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Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Would Really Like You To Stop Using Windows 10 This Year (theverge.com) 159

Microsoft is pushing users to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 ahead of the operating system's end of support in October 2025. The company's consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi declared 2025 "the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh," positioning PC upgrades as more crucial than TV or phone purchases. The Verge adds: Mehdi believes that "Windows 11 is available at a time when the world needs it most" and that "the forefront of AI innovation will be realized on Windows."

Microsoft Would Really Like You To Stop Using Windows 10 This Year

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  • by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @12:28PM (#65066919) Journal
    Users don't want to throw away perfectly functional hardware at Microsoft's whim.
    • AI (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bagofbeans ( 567926 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @12:40PM (#65066991)

      "the forefront of AI innovation will be realized on Windows."

      Translation:

      "the forefront of AI training on user data will be realized on Windows."

    • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @12:46PM (#65067023)

      Users don't want to throw away perfectly functional hardware at Microsoft's whim.

      Agreed. And since my system is running windows 10 just fine, it could probably (officially) run Windows 11 just fine, except for the hardware requirements Microsoft has arbitrarily imposed. I imagine they could simply utilize features of newer CPUs and the presence of a TPM and disable Windows "features" that require them *technically* to function -- not just because MS wants more control over our PCs. Most annoying currently is the nagging to upgrade when their own compatibility tool says my system "isn't ready" for Windows 11. Spoiler: It won't ever be ready; the CPU is too old and I can't add a TPM chip.

      I'll be migrating to using my Linux Mint 22 (Cinnamon) system (w/hardware also too old for Windows 11) full time at some point. I'd have done it already except (a) still looking for replacements for AxCrypt 1.7 and MS Publisher 2010 and (b) I've been lazy.

      • OpenSuse for me, although from what I've heard Mint is fine too. I would like to express my appreciation to Microsoft for giving me the final push I needed to make the change.

      • by Moryath ( 553296 )

        Most annoying currently is the nagging to upgrade when their own compatibility tool says my system "isn't ready" for Windows 11. Spoiler: It won't ever be ready; the CPU is too old and I can't add a TPM chip.

        Precisely this. Someone who spent decent money to buy or build a higher-end rig (not even "top of the line," just an i7 of 4th or 5th generation with 16+ GB of RAM and a good SSD) 10 years ago is still sitting on a reasonably midrange rig today.

        The requirements of the TPM chip are equally pissy sin

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Train0987 ( 1059246 )

          The TPM requirement is Microsoft throwing a bone to OEM's to drive new PC sales since they've been slowing down for so many years.

          • by AvitarX ( 172628 )

            Funny how when they're not taking a user focused approach to features users aren't so excited to upgrade.

        • The most annoying part of this is that Microsoft KNEW a lot of computers were out there in the channels being sold without TPM and without upgrade capability, even if they had "supported" processors.

          There is history of Microsoft purposely rendering perfectly functioning equipment useless with a new OS.

          I once was involved with an upgrade to Windows Vista. I had specced out a system running XP, but there was an asshole "Friend of Microsoft who told the folks I was working for that I was full of shit, and that he could get them a really cheap and really awesome system with Vista basic laptops. I told them that was going to be a disaster. But the friend of Microsoft insisted he had the solution in han

      • by dmbrun ( 907271 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @04:10PM (#65067795)
        Publisher replacements. Look at:
        Scribus https://www.scribus.net/ [scribus.net] Free. Can import Publisher files.
        Affinity Publisher https://affinity.serif.com/en-... [serif.com] Proprietary. Can not import Publisher files. You'd have to either save the MS Publisher files as PDF and import them that way or use LIbre Office to import them and then save as docx files and those you can import.
        • Thanks! Scribus is already on my list to check out. LibreOffice Draw can import/open Publisher files, but the document structure is very different and Draw doesn't have as nice/intuitive paper-handling as Publisher, but perhaps I just need to work with more...
      • I imagine they could simply utilize features of newer CPUs and the presence of a TPM and disable Windows "features" that require them *technically* to function -- not just because MS wants more control over our PCs.

