install Linux on it. It's so old that the Intel 3000 series CPU (2013) only supports a maximum of 4GB of RAM, shared with the GPU. It runs Windows 10 well enough, so I might just keep that on it until I can find a good deal on a more modern laptop.

        For other people needing to upgrade, I recommend a Chromebook if they don't specifically need Windows features. I got one for my mum back in 2018 and

    • I said the same thing with windows 3.1, and installed linux and never looked back... been on ubuntu for about 20 years tho.

      • I used Ubuntu for a long time, until they started down the road of Snap-only packages, so I switched to Mint, which has Snap disabled by default and provides Apt packages for the things Ubuntu only provides via Snap. My alternative was Debian, but wanted something on a faster / more current track w/o having to resort to using Testing or PPAs ...

        • My alternative was Debian, but wanted something on a faster / more current track w/o having to resort to using Testing or PPAs ...

          Just curious - why the aversion to PPAs?

          I'm on Mint for the same reason that you are. That said, I've added one or two Ubuntu repos, and a few PPAs as well. I've never had any problems with compatibility or updates.

          FWIW, I run a few AppImages and Flatpaks, either because they allow me to run multiple versions of the same program or because they're all I can get. I do try to avoid Snaps though, because fuck Ubuntu's attitude.

          • Just curious - why the aversion to PPAs?

            Nothing really. I'd use them if I needed to (and did on Ubuntu 18) but otherwise it's one less thing to think/worry about...

        • by ukoda ( 537183 )
          I switched from Ubuntu to Mint about 10 years ago. It was when they decided the start menu button was too much like Windows and they did a radical UI change to try and be more like Mac. The deal breaker was taking away the minimise option from windows. Apparently the UX experts had decided minimising windows was a sign of a flawed work flow and I had been doing it wrong for years. I tried to change my work flow to the way they suggested, it was so unproductive. I tried a few work arounds before switchi
      • And what have you used those about 10 years between win 3.1 and Ubuntu?

    • I was in the same boat a few years ago when I first set up my home theatre PC (after being frustrated by the limitations of Google TV/Apple TV/Fire TV), the hardware was made of surplus parts that I had took off over the years from my gaming PC when doing hardware upgrades. Apparently the CPU was too old to be supported by win11 so I went Linux. I was already familiar with Ubuntu but I chose PopOs due to Ubuntu not working well with Flatpak. All is been good and I have no complaints.
      • I had a MythTV system on top of Ubuntu for several years until my cable provider switch from analog to all digital *and* set the Cablecard CC bit on almost everything. I wasn't up to experimenting with using a Silicon Dust digital tuner so switch to a TiVo Bolt (based on experiencing a friend's TiVo systems) and have been pretty happy with that.

    • Likely will move to ubuntu next year.

      No idea how much experience you have with Linux; so apologies if this sounds patronising - it's not meant to be.

      I used to be on Ubuntu, but 6 or 7 years ago I switched to Mint and haven't looked back. I like the ecosystem and the attitude a lot more; and for the few things I use that are only available in Ubuntu repos, I simply add that repo and install via Apt.

      If you're moving from Windows to Linux as a daily driver, I recommend at least a bit of both distro shopping and Desktop Environment shopping befor

      • Easier to just run Windows in a vm instead of dual booting. At least that's what I do when I need to use Windows. Thankfully that's rare.

        That's very good advice regarding using the live images to test out difference desktop experiences. I know I prefer Xfce.

        • My only experience with a VM is running Win2K under Mint. Doesn't running something as heavy as Win 10 or 11 in a VM result in a speed reduction?

          I'm also using XFCE. Some of the other DEs have features I like, but Thunar coupled with its Bulk Rename feature is an absolute necessity for me. Bulk Rename can be used with other FMs, but the integration isn't as seamless.

      • I'll take that into consideration, thanks. I use Ubuntu for work, but not for personal use, so my knowledge for that use case is limited. I'll check out Mint. Thanks again.
    • by ukoda ( 537183 )
      For Windows users migrating to Linux, Mint is a good option. Good support, can use Ubuntu software while having a more familiar interface.
  • by haxor.dk ( 463614 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @04:27PM (#64963355)

    No.

    Do not want.

  • Yup, and then I ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @04:30PM (#64963365)

    ... pressed [Ctrl]-[Shift]-[Esc] to pop up Task Manager, right-clicked on the offending process, and selected "End task".

    What's more annoying is that their PC Health Check app says my PC can't be upgraded as it "doesn't currently meet the minimum system requirements to run Windows 11" -- and never will as the CPU is too old and there's no TPM, etc... (It's a Dell XPS 420, and runs Windows 10 fine, btw.) So it' s not like I even could "upgrade" to Windows 11.

