The Death of Windows 10

[Ron Texas]

When Windows 10 came out it was billed as the final version of windows. Upgrades from Windows 7 were free. Windows 11 was released with free upgrades from Windows 10, but there was a complication. The computer was required to have TPM 2.0. Microsoft has announced it will stop updating Windows 10 in October of 2025. What happens to all the computers without TPM 2.0 then? Seventh generation Intel Core processors were the last ones to lack TPM 2.0. While 6 years old most of those are still fast enough to be useful.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Linux can be what happens. Not without its own issues, but would you prefer to use the most targeted os without security updates?

 

[Chr1]

Reckon I'll be ok as my Windows 10 machines are all fanless miniPCs used to run MathAudio RoomEQ via Foobar as Endpoints/Renderers for my music which is currently about 22TB, all locally stored. As they won't need Internet access, security should not be an issue. Therefore, hopefully Windows 10 will be OK...

 

[Keith_W]

Options:

1. You can check if your motherboard already has TPM, but disabled in BIOS (PTT for Intel, fTPM for AMD)
2. You can buy a TPM module for your motherboard.
3. Continue to use Windows 10.

 

[MRC01]

I am forced to use Windows 10 at work. It's a bloated pile of crapware, a toy operating system, insecure and unreliable. Over the years I've used every version of Windows since 3.0, and DOS before that. Also MacOS since before it was Unix based. I'm primarily a Unix/Linux user and it's surprising how insecure and unreliable Windows still is at version 10. I don't know how people put up with this - keyboard & mouse stuttering, external monitors randomly stop working, constantly needing to reinstall drivers, reboot, clean up garbage files that gradually consume the disk, etc. Wasting all this time with these problems is a significant productivity loss.

By comparison, my Linux machines, both desktop & laptop, just work. Like the Energizer bunny, they just keep going with minimal maintenance. And they have better performance especially noticeable on older systems. I hope this digital plague that is Windows finally dies some day and we can all run something more reliable. As @Blumlein 88 says, I hope Linux is what happens.

Microsoft is good at applications, let them stick to that and port their apps to Linux.

 

[Philbo King]

I'm still on Win7 and haven't had any problems with malware.

I can't go past Win7 because the maker of my audio interface (Presonus 1818VSL) abandoned driver support within days after I bought it.

At this point I wouldn't go to Win10 even if I could. Microsoft shouldn't be in the spyware business...

Side note: I have made several attempts to try Linux of one flavor or another, but so far have always hit problems I couldn't solve. The main issue was configuring my multidisplay setup, along with a few printer/scanner problems. I can wait; Linux seems to be getting better each year.

 

[Chr1]

I'm still on Win7 and haven't had any problems with malware.

I can't go past Win7 because the maker of my audio interface (Presonus 1818VSL) abandoned driver support within days after I bought it.

At this point I wouldn't go to Win10 even if I could. Microsoft shouldn't be in the spyware business...

Side note: I have made several attempts to try Linux of one flavor or another, but so far have always hit problems I couldn't solve. The main issue was configuring my multidisplay setup, along with a few printer/scanner problems. I can wait; Linux seems to be getting better each year.

I agree. I think that Linux is fine if you have a tech/computing background but it definitely has a bit of a learning curve. Particularly if you want to do lots with it ala Pi etc. Personally, I recognise Windows has it's flaws, so navigate them. But, as it is familiar and works, I will stick with it. Love the fact that I can use MathAudio RoomEQ software and Foobar2000 for free. Both exceptionally good applications in my mind. Each to their own... Horses for courses etc..

 

[Deleted member 48726]

F*** this planned obsolescence forced upon us..

 

[IAtaman]

7th Gen Intel processors do support virtualization I believe so there is also the option to run Windows 10 in Virtualbox (or some other VM) on Linux.

 

[Chr1]

Reckon that this is going to end up in yet another partisan ASR thread.

F*** Windows... Linux is the only true way...

Ho hum.

I get that Linux is super efficient and can do everything Windows can. However, surely all those shooting down Microsoft recognise that AppleOS is just as bad? (I reckon worse, personally. Plus, the cost of the hardware seems nuts to me.)

Surely it's just a case of "horses for courses"... ie Sure Linux kicks ass but, a bit like the WiiM solutions, if you want to play your tunes with a minimum of faff, some folks will opt for the easier option. Doesn't make it better. But doesn't make it wrong either.

I love Android for controlling cheap Windows boxes (sub current Pi prices... ), running free SOTA software ie Foobar and MathAudio.

Jobsagood'n!

 

[kemmler3D]

I am sure Linux is better in many ways, but as someone who uses the same hardware on a modern (M1) Mac and a Windows 10 PC, the Mac is a little less reliable than the Windows machine.

I'd love to live in a world where Linux ruled, but the availability of various consumer software on Windows is better, that's why I stick with it.

I am not too fussed about Windows 11. I have 3 machines on W10 and have no plans to "upgrade" them to 11. Windows 7 was updated for 8 years after W10 was released, we have some time to figure stuff out.