        You mean like core security features, system disk encryption, and passkeys, all of which are advertised features of Windows? Better idea: Consider your decade all unsupported system what it is: unsupported for the modern era. Look congrats to you for keeping all hardware running, but no one owes you the ability to run a modern OS. Someone may gift you that support (like the open source community) but the decision wasn't arbitrary. Every other mobile and desktop OS already made this shift.

        • You mean like core security features, system disk encryption, and passkeys, all of which are advertised features of Windows?

          I hear you, but I (and probably many other people) don't need those things -- and those things aren't really "core" to OS functionality and can probably be disabled without disabling the OS. Windows 11 seems full of things people don't actually want or need. As far as Windows 11 being a "modern OS" Linux doesn't require those things (yet still offers them as options) and it probably ranks as pretty modern... Microsoft is free to make whatever requirements it wants for its products, and I (and others) ar

    • by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      Microsoft want you to be depending on the Entra login so they can cut off the access to your computer at their will.

    • by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @02:02PM (#65067359)

      Yeah - there are plenty of Intel CPU's pre-8th gen that are still PLENTY fast enough for current use but Microsoft won't let you upgrade without jumping through hoops.

      If they drop the TPM requirement, I'm sure plenty of people would upgrade.

      • It's odd because I don't think Microsoft makes money from the TPM requirement. _except that it makes it much harder to run an alternative OS. TPM, if trusted, and not controlled by Microsoft, is a good idea. It's more than just locking in an OS, it's a trusted key store that is not controlled by the OS manufacturer. However that shouldn't prevent an OS company from stepping back and dropping a large market segment. Make use of the TPM if the machine has one, but don't make yourself as the OS maker from be

    • Likewise, Microsoft is under no obligation to continue supporting obsolete revisions of their software for a small subset of their users' whims.

      Users are free to migrate to Ubuntu or other alternative OSs to ensure they don't run the risk of being stuck on an unpatched, insecure version of Windows.

  • As it is currently, I only use my windows 10 bootup to play games, and do personal/social media stuff on. I do all my real work and "computer usage" on a Linux distro. The surface area for getting exploited is fairly small given what I'm using windows for, no good reason to switch until I absolutely have to, and even then it is likely to be at least a generation past windows 11 and timed when I eventually do age off my hardware.
    • by drnb ( 2434720 )
      Well the small surface area for exploits argument certainly gets undermined when you no longer receive patches.

      It's not like Win11 will cost you anything, it's a free upgrade. Assuming of course the CPU and motherboard are "new" enough to run Win11. I have a perfectly usable ten your old PC that has had RAM upgraded to 32GB and GPU upgrade to 4060 TI. The old Gen 6 i7 runs like a Gen 11 i5. It's a fine machine but it can't run Win 11. Some time this summer I'll build a new system, Gen 14 not ultra, move
      • Well the small surface area for exploits argument certainly gets undermined when you no longer receive patches. It's not like Win11 will cost you anything, it's a free upgrade. Assuming of course the CPU and motherboard are "new" enough to run Win11. I have a perfectly usable ten your old PC that has had RAM upgraded to 32GB and GPU upgrade to 4060 TI. The old Gen 6 i7 runs like a Gen 11 i5. It's a fine machine but it can't run Win 11. Some time this summer I'll build a new system, Gen 14 not ultra, move the 4060 Ti to this new system and put the 1060 back in the old I7. It'll do Win10 testing. It also dual boots Debian.

        And there will be a Windows 11 apocolypse in a few years. One might get the impression that their OS is inherently non-secure.

  • "Pretty please with sugar on top, upgrade to Windows 11... which requires some shady encryption hardware for no reason that actually benefits you."

    • SecureBoot etc has no value for anyone except the 0.000001% at genuine risk of an EvilMaid attack.

    • The same encryption is in Windows 10.

