Windows 10: Petition demands that Microsoft extends Windows 10 support

Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) petitioned Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella this week to reconsider ending support for Windows 10 in October 2025.

Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system was released in 2015 with a ten year support period. The operating system continues to be supported for the next 2 years. While it won't receive major feature updates anymore, it continues to receive security updates, bug fixes and the occasional new feature or change.

Microsoft released Windows 11 in 2021 as the successor of Windows 10. Users not familiar with the release may suggest to upgrade Windows 10 devices to Windows 11 to stay supported. This, however, is not possible in all cases.

The Windows system requirements changed significantly with the release of Windows 11. Microsoft did so for the first time in a long while. Windows 7, an operating system released back in 2009, had the same requirements as Windows 10, released in 2015.

The release of Windows 11 changed that and the ability for all Windows devices to upgrade to the new version. Microsoft decided to limit processors to those released in 2018 and later, and also added other requirements, such as a TPM chip.

Devices that do not meet these requirements can't be upgraded to Windows 11 using Windows Update.

PIRG's petition, Tell Microsoft: Don’t leave millions of computers behind, asks Microsoft to extend support for Windows 10. The organization claims that about 40% of Windows 10 and earlier PCs can't be upgraded to Windows 11 because of the new hardware requirements. This would leave millions of devices without support and has the potential of creating the "single biggest jump in junked computers ever".

While it is technically possible to upgrade Windows 10 devices to Windows 11, even if they do not meet the official system requirements, it is not something that most Windows 10 users may do. First, because it requires tinkering with the installation, and second, because Microsoft stated that it does not guarantee anything if a PC is not compatible. Even security updates might not be provided for these devices.

In reality, things have been less dramatic up to this point. The main issue that incompatible devices will run into is that some features are not available. Also, feature updates recheck compatibility, which means that tweaking is required once per year when these updates do get installed.

Extending Windows 10 support


Microsoft has not released a public statement regarding Windows 10's end of support. A likely scenario is that the company will copy what it did when Windows 7 reached end of support. Equally popular, Windows 7 reached end of support in January 2020.

Microsoft allowed Enterprise customers and businesses to extend support by up to three years for a price. Home owners on the other hand did not get such an offer.

Microsoft might extend Windows 10 support for three years or even longer using the same program. It is likely, however, that it will be limited to Enterprise and business customers once again.

This leaves Windows 10 Home owners with just a few options. Some may upgrade to Windows 11, if the device meets the system requirements.

Others may continue to run Windows 10, but that is a security risk, as Microsoft won't release updates for the operating system anymore. Third-party micropatching service 0Patch might come to the rescue, as it has done the same in the past.

The last option, at least when it comes to keeping the current PC, is to migrate to Linux. This is a great opportunity for Linux, especially if someone creates a tool to make the migration as easy as possible.

Closing Words

Microsoft's focus is on Windows 11 and the rumored release of a new version of Windows, maybe Windows 12, in 2024. If true, system requirements would likely stay identical to those of Windows 11, which won't be helpful to Windows 10 and earlier customers.

Now You: which operating system do you use? If Windows 10, what will you do in 2025?

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Microsoft Botches Up UEFI Support for Windows 7 on ASUS Motherboards



Microsoft suggests updating to Windows 10 to patch Windows 7

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• Chris Merriman
• 
  @ChrisTheDJ
• 05 May 2016

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MICROSOFT HAS confirmed a potentially lappy-borking problem that it won't be fixing, because Windows 7.

Woody Leonhard, the respected Windows columnist, points to a problem involving Asus motherboards, which also appear rebadged in a variety of other manufacturers' machines, and the activation of UEFI Secure Boot for Windows 7 in a patch KB3133977.

Short version: install update, welcome to Borksville, population you.

Both Asus and Microsoft acknowledged the problem. Microsoft entitled the article "BitLocker can't encrypt drives because of service crashes in svchost.exe process in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2", but we prefer to just call it "Trevor for brevity."

The firm's advice was that it's an optional update, leave well alone, you'll be fine, or alternatively turn secure boot off.

Then Microsoft did a silly, silly thing.

It moved the update from 'optional' to 'recommended' and anyone who reads this site regularly will know what happens when Microsoft does this. That's right boys and girls - it makes it automatically install, unless you've specifically told your machine not to.

So now, if you have one of the affected motherboard and you keep your security updates automatic like wot Microsoft recommends, then your machine will stop working properly.

We should add it's not permanently bricked, but it will take some mucking about in the BIOS to fix and that's a pain even for an experienced computer user.

Microsoft has, by offering a workaround, suggested heavily that it won't be fixing the problem, though we have asked the question, so expect a response in about a fortnight.

But the real kicker is this piece of advice: "Note The Secure Boot feature is supported in Windows 10. To learn more about the security advantages of this feature and about the upgrade path from Windows 7 to Windows 10, go to the following Windows website"

Holy toledo, this company really knows how to rub people up the wrong way.

After all - if the advice is to manually avoid the update or move to a version of the operating system where there's virtually no control over updates, then Microsoft is dealing in massive contradictions.

A more cynical site would suggest that it's yet another example of Microsoft running Windows 7 into the ground and adding built in obsolescence to encourage quicker updates. But we're not that sort of site.

Its the patching to force secure boot that is the problem win 7 does not support secure boot
hence it borks systems and well microsofts answer is Cactus >your Asshole > insert

from the inquirer