We are about 18 months away from the end of mainstream Windows 10 support, but Microsoft thinks it is time to start
Taras Buria at Neowinnaggingwarning Windows 10 users about the inevitable. Users on Reddit report spotting a new full-screen ad with a notification that Windows 10 is about to reach its end of life in October 2025, even though it is still getting new features (there are even rumors about Microsoft re-opening the Windows Insider Program for Windows 10).
I mean, I have a long history of crying foul over Windows being adware now, but I don’t think warning users that their operating system is losing support and that they should upgrade to a new version really constitutes an ad. Sure, technically it does, but I think we can all agree that such a warning is useful and informative.
On the bright side, a lot of workstations with 1st and 2nd gen Threadripper, as well as Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge Xeon, will be on the used market soon for cheap.
I hadn’t even thought of that. My current workstation is a dual-Xeon machine built from one of those Chinese dual X99 boards, and this might open up an upgrade path to something like Threadripper in a few years.
I don’t even remotely need dual-Xeon or Threadripper for my work (translating at first, now just OSAlert), but fuck me if it isn’t cool.
I expect ( and am hoping for ) this as well.
That said, it may well become pretty popular to patch Windows 11 to run on machines it is not supposed to run on. At this point at least, I really is still Windows 10 under the hood. Certainly the real resource requirements have not changed appreciably. The hardware compatability is more Product Management than Engineering.
I have a degree of sympathy for this.
Microsoft have to use every trick in the book to avoid a repeat of the XP “upgrade” with people running an unpatched, out of support OS. They were forced multiple times to extend support and spend money (for no gain) patching security vulnerabilities. Even offering free upgrade licences. It was an expensive expirience they don’t want to happen again
It was truly amazing how long Windows XP held on. And it was not just because there were no viable options afterwards. Windows 7 was perfectly fine even if you did not like Vista, 8, or 8.1.
They really have created a bit of an XP problem for themselves here though as you are not necessarily able to upgrade the OS on the hardware you have. That was much of the problem with Windows XP. One thing they have done right this time is that everybody is at least on Windows 10 ( for the most part ). Windows 7 is down to 3% and Windows 8 has less market share now than Windows XP still has. In retrospect, they should maybe have made the TPM 2.0 requirement just for new installs while allowing upgrades from 10 to 11 without it. That would have allowed them to move everybody off 10 much more quickly and easily without really impacting the timeline around mainstream TMP 2.0 transition that much.
TPM 2 isn’t going away as the “zero trust” philosophy of not even trusting the hardware it’s running on has become a thing. Last time I mentioned attacks directly on the motherboard were a thing here, it seemed everyone here reacted with denial, but it’s very real.
https://socradar.io/enter-the-blacklotus-analysis-of-the-latest-uefi-bootkit/
https://www.techradar.com/news/millions-of-android-phones-are-shipping-with-malware-already-installed
It’s only going to get worse as more hardware based protections become necessary.
dark2,
To the extent that you are worried about somebody modifying your computer’s firmware, you need to be aware that TPM2 is often implemented by the very same firmware. The attacker would implicitly have access to both under your scenario.
https://www.technewstoday.com/how-to-enable-tpm-2-0-in-bios/
outside of older hardware not able to run Windows 11 out of the box, why are people so afraid of new things? You can make Windows 11 look and feel like Windows 10.
Also if your hardware can’t run windows 11, it might be time to upgrade anyways, since your PC would be kind of old. Do we expect PCs from the 90s to be able to run the latest Windows?
supergear,
That’s a straw man argument though, not a single person here has said or expects new versions of windows to run on 32bit hardware from the 90s. The computers in question technically run the latest versions of windows just fine. The criticism is over hardware requirements being imposed artificially for business reasons like new sales rather than technical ones.
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsofts-draconian-windows-11-restrictions-will-send-an-estimated-240-million-pcs-to-the-landfill-when-windows-10-hits-end-of-life-in-2025
I can understand they also need to earn money and support for older hardware has a cost. But this whole thing is forcing customers to buy new hardware, even though it is still currently running just fine under W10. So this phase-out is not exactly good from a sustainability perspective.
Of the 5 laptops of our family, only 2 can run W11. I don’t like being forced into buying 3 new laptops just because the OS vendor ends the support for the hardware.
If Microsoft would start charging a reasonable amount (10-20 bucks/year), I might subscribe to that.