      Other than Windows Recall, which is a nightmare for system administrators and IT people, and perhaps bonanza for hackers, there isn't anything in W11 that is really better than W10. In fact, there are "reverse features" like Recall which make it unattractive to move to.

  • Happy Year! (Score:4, Funny)

    by eyepeepackets ( 33477 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @12:36PM (#65066955)

    Microsoft forcing the Year of the Linux Desktop; who ever would have guessed?

    • Good news, Microsoft, I already don't use Windows 10!

      I never did!

    • by drnb ( 2434720 )

      Microsoft forcing the Year of the Linux Desktop; who ever would have guessed?

      Microsoft already delivered the Year of the Linux Desktop, unexpectedly it was the year of the Linux Desktop on the Windows Desktop via WSL2.

    • Microsoft forcing the Year of the Linux Desktop; who ever would have guessed?

      Hardly. If anything we've just gone back to 2012. Remember back before Windows 10 came out? Literally every other Windows was usually procured with a hardware upgrade and not a software upgrade. No one will move to Linux because of this. People will either not care about the security implications or will upgrade hardware because people aren't altruistic enough to care about e-waste and everyone's 8 year old+ PCs are starting to give them minor issues (especially if they are laptops or owned by kids).

  • by jmccue ( 834797 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @12:38PM (#65066967) Homepage
    Finally M/S said something I can agree with. I stopped using Windows in the 3.1 era when I went to Linux. So I complied early. Microsoft must be proud of me!
    • by drnb ( 2434720 )

      Finally M/S said something I can agree with. I stopped using Windows in the 3.1 era when I went to Linux. So I complied early. Microsoft must be proud of me!

      Well hello fellow Yggdrasil Plug and Play Linux user. Or did you go through the hell of a Slackware installation where you had to enter in operating frequencies for your monitor and other silliness? :-)

      • Oh Ya! Thanks for reminding me about the monitor frequencies. I took almost a week to configure my Slackware installation from Yggdrasil, it was fun though. I learned a whole bunch of stuff. I was a student back then and had a lot of time to spare.

        • by drnb ( 2434720 )

          Oh Ya! Thanks for reminding me about the monitor frequencies. I took almost a week to configure my Slackware installation from Yggdrasil, it was fun though. I learned a whole bunch of stuff. I was a student back then and had a lot of time to spare.

          Yggdrasil and Slackware were two different Linux distros. Slackware had the monitor frequency fun. Yggdrasil was plug and play, for real. It was my first Linux distro by pure luck. I installed it on my 486DX2-66, it configured video automatically (ATI Mach64), sound automatically (SoundBlaster 16), networking automatically (some popular 3com card ?), etc. No questions, it installed as easy as Windows. It really was plug and play. It helped that I had picked all the components in this BYO box carefully so ev

          • Linux was severely handicapped by this delay and the notion that Linux is only for the technically inclined was well established as a result.

            To be fair, that was true at the time and for a while after. The big problem was the number of people who assumed that it would be like that forever and are still pointing to distros like Gentoo as proof, and ignoring the fact that they're the exceptions now, rather than the rule.
      • by jmccue ( 834797 )

        I had no CD Drive, so I went the Slackware route. But I did get a monitor smoking when I first tried my calculations. I quickly pulled the plug, luckily the monitor survived for many more years.

        FWIW, still on Slackware :)

        • by drnb ( 2434720 )

          I had no CD Drive, so I went the Slackware route. But I did get a monitor smoking when I first tried my calculations. I quickly pulled the plug, luckily the monitor survived for many more years.

          I was lucky. I kept the manual that came with my monitor and the data was in there.

        • hehe I smoked a couple of monitors myself back then while looking for the XFreed86 magic combinations. Linux users today are spoiled, all of the smoke-generating actvities are now done automagically..

  • Just tell them I've stopped using Windows at Windows 95. Let them mind their business.

    (being slightly less rude: I had to work in Windows machines recently, and I found out the WSL enviromment is completely usable, so, safe for some UI quirks(*), they are doing a good job)

    (*) Among which the "black windows with black borders" theme for _some_ apps, which makes it a PITA each time you have one window on top of other - how that ever became the default for anything???

