The Death of Windows 10

[pablolie]

IMHO even for corpos, there's a major catch - what if the cloud services (are brought to) fail, by hacking, sabotage, etc. ?
Their business will be "toast" in minutes.

OTOH that is already here and carved in stone. Corporations have made that switch, so cloud dependency in general is already there from an architectural perspective. And of course you address availability and security via availability zones and redundancies and service policies etc. Corporations already have faced major cloud provider outages, which is why many have a so-called hybrid model, where they use some Hyperscaler capacity (AWS, Azure..) etc along with their own data centers but it's all managed with similar tools.
We are not going back to traditional Client-Server architectures anytime soon.

 

[respice finem]

Don't think this way, as long as that old weird web gives advice

Well, that's what it looks like, anyway... A part of it may be corporate indolence, if they have a "volume license", subscription plus cloud may be better for them, because of not having to care for update, backups and such on-premises, and cost mitigates tax. All is well, as long as it works. When it won't, they'll not even have access to their "own" data.

 

[respice finem]

OTOH that is already here and carved in stone. Corporations have made that switch, so cloud dependency in general is already there from an architectural perspective. And of course you address availability and security via availability zones and redundancies and service policies etc. Corporations already have faced major cloud provider outages, which is why many have a so-called hybrid model, where they use some Hyperscaler capacity (AWS, Azure..) etc along with their own data centers but it's all managed with similar tools.
We are not going back to traditional Client-Server architectures anytime soon.

So, there is hope, an optimist would say.
A pessimist would say, hope is only there to die last.
A cynic would say, hope suffers the longest time (by dying last).
Just kidding of course

...but the individual user is on his own, probably, if some big disruption happens.

 

[Doodski]

In my Windows PCs, "Num Lock" is always OK when logging into Windows, whenever after the "intact" installation. Of course, in motherboard BIOS, I set Num Lock "ON" if the control is available in the BIOS.


I never trust "sleep (hibernation) mode"! I always make "OFF/DISABLE" the hibernation features, and also have deleted "hiberfil.sys" at the root of drive C: giving me considerable more free space in drive C:

Hmmz. I checked the BIOS at the laptop. is a very very basic BIOS and has no numb lock. I must investigate more and if no success I will make a command file and link it in the startup folder.

I disabled the hibernation and the new sleep mode that is near hibernation but not a simple sleep. It is stated to be a deep sleep verging on hibernation according to experts information that I read last night. I must investigate more on this too. These two issues seem to be very naggy for me... Sigh*

 

[Zekbone]

I must have missed how Intel were allowed to add open source HDMI 2.1 support in their linux drivers but AMD aren't. Are the troublesome parts hidden in a firmware blob or something?

Displayport to HDMI signal converters on the cards themselves, which bypasses any need for software that the HDMI forum can forbid, with all the shortcomings that come with that.

https://community.intel.com/t5/Graphics/HDMI-2-1-UHD-144Hz-Arc-A750-A770/m-p/1452946

 

[somebodyelse]

If they really dare to go mandatory for MS account and 365 they are out (of business).

I guess we'll find out soon enough as that's the direction they're heading - closing workarounds:

Microsoft is closing a popular loophole that allowed users to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft account.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/07/windows_11_local_account_loophole/

 

[Berwhale]

I wonder how many consumers really care that they have to have a Microsoft account to use Windows? How many people question the requirement for an Apple account to use an iPhone or a Google account to use Android?

I'm not suggesting that account requirements are a good thing, but I think it's very easy for 'techies' and the 'techie' press to overblow the relevance of this to 'most people'.

 

[Chr1]

Have to say that I agree. Personally I don't mind. Have recently updated four of my "incompatible" N100/N3450 fanless mini PCs to Windows 11 via Rufus. Zero problems so far. In fact one, that is used as an audio endpoint only, seems to be using less power than with Win 10 previously. Now only 4 W idle.

Won't be abandoning Windows any time soon myself, as I rely on MathAudio RoomEQ and Foobar for several systems.
A very efficient and high performing software combo for audio playback imho. Only 7/8 W playback power consumption with DSP/RoomEQ.
Plus free of charge... which is always good.

 

[pablolie]

...
I'm not suggesting that account requirements are a good thing, but I think it's very easy for 'techies' and the 'techie' press to overblow the relevance of this to 'most people'.

Most people got into the internet via a dial-up *account*. Granted the en-masse data hijack was not as massively omni-present as it is now, but still - online life has always been about having accounts and giving away one's existence to advertisers. I mean - we all have accounts to participate in here - and how many of us read every line of the user agreement and privacy terms? (They are pretty good when it comes to personal data, btw :-D)

Yes, I agree MSFT is clumsy about these things, but they are not a first mover - more like a late entrant into the personal data gathering... "to improve user experience"... :-D Apple, Google, Facebook, etc etc were there before...

 

[mhardy6647]

I have no qualms about setting up an MS account... as long as they don't require a credit card.