    • Iâ(TM)m didnâ(TM)t realize ctrl-shift-esc brought up task manager. Wow! No longer do I have to ctrl-alt-del then select task manager. This Windows 11 upgrade warning at least taught me something new today.
    • Wow, that guy really knows his Windows!
    • What does the new hardware even do that helps security that much?

      Will it have that much of an impact, or is the campaign to upgrade just a scam?

      • What does the new hardware even do that helps security that much?

        Will it have that much of an impact, or is the campaign to upgrade just a scam?

        The TPM supports HW cryptographic services like secure / signed boot loader and OS images and full disk/system encryption ...

        - What Is a TPM, and Why Do I Need One for Windows 11? [pcmag.com]
        - Trusted Platform Module Technology Overview [microsoft.com]
        - Google: windows 11 TPM [google.com]

        More nefariously, it could be used to lock out unsigned boot loaders and OS images or prevent users (owners) from controlling their own HW and/or installing Windows on unsupported systems. From a technical standpoint, it can be useful but also not requir

    • by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Just checking, you really do this? It is not sarcasm? I am often confused by Windows users who tell me they use Windows because it is simpler as they seem to have a different definition of simple from mine, saying things like "You just press [Ctrl]-[Shift]-[Esc] to pop up Task Manager, right-clicked on the offending process, and selected End task".
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's the delivery method that is the issue. Given your computer originally shipped with Vista back in 2007, it's been supported for 18 years and 4 versions of Windows, can't really complain about the support period being too short.

      A discrete notification that Windows 10 support is ending would be fine, that's useful information that many users will not be aware of. The problem is that it's a full screen obnoxious interruption.

  • by abulafia ( 7826 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @04:40PM (#64963389)
    Before two weeks ago, I could say the last time I used MSware was last century.

    But the company that owns us now have decided our big growth phase is over, time to digest us. The first thing was moving us to Outlook.

    The GUI is the same. Which is not a good thing, but whatever, I'm used to terrible UI.

    What is... actually perfectly in line with how I remember Microsoft is getting calendar invites after the meetings happen, my mail mysteriously being delayed for hours in the afternoon, and shit just randomly breaking.

    So yeah. Taking a quarter century off from their shitware was nice. On the bright side, I'll probably get laid off, so I won't have to use it anymore.

    • You forced to use Teams yet? Compared to that, Outlook actually works well :D

      • The "best" part is how they cooperate to enshittify your desktop. Email comes in to Outlook with an appointment. Outlook icon lights up. Now the teams icon does too, due to "activity". Now I accept the appointment and I get a notification about it. Yes, I know it's already past, thanks.

        The other great part is how teams will get stuck and refuse to relog. So then you have to force it to quit and relaunch it... Typical Microsoft quality

        • If that is the worst Teams does to you, you're a happy camper.

          I see teams reorder direct messages, making conversations unintelligible. Also (very rarely, but more than once) Teams changed language orientation and started posting all my messages backwards. A teams restart fixes it.

          • Language orientation is a Windows thing. You fix it with a quick keypress. I think it's something stupid like control and shift at the same time on one side or the other, not firing up my VM to find out rn though

      • by abulafia ( 7826 )
        I'm personally unclear on why they're separate applications in the first place. Yeah, I read that Teams is supposed to be "real time". Which is of course why they wedged a slightly different version of the calendar in there and let it host Excel.

        It is starting to come back to me... the actual reason is going to turn out to be that they did that to kill off some competitor.

    • Outlook and Exchange ... haha ...

      Reminds me when Microsoft insisted to sent salesmen to a big internet company in Germany.
      Around the time when WWW just started.

      They got refused several times. And they kept insisting to get a pitch to sell Exchange to them as a mail server backend.

      So in the end some guys in the company yielded and invited the MS sales men to give a presentation.

      So morning they made their powerpoints, and then lunch break then it continued and went into a Q&A session.

      One of the first ques

  • During my Windows 10 installation a while back, I turned off many of Windows notifications. To date, I've never seen any of these pop-ups.
    • by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Don't worry, they will get around to you. They will probably push a security update to reset your notifications since having them off is a security risk because you will not see the full screen Windows 11 update message.
  • so it's just warming people up.

    • planned obsolescence... degrade the user experience until it frustrates and demoralizes the user into throwing the machine away and/or buying a new one/upgrading to windows 11.

      • by kenh ( 9056 )

        Win 10 has a defined life span, just like MacOS, iOS, etc. - Windows OSes lifespan's are similar to Apple's.

        If you have a retail version of Windows 7, 8/8.1, or 10 you can use the product key to install Win 11 on your new, Win 11 compatible hardware.