    • I dumped Windows in 2019. Linux turned to be no more user hostile than Windows.

      Sure Linux has amazing cryptic text commands, but Windows has The Registry.

  • Please sign up to an online account to sign in to your computer locally. Oh god please do it. We don't know how to not online anymore. And get a subscription while you're at it. Please oh god yes. The subscription. We need a subscription. We're not satisfied making dozens of billions of dollars selling software. We need to make hundreds of millions on subscriptions. We went all in on cloud and you must do it to.

    • by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @01:01PM (#65067123) Journal

      Don't forget: and since you logged in with an online account, we're going to silently and without any notice start shoving all your data into OneDrive. And then when you have the audacity to dual boot your system and mount the NTFS disk looking for your data, it's not there, instead only showing you .lnk files to where it should be and isn't.

      Not that I had to deal with that this weekend so it's fresh in my mind. Fuck Microsoft.

      • THIS^^^

        Just spent an evening with Windows 11 and a new laptop getting rid of ads, nagware, "helpful suggestions" and then wondering why I Windows 10 is going away.

        The under the hood improvements are probably good but the price to pay in time and figuring out how to stop it from "helping" isn't.

        • by HiThere ( 15173 )

          Why do you assume "The under the hood improvements are probably good"? If you can't see it, I don't think there's any reason to assume that it benefits you. (Yeah, sometimes it does. But I see no reason to assume that.)

  • I'm trying to look at the bright side. With Win11 requiring "newer" CPUs, perhaps it will be safe to use AVX/AVX2 instructions.

    I've sadly seen AVX code run about eight times (yes, 8x not 8%) slower than SSE code on older CPUs that have AVX2 support. It runs correctly but if its not faster that kind of defeats the purpose.

    The nerdy details, Intel gen 4 drastically slows down running AVX at times, 8x in one case. Gen 6, 8, 11 AVX is faster than SSE, as expected.

    Apologies for mentioning something tech
  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @12:43PM (#65067005)

    But are we going to get our respective wishes? Not likely.

    • > But are we going to get our respective wishes? Not likely.

      "You could do that. And I could nail your head to the table, set fire to it, and feed your charred remains to the Pak'ma'ra.
      But it's an imperfect world and we never get exactly what we want. So get used to it."

      -- Babylon 5

    • by Archtech ( 159117 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @01:06PM (#65067137)

      Steam works on Linux.

      I find electricity more convenient.

      • by Z80a ( 971949 )

        It's fine, you just have to tweak some valves to get it to work fast enough to be useful but not so fast everything gets wet

  • by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @12:44PM (#65067017)
    My current PC hardware has all the capabilities I need. Why should I have to buy new PC hardware just to enrich Microsoft's bottom line?
    • Because this is how vendor lock-in works. They get you invested in their platform and then lean heavily into the sunk cost fallacy in order to get you to do what they want you to do, in order to avoid losing your other investments in that platform.

      Also known as: Oracle's entire business model with Java.

  • ...some time in the future.
    Today's AI is just crap generators and it appears to be getting worse.
    I predict that AI will eventually become useful, but we will need to suffer through a tsunami of crap first.

    • by leonbev ( 111395 )

      The weird thing about that statement is that Microsoft already back-ported most of their integrated Copilot AI assistant crap into Windows 10.

      If they really wanted AI to be a real selling point for Windows 11, why in the hell did they do that?

  • Assuming ~50% of computers will still be running Windows 10 in October, that's a fat juicy target for North Korea. Microsoft should be charged with gross negligence. Again, the penguin isn't happening, it didn't happen with Vista, it didn't happen with Windows 8, and it won't happen with Windows 10. Forcing Microsoft to clean up after themselves is the only way.
    • by drnb ( 2434720 )

      Assuming ~50% of computers will still be running Windows 10 in October, that's a fat juicy target for North Korea. Microsoft should be charged with gross negligence.

