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Windows 10 refuses to go gentle into that good night
- nwsm 1y agoMy Windows 10 updates had been failing for the past 6 months. When shutting down my PC I'd get the notification to "update and shut down", but the update would routinely fail. I thought the outstanding updates were the reason I wasn't given an option to update in place to Windows 11, but that was actually because my i7 7700k isn't officially supported. I ended up needing to create a Windows 11 iso that doesn't enforce hardware requirements with Rufus [0]. I was building a new gaming rig in tandem, so I reformatted the lone remaining SSD on the machine and left the new windows install unactivated as I plan to give it to a neighbor or family friend who can be tasked with buying a copy of windows. But this means I was left without any free Windows 10 -> 11 upgrade and had to buy a new license for the new rig. I didn't try to do anything other than browse the internet on the unsupported hardware, but things seem fine. So far Windows 11 on the new rig has been very smooth/stable and I can't think of any issues I've had after 2 weeks of gaming and other typical use. But the amount of internet-driven widgets that ultimately are a medium for ads is frustrating. [0] https://github.com/pbatard/rufus https://github.com/pbatard/rufus
- fukukitaru 1y agoW10 IoT LTSC doesn't have this issue.
- gus_massa 1y agoI remember there is an obscure setting in the registry to disable the automatic upgrade on shutdown. (I had not used it in a long time, so I forgot the details.)
- LetsGetTechnicl 1y agoBuying a Windows license in 2025 is kinda crazy
- burkaman 1y agoThe article doesn't say this explicitly, but I would guess the majority of the remaining Windows 10 population is not stubborn users that refuse to update, it's people who just can't because of the Windows 11 hardware requirements. I can't update my desktop without replacing the motherboard and CPU and I just don't want to to spend the time and money on that anytime soon. The computer works fine.
- callc 1y agoI installed Windows 11 on a very old laptop for a family member that failed the hardware requirements. Just use the ISO and Rufus. Make me lose respect even more for Microsoft, to think of all the wasted resources and money people thought they needed to because of “requirements”
- Simulacra 1y agoThis is my sentiment aswell, I think Windows 11 is a hate crime, and I refuse to use it.
- pjmlp 1y agoYeah, even though I usually tend to like Windows with the warts and all, this is nothing else other than planned obsolescence. Many of the security features on Windows 11 that require these hardware changes, are already available on Windows 10 as optional. The reasoning is that they shouldn't be turned off, and this is a way to force OEMs to actually provide the hardware on their motherboards. What it isn't said is that PC sales have been down for a while and Covid was kind of the exception due to the way everyone needed to work from home.
- datadrivenangel 1y agoMy desktop still dual boots windows 10 and ubuntu... 11 is acceptable compared to late 10, but it's a chore that will result in changes, and no benefits to me. I might just go full linux, but 2-4 times a year this would make some friends sad when I can't play the crazy invasive anti-cheat games.
- jmclnx 1y agoI ran across this for people who do not want to buy new hardware or cannot afford to. Hoping more things like this are done in other areas: https://www.reddit.com/r/missoula/comments/1nvfvwc/linux_training_opportunitie https://www.reddit.com/r/missoula/comments/1nvfvwc/linux_tra... s/
- errantspark 1y agoI will not have an operating system that shows me ads. This is my computer. It will do what I want.
- zabzonk 1y agoI have Windows 11 on my Asus laptop - I've never seen an ad (except on some web pages my adblocker doesn't catch) - where are all these Win 11 users seeing all these ads?
- ileonichwiesz 1y agoLock screen, start menu, taskbar. It varies between region and between the home/pro versions, so you may have gotten lucky.
- zabzonk 1y agoWell, I dunno. On my lock screen I get local weather, local events and such, which I don't mind and are not really adverts. I never see anything else. Nothing in start menu or taskbar. This is Windows 11 home. I wonder if people complaining about ads have some 3rd party adware installed, or are just parroting what they have heard about the evils of Microsoft?
- hnlmorg 1y agoMy Windows 10 gaming system is apparently compatible with Windows 11 but I don’t get an upgrade option in Windows Update. And I’m sure as hell not going to pay for Windows 11 when Windows 10 works “fine” (about as well as Windows ever does, which isn’t exactly high praise).
- LeifCarrotson 1y agoAnother option is to use the Microsoft Activation Scripts [1] to install Windows 10 LTSC. Good through 2032, it's what all my machines are running - including both the older models and the desktop that can't support the hardware requirements, and the newer (2019) workstation that would if I had any reason to want Windows 11. Gets rid of all the shovelware, ads, and other gunk that comes with a stock consumer Windows installation by default, and replaces it with a sleek, minimal OS that stays out of the way. At work, I also have a number of industrial machines that have a Windows 10 PC attached, they're all running LTSC as well (sourced a little more legitimately through OnLogic). It's not likely that Microsoft is going to abandon all the kiosks and CNCs and digital signage with whom they have enterprise licensing agreements - at work, we have lawyers and contracts, and they all say we're covered through January 13, 2032. [1]: https://github.com/massgravel/ https://github.com/massgravel/
- Mistletoe 1y agohttps://rentry.org/windowsltsc https://rentry.org/windowsltsc How to keep it going into that good night.
