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Keeping a Windows 10 media server after 2025

As above - put Picoreplayer on your old laptop, or of course get a Rpi 4 or 5 and run Picoreplayer with LMS on that. If you can handle Windows then you can manage an Rpi + Picoreplayer. Highly recommended!
 
Thanks for all the replies. I think it's clear keeping the Windows 10 machine as a server is a bad idea, so when get a Windows 11 machine next year, I'll do what I'm doing now and put LMS on the new PC and avoid messing about with work-arounds or having to learn Linux.

S
That was what I was going to suggest, get everything up and running correctly on the new and then turn off or repurpose the old.
 
I'm running LMS on the same Windows 10 laptop that I use for everyday computing functions, like posting on here, my banking etc. When Windows 10 goes out of support next year I will buy a Windows 11 computer as I really don't want to risk using an unsupported computer for financial and other functions. However, I'm thinking I could remove everything other than LMS from my current laptop but leave that on the network purely as a file server including accessing Spotify.

My question is:- what's the risk of leaving an unsupported PC on my home network even if it's only a file server and for Spotify. I have a similar issue with an older Windows 7 laptop used only for REW and an even older XP PC used for audio recordings as the sound card used only has XP drivers. I normally keep those off the network, but there are times when I might want to transfer files or look something up, so they go online occasionally.

S.
First, if you are not a known incorporated entity, what are the chances that someone would spend resources trying to defeat your router's firewall to access your PC server and from there attack other computers on your local home network? (I assume you don't open any ports to the Internet.)

Second, instead of holding on to an old laptop running Windows 10 in order to run a service, just get a $60 Raspberry Pi. Here is my raspi with Samsung T7 SSD, sharing on the local network all my music files. (But you would need to get familiar with Linux. It's a good stuff.)

samba_server_1.jpg
 

Basic instructions for Win10.

Pretty sure that link is written by AI as it's wrong.

You turn off the adapter that is providing internet access, you take the LAN connection with it, be it wireless or cable.

When you disable the WiFi 'adapter', it physically switches off the transmission/reception on the card- I do this all the time when measuring as WiFi is a source of annoying RF. Same with a cable LAN- it disables the network 'adaptor'. If you have two adaptors active windows will just pick the fastest connection to the network router. You never really have two at once. You can override the preference order in the registry, but even ordering the connections' priorities is not foolproof.
 
Pretty sure that link is written by AI as it's wrong.

You turn off the adapter that is providing internet access, you take the LAN connection with it, be it wireless or cable.

When you disable the WiFi 'adapter', it physically switches off the transmission/reception on the card- I do this all the time when measuring as WiFi is a source of annoying RF. Same with a cable LAN- it disables the network 'adaptor'. If you have two adaptors active windows will just pick the fastest connection to the network router. You never really have two at once. You can override the preference order in the registry, but even ordering the connections' priorities is not foolproof.
I skimmed too lightly. I'll remove it. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
 
I skimmed too lightly. I'll remove it. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
With pretty much every broadband router these days, you can block a device from getting to the internet. Doesn't mean it won't be seen if someone is able gain access to your home network in a number of possible ways. And if you plug it down with even more access rules it is a pretty useless device to keep powered up.

In order my personally perceived cost-benefit ratio (and our time is precious) I think the options for older computers. running windows 10 are:

1. Pay up for a year of Win10 security updates, it's cheap the first year while u figure out you next step. But it only delays the inevitable... then again MSFT is likely to relax their rules when they realize how stupid their approach to Win11 has been. They'll prolly sell you a Win11 Lite version sometime in 2025. Wait and see. So. do nothing for now.

2. Just go ahead and install Win11 if you have a post 2014 CPU. But back up your data. On a ThinkPad X270 the only way to get Win11 to install was a clean install. It's really, really easy. The registry edit sounds scary but it's a totally easy thing to do.

3. Personally I never ever throw a PC away. At the very least I do a quick Linux install and drop it at a local school. I volunteer to give basic programming classes and always donate a few computers to motivated students, and some years everybody got a computer. Over 10 year old computers fly with Linux, will keep. operating for another 10 years, and the students get to learn what inevitably is the OS of the future. Never throw a remotely decentiah computer away. And honestly, Ubuntu Linux is so. user friendly these days... you need zero Linux knowledge and can live in the GUI with zero command line knowledge.
 
My LMS is a docker container (Synology NAS).
Windows player is Squeezelite-X (MS app store) or Squeezelite-x64 (5MB exe).

I expect the transition to W11 (aka Vista SE) will take many years... see XP and 7 ;)
 
I am curious if anyone can point me to something explaining how best to keep Windows 10 machines connected to a LAN without being connected to the Internet.
The simplest (and most stupid) way is to not configure a default gateway and DNS server on your LAN interface by using a static IP config like this:

You need to select an IP address manually that is outside the DHCP scope of your LAN.

1735557512136.png
 
I'm running LMS on the same Windows 10 laptop that I use for everyday computing functions, like posting on here, my banking etc. When Windows 10 goes out of support next year I will buy a Windows 11 computer as I really don't want to risk using an unsupported computer for financial and other functions. However, I'm thinking I could remove everything other than LMS from my current laptop but leave that on the network purely as a file server including accessing Spotify.

My question is:- what's the risk of leaving an unsupported PC on my home network even if it's only a file server and for Spotify. I have a similar issue with an older Windows 7 laptop used only for REW and an even older XP PC used for audio recordings as the sound card used only has XP drivers. I normally keep those off the network, but there are times when I might want to transfer files or look something up, so they go online occasionally.

S.
From what I gather, now that the wider public is becoming aware of M$'s intention to render half the PC's on the planet obsolete at a stroke, it's likely that there will be semi-'official' methods of installing Windoze 11 on earlier platforms than Intel 8th gen. Whatever - **** M$ frankly.
 
I'm running W11 on a 6th gen Intel CPU with no issues...
 
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