      Nah, there will be a surprise September announcement and release. Windows 11 Multimedia Edition,. :-)

  • but not gonna go to 11.

  • I'd love to upgrade my secondary PC to Windows 11. Except it doesn't support TPM and has a 4th-gen Intel CPU, both of which disqualify it from running Windows 11. It works perfectly fine for what I use it for. Maybe chromeOS will be an option.

  • by NoOnesMessiah ( 442788 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @12:59PM (#65067113)

    Windows 11 is no longer a stand-alone operating system, Windows 11 is an advertising platform that's still stuck with the Windows NT kernel, network stack fiddledybits liberally borrowed from BSD (while giving absolutely nothing back in return), and a bunch of user space garbage they keep changing to try to convince you it's "NEW!". (Which is a deception at best, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic for most, and outright lies, damned lies, and forced upgrades at worst.) And the TPM2.0 ruse is complete corporate garbage. -- Remember that there are many OS alternatives out there in the Linux space (Ubuntu Cinnamon or Mint, anyone?) and in the FreeBSD space. Oh yeah, and Apple's Macintosh if you're made of money, which is really a fork of FreeBSD 5 way back in the day, now heavily modified and frankenstein-ed to be its own closed-source beastie again. Learn more than "just" MS Windows in your life.

  • by Sarusa ( 104047 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @01:08PM (#65067149)

    Win11 was fine when it came out, just WIn10 with some new lipstick. Ugly lipstick, but it worked.

    Since then they have been relentlessly enshittifying it with their AI crap and randomly breaking major other things because all they care about is LLM. I am up to half a page of instructions (in Notepad++, so lines are compact!) to deshittify new WIn11 installs or major updates.

    Of course you can gpedit some of these, but then MS does an end-run around you and turns the shit back on because they need to justify dumping tens of billions of dollars into 'AI' that nobody wants.

    • by davidwr ( 791652 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @02:12PM (#65067403) Homepage Journal

      I am up to half a page of instructions (in Notepad++, so lines are compact!) to deshittify new WIn11 installs or major updates.

      Please post the most useful-to-the-masses parts of your deshittifying instructions.

      • by HiThere ( 15173 )

        Here's my shortlist:
        switch to Linux or Apple.

        (Well, it's been a couple of decades since I used Apple, but judging by the news they seem a better choice than MS.)

      • by Sarusa ( 104047 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @04:48PM (#65067937)

        I've considered turning this into a powershell script, but have not yet since MS keeps enshittifying and I'm lazy, but here you go, the most critical bits. It's not pretty, but things run WAY better after doing this. Obviously you need an administrator command line shell for the first bits.

        - Remove OneDrive and Teams, other useless poop. If you need teams or onedrive, just delete that item:
                winget uninstall microsoft.onedrive uninstall microsoft.teams.free "widgets platform runtime" "windows web experience pack"
        - Get rid of Recall and extra search/advertising crap:
                Dism /online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"Recall"
                Dism /online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package"
        - OneDrive backstop (for the next time MS reinstalls it): gpedit.msc Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - OneDrive - Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage - Enable
        - Copilot: gpedit.msc User configuration > Administrative templates > Windows components > Windows Copilot - Disable Copilot - Enable (yes, Enable to disable)
        - Widgets backstop (for the next time MS reinstalls it): gpedit.msc Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Widgets -> Allow Widgets -> Disabled
        - Services:
                - Windows Search: Disabled
                - Connected Devices Platform Services: Disabled
                - Connected User Experiences: Disabled

  • Microsoft has spent every year since 1993 making sure all their OSs are backward compatible (so all malware can make use of old bugs) while adding "new requirements" to make today's PCs 10x faster with 32x memory and SSDs of 100x capacity... for ZERO appreciable gain.

    They "Would really like" something? So do I. When they "obey" my "likes" I'll consider theirs.

    Hats off to the good people out there. That's not Microsoft.