        This doesn't really seem like the big money grab Linux users want to claim this is... Windows 10 was released 9 years ago, it goes end-of-life shortly after it's ten-year anniversary of July 29th, 2015.

        • There is no lifespan.
          There are endpoints of upgrades.

          Which might be difficult on an iOS device if you have to import new SSL certificates, but on MacOS, you just do that with openssl.

          The OSes run forever.

        • If you have a retail version of Windows 7, 8/8.1, or 10 you can use the product key to install Win 11 on your new, Win 11 compatible hardware.

          This no longer works for old keys: https://www.thurrott.com/windows/290832/you-can-no-longer-use-windows-7-8-keys-to-activate-windows-11 [thurrott.com]

          However I recently found that I could move my Win10 physical machine into a VM by imaging the whole disk into a qcow2 file, and then setting up a VM for it. As expected this invalidated the key due to the change, but surprisingly I was able to reactivate it when it asked "was there a hardware change?" Answered yes, and then it was OK. Technically it is on the same machi

        • by ukoda ( 537183 )
          So ads on the login screen are their for entertainment value, education or something else, but not a money grab?
  • by RyoShin ( 610051 ) <tukaro AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday November 21, 2024 @05:18PM (#64963471) Homepage Journal

    users to purchase new computers ahead of Windows 10's end-of-support date

    Tell ya what, Microsoft: You buy me a brand new, at-least-mid-tier gaming rig and I'll let it run Windows 11 for at least a year.

    My PC is from 2016, I only last year moved from Win7 to Win10, so that's the only way I would possibly deal with Win11 myself anytime in the near future. Honestly, at this point a given Windows OS only becomes usable once it's nearly deprecated...

  • If you can change then switch to Linux, or Zeus help you, Apple. I refused to use a version of Windows past 7 which forced me to look for alternatives. Linux is not exactly user friendly but it damn well beats the shit offered by Microsoft. If you don't think your techie enough for Linux then switch to Apple if you can afford it. Anything is better than Windows. Send a message.

    • by narcc ( 412956 )

      You're recommending people switch to Apple, because Microsoft is bad? If Microsoft pulled half of the shit Apple does, 1998 would have been the year of the Linux desktop!

  • Microsoft has generated an exorbitant amount of animosity from its users recently.

    They're not listening to user feedback, and they don't care. They want you to use Windows 11 and they want you to use their AI feature bullshit, just like any other streaming service, Windows is now an app.

    Their motto should be "all your data are belong to us".

    I use Windows 11 at work, and it's fine, but it's not an out-of-the-box experience, It's been heavily tailored by our IT department to be less consumer and more en
    • by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Not sure about the Devious Malcontent bit, if you support friends using Windows then masochist sounds closer to the mark. Last time I used Windows was back in the XP era. If some asks me to help with their Windows PC I tell them truefully I don't know how to support Windows, but if they want help installing Linux then bring the PC over and I will sort it out for you.
    • by narcc ( 412956 )

      They're not listening to user feedback

      Translation: "They're not listening to my specific complaints. I've only posted them on Slashdot, but surely my opinions are shared by the majority."

  • >"deploying full-screen ads urging users to purchase new computers"

    Isn't that just so helpful! As if the user has NO other option but to buy an entire new computer so it can meet the *COMPLETELY ARTIFICIAL* requirements to run MS-Windows 11 so you can then be subjected to even MORE abuse.

    Go download and install something like Linux Mint and BE DONE WITH THE INSANITY. $0. No more nagging. No more "Ads". No more spyware. No more being harassed. No more antivirus making your system crawl. No more fo

    • The problem for a lot of us is that work requires Windows. For that reason, and that reason alone, I have Windows 10 on one computer. When I retire completely, I'm going to have an "F Microsoft" party and joyfully scrub it off that box forever. I'm sure there's no shortage of people in my position.

      But I think there's a bigger change coming. Purely anecdotal, but based on office chat I hear, a lot of small businesses don't see any advantage to chucking out 20 or 30 perfectly adequate computers and spendi

  • Slap them round the face with a wet fish!
  • by ledow ( 319597 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @06:46PM (#64963677) Homepage

    When they said that Windows 10 was going to be the last major version of Windows, I didn't think they meant they were going to fuck up everything after it.

  • I upgraded my last W10 desktop to Linux last month. What a relief!

    • by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Good stuff, now you can relax. Buy some popcorn and sit back and watch what happens next in the Micro$oft world.
  • It's not well known but any computer with a TPM 1.2 can be upgraded to windows 11 without fuss. If it add ram most computers can run windows 11 just fine. I have a 10 test old machine I just upgraded. All using official MS instructions.

