Gentle reminder to everyone that support for #windows10 ends in about 90 weeks. Many computers can’t upgrade to Win 11 so here are your options:
- Continue on Win 10 but with higher security risks.
- Buy new and expensive hardware that supports Win11.
- Try a beginner friendly #Linux distro like #linuxmint. It only takes about two months to acclimate.
I know people like to hate on windows here but come on: 90 weeks is another ~18 months. It’s near the end of 2025.
While absolutely true, what you’re saying, saying 90 weeks instead of any alternative (630 days!) Is just trying to make it sounds worse than it is to push an agenda.
You’re leaving out the context that the time limit should be way longer given how long previous versions of Windows have been supported. Ending Windows 10 support when they are is a deliberate effort to force adoption of Windows 11 and avoid the embarrassment of Windows 8’s failure. They learned it’s better to scare users into compliance than to actually attract them with well developed, feature rich software. The hardware requirements just make it more egregious.
Stop giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, they have demonstrated more than enough times they don’t deserve it. This is them strong arming users into doing something they don’t want to do, and it should be rightfully called out for what it is: removedty.
the time limit should be way longer given how long previous versions of Windows have been supported.
What version would that be?
- Windows XP: 2001-10-25 to 2014-04-08, ~12.5 years
- Windows Vista: 2007-01-30 to 2017-04-11, ~10 years
- Windows 7: 2009-10-22 to 2020-01-14, ~10 years
- Windows 8/8.1: 2012-10-26 to 2023-01-10, ~10 years
- Windows 10: 2015-07-29 to 2025-10-14, ~10 years
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_Windows_versions
the time limit should be way longer given how long previous versions of Windows have been supported.
The lifecycle of Win10 is actually pretty similar to that of the previous versions, which is about ~10 years. The only difference with Win10 is that it went without a successor for so long, that they’ve basically skipped one major release, leading to this relatively small timeframe between a new Windows and the EOL of the previous version.
I agree though. Given the circumstances they should’ve made an an exception and increased the lifespan for at least one or two years.
90 weeks is more like 20 month and i could calculate that off of my head by knowing that a year has 52 weeks. I would have struggled more with days.
You could make this criticism about any date metric that it gets more or less easy to translate into a different metric.
Weeks are perfectly fine and most commonly used in the business context.
Your point about weeks is irrelevant, if OP wanted to be clear with the information they would have said the easiest term (about 2 years)
I agree. This post seems like a half-assed attempt to get people to switch to Linux. 90 weeks. Jesus.
You have 5443200 seconds to make your choice.
What agenda? Freedom? Geesh, kid…
How long until Steam drops support on W10?
That’s the important event, lol
Probably around the time developers to start requiring W11. That TPM requirement is going to be abused to hell and back.
What incentive is there for a developer to abuse that?
Kernel-level anti-cheat drivers for games, mainly.
I am using windows 10 on my tv pc so that’s all I cae about.
Well they only just dropped support for Win7 and that came out in 2009.
I missed the “90 weeks” bit - you made it sound like it was coming soon, you cheeky scamp.
Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025. The current version, 22H2, will be the final version of Windows 10, and all editions will remain in support with monthly security update releases through that date.
Yeah who measures that timeframe in weeks, sheesh
Gives me these kinda vibes.
But…but…I was told W10 was the last OS I’d ever have to install!!
Edit: context
While Microsoft Vice President for Operating Systems Terry Myerson didn’t exactly say that when he kicked off the Jan. 21 presentation of the company’s plans for Windows 10, that message was still clear.Extrapolation by the writer in order to generate clicks by having a catchy headline? Impossible!
Microsoft just mentioned that the update procedure would make it so users running out of date and unsafe machines on the internet would not be an issue anymore, not that they would support W10 forever.
Jerry Nixon definitely said Windows 10 would be the last big release of windows, and for years, sourced reporting parroted that there will be no Windows 11.
“Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10,” said Jerry Nixon, Microsoft’s developer evangelist, at the Ignite tech conference.
There’s no shortage of the claim being made by MS staff during keynote speeches, and those same people being quoted saying as much in reporting by TechRadar, The Verge, PC Mag, Ars Technica, CNET, for example.
Conveniently, everybody interpreted as such
I understand you want people to switch to Linux but
- 90 weeks is far away. It drops in October 2025
- You’ll still get security updates for a few years
- After that there will be paid support which people will get around and find ways to install
- Windows 10 LTSC (best version of Windows IMO) still exists. The Enterprise LTSC version will have support till 2027 and the IoT version will have support till 2032. You can get them if you know how to look around
Plus, you can actually install Windows 11 on the same hardware as Windows 10 pretty easily. Microsoft just does not want you to.