  • WTF? Isn't this the same company who, a few years ago, told people they should use Windows?
  • Zorin, PopOS, or Mint are all good alternatives to those that want to explore the world of Linux. These are the easiest to use for those transitioning to Linux for the first time in my opinion. Give it a try. All three offer a method to boot your PC from a thumb drive to take them for a test run without affecting your current Windows 10 installation. The only way to avoid this Microsoft nonsense is to leave and never look back. Hell, I even have PopOS running on my Raspberry Pi 400 and it's far superior to

  • My last active Windows Installation is my Gaming PC. Once Windows 10 goes, I will switch to SteamOS. I took one look at the roadkill that the cat dragged in (aka Win 11) and decided, I will never use that. Microsoft has made so many customer hostile decisions. Worst is that they try to ram AI down everyones throat.

  • I went from Windows 7 directly to Linux Mint. Didn't make a detour to Windows 10.

    Good enough for you?

  • by zuckie13 ( 1334005 ) on Monday January 06, 2025 @01:50PM (#65067311)

    Do we need to post multiple stories a day about this? I think everyone on this site knows the deadline, and knows what they are doing (change to Linux, or wait as long as possible to upgrade if not).

    Just stick a mega-thread somewhere and let people post their favorite links in it or something - jeez.

  • MS has been the only real mainstream option for gaming since '95. Valve is about to shake that up big time, and Redmond seems to have no idea it's even coming.

    There's a shitload of Windows users who will go Valve over Windows as soon as they have a chance. MS is both pushing people away from their OS software, and telling people they need new hardware. Both of these actions are like a big glowing arrow pointing to SteamOS for a not insignificant portion of the PC market.

    Valve as a private company with an ac

  • That the enshitification of MS Windows will push more users to Linux
  • Will M$ pay for 5o% or 75% of the cost for hardware that will run 11? And are they sure that it will also run Windows 12?

    Linux still runs on *everything*.

  • There are a lot of machines that don't meet Windows 11s TPM 2.0 requirement. Since it's not something a user can typically upgrade, Windows 10 is going to be around a very long time.
    • by xack ( 5304745 )
      It's basically redefining the "baseline" of "pc compatible". Just like the 386 eventually made all the 16 bit PCs obsolete when OS/2 and NT were released, Microsoft is trying to get rid of all the old driver base for older hardware. It's very painful for those with old PCs, but it if Microsoft had extended the transition period for another 5 years, TPM would be not seen as a big deal as the big majority would of had it by then. Microsoft should take responsibility for the fallout though, and I will keep the
  • Make my USB work? Seriously, no improvements in decades, I can't even handle the stupidity of defaults on file manager, default saves all over the place depending on the program and often making the wrong choice. What good is an OS when most work is online anyway?
  • This will be easy for me to pull off, for I never used it in the first place.
  • Microsoft, can you please cut it out with all the crapware you've added to Windows? NOBODY WANTS YOUR FUCKING ADVERTISEMENTS. In fact, an Operating system will ideally fade away into the background instead of being a host service for providing advertising content. We're even willing to PAY for the operating system - just stop using Search Engines as a method to further profit from users.

  • I finally bit the bullet, enabled my TPM module, and told it to upgrade.

    Now if they would only tell me why it downloads, goes through the upgrade process, and then removes it. It actually says on the screen that it's removing it . Yet all I get is a useless error code that basically says 'something is wrong .. you need to figure it out on your own because we are too lazy to provide a text file somewhere that explains why'.
  • This would be a great time for Windows sufferers to step up to macOS.. I've seen Windows 11,, and the key differences from 10 is that it costs more and capriciously deletes and rearranges entire folders of files whenever it feels like messing with the users.

  • What does the world need Windows 11 for? Seriously? Windows 11 provides no additional value, it's an empty proposition. In the best case, you get a broken desktop, that's leggy, glitchy, lacks consistent theming and is a pain to use, and in the worst case, it's actually unusable.

    85%+ of the computing environments on earth are Unix or Unix like operating systems. Microsoft had to build a Linux VM into Windows because Windows lacks so much functionality, it required a professional OS VM. Seriously, wha

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