- taneq 1y agoWindows 7 is still the best version of Windows in terms of responding to keystrokes and being navigable using keyboard shortcuts. I don't know how they fumbled the design of both the logon screen and the start menu search box so hard in Win10/11 but apparently they forgot the concept of "buffering keystrokes". I die a little inside every time I start to type my PIN on Win11, stop, wait for the lock screen to give way to the PIN screen, then type it again now that the keystrokes are going to the right place. And I launch programs by hitting the windows key then typing eg. "putty" dozens of times a day. And mostly it's fine, and maybe 10% of the time it's like "what's that, boy? you wanna search the interweb for "putty" using bing on edge? YOU GOT IT!" No, friendo, I want to launch the same goddamn putty.exe that's in c:\bin\ and that I've run a bunch of times already in the past hour.
- ndiddy 1y agoI remember when 7 came out and people complained about how the UI was less responsive than XP! Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay-gqx18UTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay-gqx18UTM I guess Windows UI responsiveness has just been steadily declining since the early 2000s.
- taneq 1y agoYeah, it lagged a bit when it first came out. It still (eventually, when it got around to it) responded to your keystrokes in the order you made them, though. Also the Spotlight-style search built into the start menu was far better than just clicking through nested menus.
- stetrain 1y agoThe PowerToys Run quick launcher is nice as just a simple app launcher. It really should just be built-in like Spotlight on MacOS but then you wouldn't see as many Bing ads.
- unsungNovelty 1y agoSwitch to Linux. Share the campaign. Look for support at https://endof10.org/ https://endof10.org/
- weaksauce 1y agoLinux has gotten pretty good lately. I wish it was better at running the game i want but other than that it's even better than macos in a lot of regards.
- unsungNovelty 1y agoI don't know if it is of any interest. But I have recommendation framework for beginners of Linux - https://www.unsungnovelty.org/posts/01/2024/a-linux-distro-recommendation-framework-and-my-picks-for-2024/ https://www.unsungnovelty.org/posts/01/2024/a-linux-distro-r... Check it out if you're curious and pass it along. It's some things I wish I knew when I started as a kid.
- weaksauce 1y agothanks for that... looks like a pretty well thought out piece of work
- unsungNovelty 1y agoThank you.
- efitz 1y agoI don’t want to have to replace my entire computer just to get a TPM. Whoever thought this would be a good idea, needs to be fired. (Full disclosure: I used to work at Microsoft in the Windows team; obviously the culture there has shifted considerably).
- Bo0kerDeWitt 1y agoI can't upgrade due to hardware requirements. So I bit the bullet. New CPU and motherboard arriving tomorrow. Rest in peace to my i7-8600k, you were completely fine.
- iterance 1y agoThis will almost certainly go down as one of the worst mistakes in recent tech history. You can't tell 40+% of your commerical customer base "We could absolutely allow you to use your current computer with our new operating system! We just didn't want to. Sucks to be you, I guess." and not expect consequences for your public image and consumer confidence.
- thrance 1y agoRemoved windows 10 from my gaming machine for EndeavourOS, an arch based linux distro. Works wonderfully and runs all the games I care about with minimal tinkering. I am now 100% windows-free on all my computers. More concerning though, is my grandpa, who is 89 years old, calling me kind of scared after seeing a classic Microsoft threat like "Upgrade now or else". I don't know what to do. I could probably upgrade his computer to 11 but I really don't want him to have to relearn everything he knows about his computer. Maybe just ignore it for as long as we can?
- shrubble 1y agoWindows 11 has many GUI failures. In my work I have to do screenshots: the Windows+Shift+S combo takes a noticeable time to come up, and when taking screenshots it doesn’t always bring the image to the foreground. I have had to wait as long as five or more seconds when on Teams calls for it to come up. Also depending upon some variable, there are two different slow image editors that can display the image when you click on it. They work differently also! In contrast the W10 experience worked much faster and more predictably.
- gfody 1y agosome apps, when allowed to run in the background, cause a multi-second delay in global hotkeys. this happened on 10 too but 11 pushes way more apps by default so it's more likely to hit. you can hunt down the culprit and remove its permission to run in the background or just deny them all (I've yet to experience a negative consequence from that)
- hermitcrab 1y agoI put Windows 11 on my new dev PC to better support my customers. But I don't notice any worthwhile improvements over Windows 10. I really resent that I have to keep endlessly paying for Windows and Office despite that fact I don't see any real improvements. Also, every version of Windows is nosier than the last.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 1y agoI'm forced to use Windows 11 on my company laptop and it's so bad that it's insulting. Thinking about the salaries of the people who sign off on this trash makes me physically ill. I'm not against a fresh coat of paint but the replacement should be better outright without compromise.