Its quite difficult to get legit LTSC licenses unless you’re a large org.
Last time I looked into it anyway. You can buy ltsc keys from third parties but AFAIK Microsoft will deactivate the license if they realize how you acquired it.
I’ll just leave this here for educational purposes https://massgrave.dev/ https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts
Yeah I wasn’t talking about getting it the legal way. They don’t care unless you’re a business.
All the more time for Valve to expand on Proton and push Linux compatibility, and for EA and the rest to get their thumbs out of their collective asses and support it at all
So just a minute ago I thought “Get removeded, HP” and now I’m thinking “Get removeded, Microsoft”. What a day.
These are both thoughts you should hold in perpetuity anyhow.
How long do you think is reasonable for a vendor to support their old software version once they release a new one? If they drop support in 2025, Windows 10 will have had 10 years of support. It was released back when Linux kernel 4.0 was the latest version. Would you expect distros today to support a 4.x kernel? (yes, I know RHEL still does)
You can still get longer-term support if you pay.
Not making the switch dependent on hardware upgrades would be a requisite for me. Maaany people (and things like expensive, tightly integrated industrial systems) can’t just switch to a machine that supports Win11. Also, Microsoft promised Win10 would be their last windows version, receiving continual upgrades. So I repeat: Get removeded, Microsoft
I’m sorry, what?..Oh, all I heard was that my linux home server is going to be running on new hardware in about a year and a half when all these used computers go on sale. 😁
Except that realistically people will continue to run the same machines just without security updates.
People will, but most businesses won’t, so you can expect a wave of cheap server hardware and business notebooks.
This happens every year anyways, when IT departments need to spend their remaining budget. A lot of people set up home servers on ex-office small form factor PCs like HP ProDesk/EliteDesk, Lenovo Tiny, etc. Companies are always throwing them out when they upgrade, and as a result there’s always good deals for them on ebay. A lot of companies have a 2-3 year upgrade cycle.
I don’t get why people are removing support for Windows 10. Nobody likes Windows 11 and Windows 10 is the most popular operating system with no change of that in sight.
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Its interesting as I remember people saying the same thing between Windows 10 and Windows 7/8, and that they’d never move to Win10.
Not trying to discredit what you’re saying of course, but the pattern is still there 9 years later
Both can be true - everyone always hates on new Windows versions (usually for legitimate reasons) and Windows 11 captures and reports more telemetry.
Oh I wouldn’t doubt it but what really kept me from touching it was them “testing” putting advertisements in the file explorer. Hard removedin pass.
Windows 10 is Windows 11 at this point (look at the UI and AI features)
Yeah they said that about Windows 8 too and I sat my happy ass on 7 until 10 came out.
I do not think this is happening. Windows 7 support has barely started to be removed since this year (Steam) and Firefox ESR, WinRAR et al popular big software is still updated. Infact, WinRAR only dropped XP support few months ago with v 6.02 IIRC.
Windows 10 was quite the revamp over 7/8, and 11 is just cosmetic paint plus AI garbage on 10. Support for 10 is here to stay till atleast 2 years till 11 EOL comes around, since 11 and 10 are same inside. And this is assuming 12 has fundamental developer API changes on top of 10/11.
Once Windows 10 loses support I’m moving to XP for security
I was trying to make a Windows XP compatible app last month and my god is it ever difficult. Nothing works on XP anymore, so it’s insanely hard to test/develop software. All the legacy download links are dead too, so you can’t go install older versions of things either.
I have a nice preserved ZIP of all the latest 32-bit XP software that can be run successfully without any issues. I use it on a VM, and it even has MS Office 2007! You will be surprised how new most of it is.
This is from July 2023.
You should switch to React os. It has an app store of outdated software.
And why do I need that, when I have a self curated repository for XP software for an offline XP VM, and I use updated software on Windows 10? Besides, I daily Debian Stable way more than I use Windows for specific needs.
Try making an app that runs on 23 year old Linux (GTK1 \o/). The fact anybody still uses XP in any context is insane.
Can’t modern Linux run on 23 year old computers? What are you running a 23 year old stack for?
A modern desktop? Probably not. It expects working modernish OpenGL and software rendering would be too slow.
Something very basic, likely somewhat functional.
My point was 23 years is forever in software.