Heck, I set up an Apple Store account to download software for the mixer at our church on an (old) iPad because... that's the way Apple works. It's zero-cost s/w, and, to my surprise the Apple store or whatever it's called didn't make me provide billing details "just in case" they neededi it later!

Speaking of Win11... just before COVID-19 "hit", I bought the church a cheap-ish Dell laptop and I ordered it with Win11 (Pro, if memory serves). I set it all up, successfully, but mistyped the email address for the MS account. Never heard another peep about it, and - so far - the 'pute's still running (and updating itself) fine. We use it for Zoom meetings and whatnot and sometimes for presentations in the 'parish hall'.

 

[rdenney]

I never trust "sleep (hibernation) mode"! I always make "OFF/DISABLE" the hibernation features, and also have deleted "hiberfil.sys" at the root of drive C: giving me considerable more free space in drive C:

Sleep is NOT hibernation. Sleep mode can be awakened with a network call, but hibernation is a full-power-off condition where the current state is written to a temporary file and then the machine is powered off. I can put a laptop into hibernation and it will power up where I was a year later.

I usually have to go to extraordinary means to make sure that hibernation is enable on my computers.

I'm required to take my work computer home every day. I normally have about 25 windows open because I'm required to work on about about five things at once and each requires a number of reference files to be open. Give that windows provides no way to save the work environment, including reopening the files that were open at a prior shutdown, that would take me an hour each day to set up my computer again. This is particularly true for the six or seven file explorer windows I have open that look at various parts of our extended network through the VPN. But the battery won't last the weekend in sleep mode. I use hibernate, and have set up the power button and the lid closing to force a hibernation instead of sleep. My IT people would probably prefer that I shut down and reboot every day, but then they aren't responsible for getting my work done. Their forced reboots are extremely disruptive.

I'm amazed that more and more the use of computers requires writing things down on paper. Somebody is missing the point.

Rick "not particularly bothered by the Win11 UI, however" Denney

 

[ShadowBoxer]

It may bear repeating that the Win-11 UI can be made to look very similar to the Win-10 UI. Since the upgrade is free I see no compelling reason not to upgrade. It is practically inevitable anyway (eventually).

 

[pablolie]

It may bear repeating that the Win-11 UI can be made to look very similar to the Win-10 UI. Since the upgrade is free I see no compelling reason not to upgrade. It is practically inevitable anyway (eventually).

This is what mine looks like - and I didn't use any tools (several exist to hack the UI). Basicalluy it's just about killing the whole tiles thing (I never had any use for it) and shifting your taskbar stuff to the left. Pretty much like I had Win10 configured.

 

[Berwhale]

Most people got into the internet via a dial-up *account*.

Is that really true? I think there's a rather large demographic that have used the internet for their whole lives who have never used dial-up.

A couple of weeks ago, I had my broadband connection upgraded from 900Mbps to 1600Mbps but I couldn't see any improvement with my Speedtest results*. My ISP asked me to setup a PPPoE connection on my Windows PC (bypassing my router) to prove that is wasn't an issue with the line. Opening the dial-up settings in Windows gave me a huge rush of nostalgia. I've had various broadband connections & routers in my home for the last 25 years...

*The connection ran at the full 1600Mbps using PPPoE from my PC, but at 900Mps through my pfSense firewall. Top Tip: If you have set traffic shaping limiters on your firewall (which is best practice to avoid buffer bloat), make sure you change these limiters to match your new FTTP service and then apologise to your ISP

 

[Berwhale]

I disabled the hibernation and the new sleep mode that is near hibernation but not a simple sleep. It is stated to be a deep sleep verging on hibernation according to experts information that I read last night. I must investigate more on this too. These two issues seem to be very naggy for me... Sigh*

Fast Startup is the one that catches people out. With it enabled, 'shutting down' the machine logs you out at which point the machine is hibernated (i.e. at the logon screen). This speeds up the subsequent 'boot' because the machine is resuming to an an already booted state. However, if you are used to a shutdown and power on being the same as a restart, then you are now mistaken. This has implications for things like software updates that require a 'real' reboot (which is why Fast Startup is often turned off via policy on corporate desktops and laptops).

System power states - Win32 apps

Learn about the multiple system power states that correspond to the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification.

learn.microsoft.com

WinToys is a handy tool for controlling this and other bothersome Windows settings...

Available on MS Store here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9p8ltpgcbzxd?hl=en-GB&gl=GB

And directly downloadable from here: https://bogdan-patraucean.github.io/about/wintoys/

 

[Doodski]

Is that really true? I think there's a rather large demographic that have used the internet for their whole lives who have never used dial-up.

A couple of weeks ago, I had my broadband connection upgraded from 900Mbps to 1600Mbps but I couldn't see any improvement with my Speedtest results*. My ISP asked me to setup a PPPoE connection on my Windows PC (bypassing my router) to prove that is wasn't an issue with the line. Opening the dial-up settings in Windows gave me a huge rush of nostalgia. I've had various broadband connections & routers in my home for the last 25 years...