- aleph_minus_one 1y agoPerhaps Microsoft should never have advertised that Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows; see for example > https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32658340 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32658340 "Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft development executive, said in a conference speech this week that Windows 10 would be the "last version" of the dominant desktop software. His comments were echoed by Microsoft which said it would update Windows in future in an "ongoing manner". Instead of new stand-alone versions, Windows 10 would be improved in regular instalments, the firm said. [...] In a statement, Microsoft said Mr Nixon's comments reflected a change in the way that it made its software. "Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner," it said, adding that it expected there to be a "long future" for Windows. 'No Windows 11' The company said it had yet to decide on what to call the operating system beyond Windows 10. "There will be no Windows 11," warned Steve Kleynhans, a research vice-president at analyst firm Gartner who monitors Microsoft." EDIT: Another article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/05/08/microsoft-windows-10-last-windows/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/05/08/microsof...
- gruez 1y ago>Perhaps Microsoft should never have advertised that Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows, and there won't be a Windows 11; see for example It really wasn't. Basically all the claims of "Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows" traces back to that quote, but that was basically an offhand comment by a low to mid level salesperson (think account "executive"), and was not substantiated by other communications from microsoft, contrary to what your article claims. "ongoing manner" doesn't mean "forever". Microsoft also had clearly outlined lifecycle policies that certainly did not promise forever support.
- aleph_minus_one 1y agoIf Microsoft didn't agree with this interpretation, they would have immediately published a clarification.
- vel0city 1y agoAnd he was doing it while giving developers a presentation how to code for live tiles, suggesting that live tiles are here to stay forever.
- CM30 1y agoAs someone who refuses to upgrade from Windows 10, it's because all the new and invasive features that 11 adds are things I refuse to go anywhere near. I don't need ads in my operating system, I don't need a system to track every action done on the computer, I don't need a slower user interface rewritten in the latest shiny framework and I certainly don't want any more Copilot integration. Unfortunately, a lot of niche communities have decided to stick to developing for Windows machines no matter what (especially game development and modding ones), so using Linux isn't that practical about now.
- glonq 1y agoAs a PC enthusiast, I can't remember a time when PC upgrades were less necessary than nowadays. For the average user and even semi-enthusiast, 5+yo hardware with Win10 works just fine. I just upgraded last year, but it was probably the longest stretch I've gone between new PC's and even then it was as much FOMO as it was necessity.
- everdrive 1y agoI've even say that midrange hardware from the entire i5 era, even from 2011 would still be just fine for most users if you're just doing normal computing.
- stetrain 1y agoMost of my gaming PC is from 2017. I have upgraded the GPU and CPU once each (thanks AMD for putting out new generations of AM4-socket CPUs), and expect the current build to last for another 3-5 years.
- HankStallone 1y agoYeah, my Linux desktop PC is five years old and definitely wasn't cutting edge when I built it, and I can't see any reason to upgrade it. I just put a new CPU/MB/RAM in my 9-year-old FreeBSD system, only because it was starting to act flaky under heavy load converting video. But horsepower-wise it still had plenty for normal use.
- oldpersonintx2 1y ago[dead]
- lenerdenator 1y agoIt went into that good night pretty gently for me. I was only using it for amateur radio use and the occasional gaming session on my old T570. I put Bazzite Linux on it and I'll be damned, the thing launched and retrieved, from Steam, a Skyrim save from back in my college days. Now, it's not the most beautiful rendering of the game ever, but it plays. I've got a backup of my files of course, but this mismanagement of what Windows 10 was supposed to be (the last Windows) combined with all of the new AI stuff in Win11 just wasn't worth the new hardware spend for an OS I only use occasionally. Most of my use is MacOS.
- otikik 1y agoWindows 7 was the last good one anyway.
- mythz 1y agoSwitched to Linux because of Windows 10 EOL as had no intentions of becoming a spam target for its ad/spyware ridden future. Was the push I needed to give up on 25 years on Windows which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Linux ended up being a much better and more productive OS for Developers than Windows, esp. if you do all your deployments to Docker/Linux servers.
- LightChaser 1y agoThe average person does not care enough about the operating system they use to buy a tpm 2.0 module, install it on the motherboard, and then risk their personal data by upgrading the OS just for a marginally improved windows experience. Microsoft, you guys need to give actual incentives to upgrade, not punishments for not doing so.
- MisterTea 1y agoMicrosoft told us it was the last version of Windows we'll ever need so I'm sticking to that.
- qtwhat 1y agobut why do people even need to care? nobody is talking about the OS in the background anymore.
- LetsGetTechnicl 1y agoThe way they could just enable extended security updates instead of making people go through a bunch of hoops
- LetsGetTechnicl 1y agohttps://massgrave.dev/windows10_eol https://massgrave.dev/windows10_eol
- jmull 1y agoI doubt it's a good idea to cut off 40% of your users. They probably need to do more to resolve the issues keeping people from updating. (Well, they should have been doing this all along.) $dayjob issued me a Windows 11 laptop. I asked what to do with my old Windows 10 laptop and they said "dispose of it responsibly"... I put linux on it.
- _imnothere 1y agoWindows 10 IoT LTSC FTW as always if you're not going to switch to Linux distros, Microsoft promised that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows but they broke it, I see it as more than 100% morally correct to pirate LTSC for this.