Welcome to Incremental Social! Learn more about this project here!
Check out lemmyverse to find more communities to join from here!

Windows 10 is EOL in October 2025

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15988326

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. Existing LTSC releases will continue to receive updates beyond that date based on their specific lifecycles.

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-home-and-pro

mctoasterson ,

Yeah it's nice to know I have to build a new machine next year whether I want to or not. I've been coasting on a desktop PC I built circa 2015 because the thing works still. Problem is it doesn't meet the hardware reqs (TPM 2.0) to upgrade to Win 11.

Whether I build a machine in 2025 or not I think I will be making the switch to daily driving Linux. I am sick of the amount of time the end user has to spend debloating Windows and blocking its telemetry.

pastermil ,

You can start by putting Linux on that old machine. I'd use Linux Mint to begin with.

Lemonparty ,

So September 2025ish is when I need to decide which Linux distro to go with.

mindlight ,

Why wait with the switch until 2025?

Appoxo ,

Because theres no need to buy new hardware until then and the planned parts might get cheaper or a new deal is offered.

For example my planned motherboard was on sale with a local seller because they opened a new location and offered a 20% discount on Asus parts.

Ransack ,

I think they meant why wait to switch to Linux not the why wait to purchase newer hardware.

mindlight ,

Yup, They did.

intoverflow ,

You can bypass the TPM 2.0 requirements by pulling in your Windows 11 ISO into Rufus and then selecting to remove the TPM requirement in the prompt.
Drawback is when updating to new major releases of win11 (so I've heard) that you have to edit the registry.

Just going Linux is way cleaner.

barsquid ,

Are there TPM modules that one can drop in to motherboards to add that? I have TPM module headers, I keep wondering if I can get one to use with LUKS.

I think switching to Linux is the right choice regardless though.

Chev ,

Their hardware requirents don't make sense at all. I've built my new PC last summer with the best AMD tech available and I don't meet the requirements for some reason.

qaz ,

I suggest slowly switching to cross platform apps so you don't find out an app you're using daily won't work after moving to Linux.

CaptKoala ,

Lucky I already upgraded OS to not include any Micro$hit.

Hadriscus ,

Well this will be the month where I install PopOS

EndHD ,

I'd recommend doing a dual boot sooner and slowly shifting your files & apps. It took me about 3 months to find a distro and desktop environment i like, get my apps or alternatives installed, and get used to it.

If you wait until EOL, you may be overwhelmed and frustrated, increasing the likelihood of calling quits and accepting Windows 11.

Hadriscus ,

Thanks for the advice. I have run Fedora in the past so I have an idea of the alternatives I need. I will probably listen to your wisdom and dual boot

KillerWhale ,

I'm enjoying Pop_OS for 3 months now. No issues.

Willer ,

i cant access my laptops bios anymore tho after installing pop os

knolord ,

systemctl reboot --firmware-setup

That will reboot to UEFI setup instantly.

Willer ,

oh thank you i will try

Randelung ,

and we still can't get vmware to run properly on our company laptops. current theory is p/e core scheduling shenanigans. it's only been two years, what can you expect from the global leaders in virtualization and os.

i swear, before i upgrade I'll move my team to Linux. I've been mainlining debian for six years without issues, INCLUDING RUNNING VMWARE.

Tinks ,

Who knows, by then Broadcom may drive VMware into the ground too, making the whole thing moot!

Randelung ,

we use vmware because customers do. if they migrate - which they might because of the licensing thing - we will too. so it's an actual possibility already.

fingers crossed!

bfg9k ,

Dude fuck VMWare honestly

I'd bet any money they will go under in a few years, nobody is deploying a new vmware system after the shit Broadcom pulled

jabathekek ,
@jabathekek@sopuli.xyz avatar

It will be interesting to see how this impacts the market share lol.

cyberpunk007 ,

Probably not much, sadly.

jabathekek ,
@jabathekek@sopuli.xyz avatar

Yeah, IMO the majority of people that can switch to Linux already have. The rest are locked in by software they need for their livelihood that only works on Windows. Ofc you can tell them about WINE, but that doesn't always work very well and is outside of the comfort zone for most people (including me, who's been using Ubuntu since 2016).

codenamekino ,

Lemmy probably isn't the target audience for this, here's the steps to bypass the MS account requirement when setting up W11:

  • Configure your keyboard, but before you select your wifi network press Shift+(Fn)+F10 to open Command Prompt.