    See https://support.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com]

  • by FlipperPA ( 456193 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @07:04PM (#64963715) Homepage
    When Windows 11 claims your computer isn't advanced enough to run Windows 11, MSFT is flat-out lying. Here's how to get around it:

    The Autounattend.xml drive does several things:

    • (1) It bypasses checks for TPM 2.0, SecureBoot, RAM, CPU, and Storage;
    • (2) It disables the "requirement" to log in with a Microsoft account, and creates a local account called "admin" with no password;
    • (3) It sets to en-us, hides the EULA page, the registration screen, online account nonsense, and more.

    The only question screen it will prompt you for during installation is where to install, and allow you to use the disk manager. Don't let M$FT scrap heap your perfectly capable PC.

    After the installation, you'll have an admin account and can do what you wish. I'd recommend also:

  • Microsoft would have to a) upgrade my hardware, b) pay me to put up with their advising bs, And it wouldn't be cheap! 10,000 per advert they force upon me. And 10,000 per byte of data Microsoft scrapes from me.
  • by Computershack ( 1143409 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @08:46PM (#64963859)
    Governments should force Microsoft to pay for the cost of disposing and recycling the millions of perfectly good usable computers that will be rendered obsolete by not being allowed to upgrade to Windows 11 for what is a bullshit excuse.
    • That most likely will happen in the EU soon.

      Because: many government agencies run windows computers. But perhaps new enough that this behaviour does not hit them.

    • This + 10.

      I'd also make it that every time a hardware device is forcibly made obsolete by lack of drivers the manufacture should become liable for the full cost of recycling the hardware. Either that or they have to completely open source the existing driver software and publish *full and complete* specifications of the hardware and the protocols used to communicate with it.

      The same should be true of software. If a manufacturer drops support then they should be forced to make the software open source. Si

  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Thursday November 21, 2024 @09:21PM (#64963915)

    An OS has to _work_ and stay in the background. It has to be as non-intrusive as possible.

    • Where have you been for the past 10 years?

      Everything is about engagement, making users click your UI in some way.
      I work on AV solutions, we too partially measure success by how much users interact with our UI.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Where have you been for the past 10 years?

        Everything is about engagement, making users click your UI in some way.
        I work on AV solutions, we too partially measure success by how much users interact with our UI.

        So you are all about wasting user time? Great accomplishment!

      • "Everything is about engagement, making users click your UI in some way." What you call eNgAgEmEnT I call busywork and wasting the user's time at best, but feeding someone's addiction for more eNgAgEmEnT is usually the goal . Google and Quora are notibly big offenders in this regard. I want to get stuff done as easy as possible and as fast as possible. And I don't want my searches to be filled with irrelevant and unwanted shit that is put there to keep me "eNgAgEd". These crack whor...sorry, companies ar
  • Would 9/11/2025 not be a better cut off date?

    I bought a Windows laptop last October. A Pain.

    Next days, when I have time I flatten it and put Linux on it.

    Any suggestion about a distro? I consider Mint. But I have no preferences.

    • How geeky do you want to be? If computing on the bleeding edge with software that may be Not Quite Ready for Prime Time sounds good, try Fedora. Personally, I like Xfce because it gets out of your way and lets you set your desktop up the way you like rather than the way the devs think is the One True Way along with Compiz because I like the eye candy, but that's me; it's your computer, so set it up the way you like.
  • I tried Linux Mint in this Dell XPS laptop a year ago, and its sound chip was not supported yet. But the current version of Mint has a much newer kernel, and sound works fine. My only problem is that Firefox treats trackpad scrolling like mouse wheel scrolling, so it's chunky, but that's apparently Firefox's fault for not keeping up with whatever UI support Linux has now for scrolling.

    The first time I nuked Windows 11, but was able to get Windows 10 installed, which was less annoying. This time I added a s

  • How about a Sweepstakes on what is next for Windows?

    How about the YouTube business model. Force users to watch an advert video before a program they launch actually runs. Follow up to a 'pro' version for an extra monthly subscription fee which features less ads.
  • When my biz ancient Deb 12 laptop died -- and, interestingly, took its SSD with it -- I had a Win 10 machine I used for scanning around and used it. 11? Not with all I'm hearing, so I'll probably do the modern "you are not on the machine you are supposed to be" dance with the biz sites. My own fault but worth it. Scanning? Got Vuescan v6 years ago but wanted a driver, not to read a literal book of features to use it effectively. Dug out my registration and updated to 9 the other day and I think after nearly

  • they're free to buy me a new PC to run it.

Hackers are just a migratory lifeform with a tropism for computers.

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