View attachment 481212

*The connection ran at the full 1600Mbps using PPPoE from my PC, but at 900Mps through my pfSense firewall. Top Tip: If you have set traffic shaping limiters on your firewall (which is best practice to avoid buffer bloat), make sure you change these limiters to match your new FTTP service and then apologise to your ISP

Very interesting. I too have increased my ISP speeds over the years with the new speeds offered and the new modems/gateways. I too see that it requires a sunny day in July going downhill to get the rated speeds they state are in operation today. I have no idea of what to to at this time because it's a diminishing return at this point I think. The improvements have become such that I don't make time to deal with it anymore like the old days when a little more speed was a considerable and noticeable improvement.

 

[Salt]

New speed rates will need new routers to deal with ... on my case this will happen, if, when it happens, glass fiber is to be connected (somewhere in the future).

 

[Berwhale]

Very interesting. I too have increased my ISP speeds over the years with the new speeds offered and the new modems/gateways. I too see that it requires a sunny day in July going downhill to get the rated speeds they state are in operation today. I have no idea of what to to at this time because it's a diminishing return at this point I think. The improvements have become such that I don't make time to deal with it anymore like the old days when a little more speed was a considerable and noticeable improvement.

I am getting the full speed of the connection (which sadly is asymmetric)...

It was the limiter on my firewall that was the constraint (bandwidth was set to 900 previously)...

You can think of the limiter like restricting traffic joining a motorway (freeway), if you let too much traffic join, the whole thing jams up (the latency goes up). This is mainly an issues for latency sensitive activities like gamming or video conferencing. You can check if your router is susceptible to buffer bloat and would benefit from setting a limiter (if it has one) here: https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat

(I get an A+ with the limiter set to 1600, I could possibly squeeze a little more juice out of it, but it's good enough for me).

Anyway, sorry for the off topic meander. I'll let you folks get back to your Windows 10 reminiscing. Personally, i've been running Windows 11 for almost 6 years..

 

[Hemi-Demon]

Is that really true? I think there's a rather large demographic that have used the internet for their whole lives who have never used dial-up.

A couple of weeks ago, I had my broadband connection upgraded from 900Mbps to 1600Mbps but I couldn't see any improvement with my Speedtest results*. My ISP asked me to setup a PPPoE connection on my Windows PC (bypassing my router) to prove that is wasn't an issue with the line. Opening the dial-up settings in Windows gave me a huge rush of nostalgia. I've had various broadband connections & routers in my home for the last 25 years...

View attachment 481212

*The connection ran at the full 1600Mbps using PPPoE from my PC, but at 900Mps through my pfSense firewall. Top Tip: If you have set traffic shaping limiters on your firewall (which is best practice to avoid buffer bloat), make sure you change these limiters to match your new FTTP service and then apologise to your ISP

This could be more a function of the processor type in your pfsense firewall hardware. You would want a higher end AES-NI Intel based professor to garner the most throughput through your designated firewall. If you purchased the hardware from pfsense check the age of the unit, but you are most likely fine in that regard.

You may also want to check your home wiring to make sure it can handle 1.6Mbps, maybe upgrade to at least Cat6. Cat5(5e) should be fine with that speed, for short distances, but it's something to look into due to heat.

Also consider if the input and output nic ports match. At "least" a 2.5GB port on both ends would be preferable to sustain that much ISP bandwidth.

Lastly with ppoe isp systems there are a few settings that need to be set up in pfsense to optimize the tunnel speeds.

 

[Berwhale]

This could be more a function of the processor type in your pfsense firewall hardware. You would want a higher end AES-NI Intel based professor to garner the most throughput through your designated firewall. If you purchased the hardware from pfsense check the age of the unit, but you are most likely fine in that regard.

You may also want to check your home wiring to make sure it can handle 1.6Mbps, maybe upgrade to at least Cat6. Cat5(5e) should be fine with that speed, for short distances, but it's something to look into due to heat.

Also consider if the input and output nic ports match. At "least" a 2.5GB port on both ends would be preferable to sustain that much ISP bandwidth.

Lastly with ppoe isp systems there are a few settings that need to be set up in pfsense to optimize the tunnel speeds.

All good...

...and I have 'if_pppoe' enabled. The firewall is an Intel Celeron N5105 passively cooled 'routerbox' from China with 4x Intel i225 2.5GbE NICs (OpenBSD/pfsense did not support the i226 when I bought the PC)

After my ONT was upgraded to one with a 2.5GbE NIC, the lights were green on both the router and the ONT, which is why I initially thought that the speed profile on my FTTP hadn't been increased to 1600. The ISP engineer was insistent that Cat6A was required to support 2.5GbE, this irked me and somewhat blinded me to other avenues which needed to be explored (I should know better!).