  • Type in the following command and press enter. Your computer will reboot:
    oobe\bypassnro

  • After the reboot, configure your keyboard and location settings, and click the option at the bottom of the page to say that you don't want to connect to the internet

  • Click the link on the next page to "Continue with limited setup", then follow the prompts to enter a username and password.

Dumbkid ,
@Dumbkid@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

If you use rufus to make a windows usb you can select to not require Microsoft account and bypass tpm right in the program, just get a windows 11 iso off the site instead of media creation tool

Hugh_Jeggs ,

Having checked a few Reddit threads by the Rufus dev, this seems the way to go!

selokichtli ,

Thank you. Now that I've showed you my appreciation, are you fucking kidding me?

LaunchesKayaks ,
@LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world avatar

Also, if you have windows 11 pro, you can do:

Sign in options
Domain join instead
Make local account

If you have windows 11 home you can:

put no@thankyou.com
Use whatever as the password
Hit next after the error message
Make local account

I do this shit at least three times a week at my job. It's the fuckin worst.

Appoxo ,

I wouldn't try it for a permanent machine as it could backfire when Microsoft trys to enforce it and could lock up the machine somehow (because bigs not because evil corpo)

DAMunzy ,

Great mini guide.

I love the weasel words "continue with limited setup" that Microsoft uses.

codenamekino ,

I agree, but I find something else even more weasel-y and annoying when I'm adding a second user to an already-configured W11 computer. If I'm adding them as a local account without a Microsoft account, I'll use Tab to navigate through the process of creating a username, password, and security questions. After the last security question, I'll hit tab to navigate to the "Okay" button at bottom left of the window, which seems like a reasonable expectation. Instead, Windows will highlight the "Back" button at the bottom right. If you aren't paying attention and hit enter or space bar, you have to start all the way back at the beginning.

I know that is a small dumb complaint, but when I'm setting 5 computers up in a row and tabbing through everything, my habits get the better of me, and I'll have to redo it two or three times out of the five.

DAMunzy ,

Legit complaint!

Hugh_Jeggs ,

Lemmy is exactly the audience for this, thanks!

It just seems like there are are more Linux users because they're constantly bleating about it in smug, self-congratulary comments

pirrrrrrrr ,

Yeah... I'm not gonna worry about it until maybe September next year.

Duamerthrax ,

September, the year after... maybe.

Do I trust hackers or Microsoft less with my gaming partition?

edboythinks ,

I've got money on Microsoft putting a dead man switch in the last win10 update

CaptKoala ,

I'm picturing in my mind, that they'll add an overlay that takes up your whole screen on login after October '25 that'll just say "Upgrade to Windows 11 now!" That you can't close.

HexesofVexes ,

At this point, I can use Linux for most things except older fangames, reliable printing (seriously, cups is pain), and some mmorpgs.

Once I get a month without the university shitting its pants and changing policy overnight, I'll eat the learning curve and switch (actually learn to troubleshoot wine rather than relying on searches).

When I move, thinking mint with cinnamon because I love that desktop.

gamermanh ,
@gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Being serious: what MMORPG or old game isn't able to run on Proton or Wine by now?

Literally everything I've tossed at Linux Mint and told "use proton 9" has just worked? Currently playing the most heavily modded FNV run I've ever done while also experiencing actually 0 crashes for the first time and I'm not actually 100% sure how that's happening?

I've been shocked with Linux's game capabilities through proton 9 at this point and would love to hear of a use case where it's not working just to see if I could get it working for the fun of it if I get some time

Classy ,

cups is pain

It's hilarious because it was FAR easier for me to get printing going on my Linux machine than with W10. It's an old printer, 1320n from HP, maybe 15 years old, but the damn thing is amazing for document printing, and I had to hunt for drivers and do a lot of compatibility shit to get my computer to recognize it. Arch (EndeavourOS) seemed to just natively recognize the printer and gave me zero fuss. When I was using Ubuntu, I used CUPS and it wasn't terrible. I liked it better than driver fishing, for sure.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I have had pretty much no problems printing, probably because I got a good printer (Brother laser printer). It just works every time.

cley_faye ,

What a coincidence. I had to install a W11 machine for a relative. The amount of backward decision in the first 20 minutes of checking the settings is mind boggling. Really? Can't open the start menu on "all apps"? Not even an option?