You might be surprised. First, I run EndeavourOS daily on a 2008 iMac and it not only runs but is very useful. I browse the web, watch YouTube, video conference, create office docs, play older games, do basic programming, run Docker ( well, Podman ), watch movies, read ebooks, edit audio, etc. With EOS, all my software versions are up to the minute.
The reason I use that machine so much is because of where it is. I like that spot. The reason I have not put something else there is precisely because it works so well that I have no reason to. I use XFCE to keep it light and have to restart the web browser from time-to-time to free up RAM but it is fine.
The first 64 bit Intel chips were in 2007 but AMD released the K8 way back in 2003. I do not have one to try but my guess is I could install the most recent EndeavourOS on such a machine.
That gets us to 21 years ago pretty easily.
You would be amazed at the upgradability of older hardware. You can drop 16 GB of RAM and an SSD in a 2009 MacBook.
However, you can run a 100% modern Linux distro on hardware much older than that. Many distros, including Debian, have 32 bit versions that support Pentium Pro and up. Most software available in regular Debian is also available in the 32 bit versions. The package release numbers are the same. So, totally up to date and modern software. You can run Debian 12 on 32 bit processors.
That takes us all the way back to hardware from 1995! That is just 14 years after the first IBM PC!
In practice, the biggest problem is going to be RAM. Anything below 6 GB for 64 bit and 4 GB for 32 bit is going to struggle with the size of modern software ( especially web browsers! ).
I am not sure how far back you have to go before the processor is just too slow for everyday stuff. I would guess around 2003 or so, depending on what you are doing.
Windows XP was introduced 20 years after the sale of the first IBM PC in 1981.
It has one been 23 years since then!
Things certainly changed a lot more before than after.
.NET 4.0 runs on XP and it is still very easy to create a .NET 4.0 application on a more modern machine. A well tested .NET app will deploy and run on Windows XP with few surprises. You cannot ask for better tooling. So, I would not say that creating new software for XP is really all that hard.
If you want to be much cooler but put in more work, check this out!
I did this for React os
it’s gonna be “funny”: I won’t create a personal account to login to crap 11 (because why should I, if you can’t login to a desktop OS without a 3rd party account, that’s not an OS, but a gatekeeper removed), which is mandatory. So, my work machine will become unusable, therefore in fact Microsoft put my work therefore my livelihood in danger… [edit: typos]
Just this week I installed W11 on a laptop (temporarily, I just wanted to see how it ran on this hardware), and despite being connected to the it asked me, by default, for a username for the local account. I don’t know why, but it didn’t ask for a MS account first.
Pretty sure this is configurable in the OOBE of the installer. At least, it used to be in older versions.
Was this a recent windows 11 version, from Microsoft directly? And what version of 11 (Home, Pro, etc) And what region?
The OOBE changes based on a lot of factors, but generally speaking, most users will encounter the forced account creation screen.
You can get around it by typing in “no@thanks.com” or some other bullremoved. Or use the “Domain join instead” option, and then just…don’t join it to a domain.
Genuine W11 iso, downloaded directly from MS website a few weeks ago, no modification. It was a Pro version if I remember correctly. I tested it on a 2015 Surface Pro. I was already connected to the network and did not click “Domain join” (I would have if it had asked for a MS account).
Just an update because I just figured what happened: I booted the iso through Ventoy, and just saw today that by default Ventoy injects register entries to bypass the online account requirement (as well as the hardware checks). Good to know.
It’s not mandatory to have an account to run win11. Press shift+f10 during the install to open a command prompt. Enter OOBE\BYPASSNRO into the prompt, system will reboot, disconnect the internet, when it prompts you for internet click “I don’t have internet”.
Easy peasy
And why didn’t they just do this as the default?
Its to stop idiots downloading cat videos and infecting the system with ransomware.
How does having a Live account prevent that?
What happens if you don’t have internet connected in the first place?
Without that command, it will not let you continue without an internet connection. If you do it a lot (I do it roughly once a week) then you can modify the installer directly.
work machine
You do not need a Microsoft account to join a domain.
if your sys admin keeps TPM on - and they would have to be nuts to turn it off - you’ll be opening an account.
Anyone that still wants a supported version of win 10, look into Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC (2021) - supported until 2032 and can be activated by MAS with HWID
You said a lot of things I don’t understand
It’s a version of Windows 10 targeted at businesses that choose to run Windows on “Internet of Things” devices. It is a “Long Term Service Channel” release that receives primarily security updates (little to no features updates), because the devices that will use this need to be in service for a very long time. Enterprise Windows typically activates with a licensing server that’s subscription based. But you can use the “Microsoft Activation Scripts” to activate it as if it were a retail copy you pick up the store.