 

[jae]

It is trivial to use Windows 11 without a TPM...still keeping my main machine on 10 until the upgrade is warranted

 

[Blumlein 88]

F*** this planned obsolescence forced upon us..

I don't think we can force them making something available forever. There is no other industry where that happens, and there is reason in software that changes more often it would be disadvantageous to do so. I get it, I've got a 10 year old machine that is perfectly useful on Win 10, but no Win 11 for it. I decided to purchase an up to date Win 11 laptop recently and have been happy with it. Had my machine been only 6 years old and just missed the hardware for Win 11 it would bother me more of course.

So your choices are use Win 10, maybe hope an add-on anti-virus program is enough. Use it as it is and hope you are lucky. Buy new hardware. Use it without ever connecting to the internet. Switch to linux so your machine remains useful. Owner's choice. Not everything he had hoped, but it is what it is. The Win 10 is fine until October 2025 so by then the hardware is 7.5 years old. Not optimum, but not that crazy.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

I don't think we can force them making something available forever. There is no other industry where that happens, and there is reason in software that changes more often it would be disadvantageous to do so. I get it, I've got a 10 year old machine that is perfectly useful on Win 10, but no Win 11 for it. I decided to purchase an up to date Win 11 laptop recently and have been happy with it. Had my machine been only 6 years old and just missed the hardware for Win 11 it would bother me more of course.

So your choices are use Win 10, maybe hope an add-on anti-virus program is enough. Use it as it is and hope you are lucky. Buy new hardware. Use it without ever connecting to the internet. Switch to linux so your machine remains useful. Owner's choice. Not everything he had hoped, but it is what it is. The Win 10 is fine until October 2025 so by then the hardware is 7.5 years old. Not optimum, but not that crazy.

My CPU and SSD have had Windows 7, Vista, 8.1 and 10.
Only upgrades have been more and faster RAM and GPU. It still plays new released games without problems. Now it purposely is locked out from further upgrades and it annoys me.

 

[LightninBoy]

I am forced to use Windows 10 at work. It's a bloated pile of crapware, a toy operating system, insecure and unreliable. Over the years I've used every version of Windows since 3.0, and DOS before that. Also MacOS since before it was Unix based. I'm primarily a Unix/Linux user and it's surprising how insecure and unreliable Windows still is at version 10. I don't know how people put up with this - keyboard & mouse stuttering, external monitors randomly stop working, constantly needing to reinstall drivers, reboot, clean up garbage files that gradually consume the disk, etc. Wasting all this time with these problems is a significant productivity loss.

I use Windows 10 daily on multiple devices for work and home. I don't run into any of those problems. That's how I put up with it - there's nothing to put up with.

 

[IAtaman]

That SSD might be coming to the end of its write cycles and be due for an upgrade soon.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

That SSD might be coming to the end of its write cycles and be due for an upgrade soon.

If it dies, it dies.

 

[Spocko]

As most of my workflow is now media creation, moving to MacOS was the best thing for my sanity. I had been editing on a high end PC with 3090 GPU and dealing with the blue screen of death was a regular part of my week as I've been a PC user starting with MS-DOS. Last year I switched over to MacOS for faster video exports on the road, and I haven't looked back, converting all my workflow to MacOS. As a lifelong PC user since the halycon days of DOS on my beloved IBM PC XT (I typed/edited faster on Wordperfect in DOS than Word on Windows until graphics was introduced), I don't think I will be revisiting Windows any time soon and I'm not a PC gamer thank god.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Reckon that this is going to end up in yet another partisan ASR thread.

F*** Windows... Linux is the only true way...

Ho hum.

I get that Linux is super efficient and can do everything Windows can. However, surely all those shooting down Microsoft recognise that AppleOS is just as bad? (I reckon worse, personally. Plus, the cost of the hardware seems nuts to me.)

Surely it's just a case of "horses for courses"... ie Sure Linux kicks ass but, a bit like the WiiM solutions, if you want to play your tunes with a minimum of faff, some folks will opt for the easier option. Doesn't make it better. But doesn't make it wrong either.

I love Android for controlling cheap Windows boxes (sub current Pi prices... ), running free SOTA software ie Foobar and MathAudio.

Jobsagood'n!

I don't think it needs to be partisan. I mean other than risking continued use of Win 10 or Linux what are the choices? I like Linux, but I've been using it for 17 years. Even now I feel it makes sense to keep one Windows machine around so I don't have to futz about with issues with commercial software or gear where vendors are hostile to linux or whatever. I use linux for about 95% of my computer needs. I like it better than MacOS or Windows, but sometimes having one of those others makes life easier. Someone mentioned reliability of MacOS. I too have found you run into nearly as many issues with this or that as a Linux machine. So I'm not trying to force it on somebody it is just an obvious suggestion to keep hardware useful. One that can work pretty well and costs nothing.

 

[IAtaman]

If it dies, it dies.

Rocky IV?