PotatoKat ,

I got a new machine and put windows on it and the amount of registry tweaks to get it even close to my windows 10 is ridiculous. Significantly more than what I had to do to 10 to make it a bit more like 7 back in the day. (I know i know get linux, but you can't play Dragon Ball FighterZ online with linux and that's the game I play the most)

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Fortunately, the number of Linux compatible games is increasing, and companies are actually considering Linux support now for games. I doubt that particular game will get Linux multiplayer support (who knows!), but maybe the next game you get into will!

So for anyone else who reads this: give Linux a shot! If it doesn't work for your games, try again in a year or so.

PotatoKat ,

Oh 100% give Linux a try. I run pop-os on my 10 year old gaming laptop and it runs way better than it ever did on windows. I'm sure if I put Linux on my desktop it would be even better. I just play too much dbfz and the console version has way too much latency for me to have fun on it anymore

cyberpunk007 ,

Windows has been more about telling you what you want instead of being intuitive for a few iterations now.

hydrospanner ,

"Intuitive" is basically telling you what you want and being right about it.

The opposite of telling you what you want isn't being intuitive, it's being flexible and customizable.

cyberpunk007 ,

Ok sure. But I think we can all agree when we click the start menu we don't want "recommended" apps. I don't want to click start and click apps to see the list.

I also can't be the only one that hates clicking start or pressing the windows key and typing in "word" or something then have it taken a bazillion years to search the web, and have hit or miss results or whether it suggests the app or some shitty web results.

It's also counter intuitive to remove features that already exist. Like right clicking the start button for useful shortcuts. Or right clicking the task bar for other things like the task manager (which they ended up bringing back, surprisingly). They also removed moving the task bar. These are things that already existed. They removed them. They didn't need to rebuild them. They were deliberate.

Bonesince1997 ,

I've heard you can pay to continue updates on Win10 for three years I believe it was.

catloaf ,

Yeah but who is going to do that outside business customers with strict requirements? Raise your hand if you ever even paid for a Windows license in the first place (other than one that came with the PC).

zeppo ,
@zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

I have an ancient PC with a nice video card, and it plays games from about five years ago quite well I haven’t felt a need to upgrade. Unfortunately, I play a couple games with kernel level anti-cheat stuff and I don’t think they will work with linux.

applepie ,

They will not but that is not a linux' fault, developer/owner/publisher made that choice.

IHeartBadCode ,
@IHeartBadCode@kbin.social avatar

What's wild is that one of the people who write anti-cheat software was saying they needed to get their shit working on Linux like yesterday.

So I mean, it crazy that Windows is literally having some folks scramble on how to get their shit working on Steam/Linux.

ricdeh ,
@ricdeh@lemmy.world avatar

I don't want that kind of anti-cheat on GNU/Linux. It is invasive to the point of being all-seeing spyware. If one cares so little about one's privacy and system integrity, one should go back to M$ Windows.

Boozilla ,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

Assuming I still have my current job at that time, this is really going to suck for me. I have an old virtual PC runnning Windows 10 that I use once in a while to maintain some shitty old software. It was a giant PITA setting it up. I regularly back it up because of that.

Hopefully I can just continue using it, but I'll need to disconnect it from the internet somehow. Will still need some limited LAN access. I guess it will require some strict firewall rules. I know just enough about networking to muddle through...maybe.

cyberpunk007 ,

Put it on its own vlan behind a firewall and permit only what is required.

AmbroisindeMontaigu ,

The period after MS stopped messing with it and before software stopped supporting it was the nicest time to use Windows 7, I expect it to be the same for Windows 10.

Blaster_M ,

Controversial Take:

Windows 11 is actually decent

Kongar ,

It’s 10 with some extra BS. It runs. But I wouldn’t call it decent. Definitely a controversial take ;)

Take my upvote not because I agree, but because you are brave! ;)

applepie ,

give us 3 reasons why

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar
  • Stable
  • Lots of features
  • Very widespread support
cyberpunk007 ,

The funny thing is I use Mac Linux and Windows daily. Windows 11 on my surface. This is my business computer. Mac for the employer I work for. Linux for my personal desktop. 11 crashes all the time. Start menu and task bar glitches. Random UI elements not loading properly. I frequently need to restart explorer.exe. I get thunderbolt dock issues and glitches. This does not occur on the MacBook. Or my old windows 10 work laptop.