Good bot
90 weeks? I guess I can have another baby, and then after a while make a decision on what to do with my W10 VM installation
VMs can emulate TPM cant they? Win11 still sucks but at least it will work.
There is a TPM emulation, yes, 1.1, 2.0 - you choose
Any decent motherboard built in the last 10 years should have a TPM chip onboard.
I just bought a brace of enterprise servers.
TPM chips are useless.
Meh.
All my hardware is just slightly older than TPM and SecureBoot. It’s from like 2009.
Just use a virtual one
People can also get an extra 3 years of extended updates, at that point TPM 2.0 integration in consumer devices will be close to 10 years old…
It’s also possible to install W11 without TPM 2.0 and from what I’ve seen, it works without any issues.
Yep, when you make a Windows installer USB with Rufus it has the option to disable TPM requirement and the need for a Microsoft account.
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I’ve seen non-tech users in Linux many times. It doesn’t take them 2 months to acclimatise, at most 2 weeks but typically just 2 days. If there’s a blocker, there’s a blocker (like “my removedty bank requires some removedty software installed and they don’t support Linux”) but if there are no blockers it’s really quick. 95% of normal users just need a browser. The next 4% need LibreOffice. It’s only the last 1% that have some need that doesn’t sit in an office package or the browser.
We, the gamers, the geeks, the golems, WE have needs that may not be satisfied with Linux. But we are not normal users. So about 3% of us can be bothered to try and accept the missing software (and learn to love the new - God there are some apps I miss when in Windows), the remaining 97% either try and can’t accept the new habits required or don’t try.
But normal users?! Stick them in Mint Linux and show them where the browser is and they’ll be fine.
IMHO.
Normal users don’t even need a PC. Most of what they do can be handled on a phone or tablet.
Further evidence for this is ChromeOS. It’s just a Linux distro, but worse. It does little more than run Chrome. Yet it’s popular. Anyone that tolerates ChromeOS would have an even better time on most of the standard distros if they had someone to set it up for them.
We, the gamers, the geeks, the golems
What does ‘golem’ mean in this context?
I’m old. I’m low-end overweight. I don’t shave for days. I’ve been in tech for decades. I was describing myself and my ilk as golems.
Also, it just happened to alliterate with gamers and geeks.
I am curios too!
Why is Libre Office always the goto? I’ve been trying every MS Office alternative and Libre is way down on this list. It doesn’t compare. In my searching, I even found video of the creators seeming more keen to (rightly) blame MS for compatibility issues. Meanwhile alternatives just work with the reality and reduce differences in exchanging files from the world’s most common option. Plus, and this is more personal, Libre Office is dog doo ugly. Ditto for Gimp.
As someone newer to Linux, people really don’t emphasize enough the need to find alternative software that fits into one’s life. It’s all fine to say it’s all just new setups and once you learn them your good, but most world interactions with tech that isn’t your own will be Windows. Why fight the stream when you Don’t have to? There are lot of alternate Office programs is what I am saying and some are almost as good as massively funded MS Office.
Dunno really. I hardly use any office app except for Excel on Windows. What are the best alternatives in your view?
Sorry I vented on you lol. WPS Office is one I liked a lot but I learned they are following local laws and so have had instances of invading privacy when using any cloud connecting aspect. It made me not trust them even outside of cloud use. It’s very very well out together though. I wish it weren’t something I felt insecure using because it is really nice.
I consider Only Office to be my goto at the moment. I still have more to try though, more obscure ones. It has only bugged on me once when I resized the window a lot, greeting me with an all white window with no UI.
Libre I tried a lot to make me love it. It just feels designed by someone who wants to make a point against MS. I did also try a complete overhaul to adjust the UI a lot but even the functionality of it just doesn’t seem to do as well when working closely with MS Office users.
Seriously considering the switch. I already have basic familiarity because of work with raspi.
In the past, it’s been support for adobe suite that has stopped me. My livelihood depends on it. Afaik theres still no native version. Can it run on wine? If so, is there a performance hit?
Older versions of some Adobe software will run, but generally no.
You can have both. I hear dual booting has gotten a lot safer lately, but I prefer to keep windows contained in a virtual machine, which has the added benefit of snapshots for when windows update eventually does something I didn’t approve. Maintaining windows is so much less stressful when it’s not running on bare metal.
If you’re very worried about performance, then you probably will need new hardware by the time you need to make this decision anyway. I’ve never actually purchased windows directly; I just find an upgrade that bundles an OEM key if I need a new Windows.