I actually like 10 now. 11 is hot trash. I'll take 12 over it so far from what we know of it.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

Whereas I use Windows 11 on all of my machines, including one I use for my job as a programmer and regularly put through the wringer, and I don't actually know what the Windows 11 version of the blue screen of death looks like because I have never crashed the OS. I can't recall the last time I saw a bug like what you're describing, either. So I don't know what you're doing wrong with your Windows 11 install, but it seems I've somehow avoided it without particularly trying.

cyberpunk007 ,

Me neither, I have mainly Microsoft software on there. It's Microsoft's own tablet lol. It probably would help if I reinstalled but I can't be bothered. It "works".

circuscritic ,

The major problems isn't Windows 11 usability, although those issues due exist. UI and workflow issues can typically get addressed, or mitigated, by 3rd party tools.

The real concerns are the exponential increases in spyware, such as the AI recovery tool that records all user interactions, or the native advertising inside of the system itself e.g. Start Menu ads.

If native AI data collection and advertising is baked into all nooks and crannies of the system, the ability of users to mitigate those threats becomes extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible to completely resolve.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

You can turn off Recall with a simple toggle in the settings.

There's no need to switch operating systems, just turn it off.

dukethorion ,
@dukethorion@lemmy.world avatar

Do you trust that its off? Or just off for You?

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

I trust that Microsoft fears the lawsuits that would ensue if they were caught lying about it, and that they wouldn't derive any significant benefit from lying about it. Why would they?

dukethorion ,
@dukethorion@lemmy.world avatar

Because legal fees and fines are the cost of doing business for Big AdTech

circuscritic ,

Even if you trust that one feature will actually be disabled, that was just one example.

Do you really believe you can disable and remove all of the numerous data collection and spyware components that are baked into all aspects of the OS?

I'm not saying no one should use Windows 11, but they should be honest with themselves about the trade-off they're accepting.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

Even if you trust that one feature will actually be disabled, that was just one example.

The other one mentioned was the start menu ads. Those can also be turned off with a simple toggle in the settings. Finding this was as simple as Googling "turn off windows start menu ads", it was the top result.

Do you really believe you can disable and remove all of the numerous data collection and spyware components that are baked into all aspects of the OS?

Yes. Because Windows is used by a lot of big giant corporations that would sue the hell out of Microsoft if it wasn't possible to disable those features.

ricdeh ,
@ricdeh@lemmy.world avatar

First of all, there are specialised Enterprise distributions of M$ Windows. Furthermore, what ground would any company have to sue M$ on what the latter put in their own operating system?

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

I work for a big giant corporation and plenty of its computers don't run Enterprise Windows.

A lawsuit would come in the case that Microsoft was lying about whether you could disable those features. Microsoft has put toggles for them into the settings, if it turns out that those toggles don't actually disable the things they claim to disable then that's where Microsoft is going to face legal issues. Do you really think Microsoft cares enough about the tiny portion of their customer base that's going to change the default settings that they would risk that sort of lawsuit to "spy" on them?

cyberpunk007 ,

Yes. Just like you can turn off a bunch of the windows 10 crap with registry keys and tools. Why. Why does a user need to go to such lengths to make their OS they paid for not soy on them and deliver them ads?

"Oh it's not that bad!" You'll say. Ya. Windows 10 wasn't THAT bad for it. Then came 11. Then 12 will come. Inch by inch it will turn to shit more and more, and that is the point.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

But this really isn't a registry key or tool, though. Did you click my link? It's a simple on/off toggle in the system settings menu. You just open the settings and click "off." I don't see how much simpler they could make it.

cyberpunk007 ,

You need to consider the bigger picture. Not this specific thing.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

I haven't had to edit the registry in as long as I can remember. Not just for this specific thing. What stuff are you talking about?

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • technology@lemmy.world
  • random
  • incremental_games
  • meta
  • All magazines
    •