Windows 10 refuses to go gentle into that good night
theregister.com
theregister.com
Just use the ISO and Rufus.
Make me lose respect even more for Microsoft, to think of all the wasted resources and money people thought they needed to because of “requirements”
Many of the security features on Windows 11 that require these hardware changes, are already available on Windows 10 as optional.
The reasoning is that they shouldn't be turned off, and this is a way to force OEMs to actually provide the hardware on their motherboards.
What it isn't said is that PC sales have been down for a while and Covid was kind of the exception due to the way everyone needed to work from home.
Both Intel and AMD CPUs have fTPMs (ie. inside the CPU) since 2020 at the latest. There's no additional hardware that's needed from OEMs.
I'm aware of zero DRMs that use TPM, despite being a DRM boogeyman for over a decade. Meanwhile there are plenty of actual DRMs that use HDCP and SGX and there's not a peep about those technologies. Moreover the war on DRM is basically over, for both sides. Smart TVs and streaming boxes (eg. fire TV stick) are ubiquitous enough that basically everyone uses those devices for playback, rather than bothering with the hassle of plugging in their laptop and dealing with the fickle DRM experience on PCs. For the tiny minority that wants to watch on their PCs, 4K rips are ubiquitous enough that nobody bothers watching the official DRM encumbered version.
However it is possible for the more technically minded without too much effort with an adapted "unattend.xml" file during setup. This skips TPM requirements account setup and a number of other annoyances.
See: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/
If you take the effort to do this subsequent installations will be a walk in the park.
As workarounds for TPM requirement, one can either:
- open a Command Prompt window during the Windows installer and run regedit (various Youtube vids cover it)
- use Rufus to create a boot USB from a Windows ISO that bypasses TPM (which does the same regedit hack behind-the-scenes by conveniently embedding it in an install script "\sources\$OEM$\$$\Panther\unattend.xml")
That's how I got Windows 11 installed on a very old 2009 computer. I had to upgrade a friend's computer to Win 11 because the upcoming TurboTax 2025 requires it and there's no need to buy a new computer just to satisfy Microsoft.
>And that may break with any update.
Yes, and that's an acceptable risk calculation to avoid prematurely buying a new computer because:
"Windows 11 TPM hack _might_ be broken in the future but _maybe_never_ " -- better than -- "Windows 10 _absolutely_will_ be broken"
> Yes, and that's an acceptable risk calculation to avoid prematurely buying a new computer because: ...
- there are 3 year esm updates - Linux based os that are nowadays more stable than windows
Aside from lack of security updates and slowly declining application support is there any other type of "broken" that we should be worried about? They seem like a lower risk than a Windows update taking out the entire system.
I'm thinking I'll probably repave it with Bazzite or something like it. But so far I keep procrastinating that as it stopped being my daily workhorse. It's funny that when I bought that desktop Microsoft was still in the "Windows 10 will last the lifetime of your device" marketing pitch. Such a fascinating broken promise that they could have kept in multiple ways. It sounds like they may let the market talk them into the awful Windows XP life support version of it where they may be offering extended security support for years to come.
I honestly thought Microsoft would blink on this but I guess their leadership believes everyone is going to run out and buy an entirely new computer just to run Windows 11. My older parents (for example) aren't going to throw away their perfectly functional desktops/laptops and will instead continue to use Windows 10 with the attendant security risks (they won't pay $30 for security updates) unless I convince them to switch to Linux.
Unless you are personally prepared to go round to the homes of people who have had their computer for a decade, don't understand command lines, and just use their long-running PC to surf the net and edit the occasional document, it doesn't actually solve anything.
One of the things I loved about being on macOS was how boring it was to upgrade - at least until you waited for the .1 update.
Windows upgrades feel less like upgrades and more like full migrations.
But they still work and honestly, I don't see much downside to running them without any updates for a while.
Eventually I'll replace them and maybe they will get win 11 or 12. Or Linux as that's what everything else is already running.
> https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32658340
"Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft development executive, said in a conference speech this week that Windows 10 would be the "last version" of the dominant desktop software.
His comments were echoed by Microsoft which said it would update Windows in future in an "ongoing manner".
Instead of new stand-alone versions, Windows 10 would be improved in regular instalments, the firm said.
[...]
In a statement, Microsoft said Mr Nixon's comments reflected a change in the way that it made its software.
"Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner," it said, adding that it expected there to be a "long future" for Windows.
'No Windows 11'
The company said it had yet to decide on what to call the operating system beyond Windows 10.
"There will be no Windows 11," warned Steve Kleynhans, a research vice-president at analyst firm Gartner who monitors Microsoft."
EDIT: Another article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/05/08/microsof...
It really wasn't. Basically all the claims of "Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows" traces back to that quote, but that was basically an offhand comment by a low to mid level salesperson (think account "executive"), and was not substantiated by other communications from microsoft, contrary to what your article claims. "ongoing manner" doesn't mean "forever". Microsoft also had clearly outlined lifecycle policies that certainly did not promise forever support.
In Germany, people took this marketing very seriously - and that is why an insane amount of people there are furious about Microsoft's broken promise and the cancellation of support for Windows 10.
I think it's more likely that the devrel guy who made that remark was just being overly enthusiastic about the OS getting feature updates over time. For some computers, that policy meant that they didn't even get the promised 10-year support duration, as the footnote on that page mentions:
> Updates are cumulative, with each update built upon all of the updates that preceded it. A device needs to install the latest update to remain supported. Updates may include new features, fixes (security and/or non-security), or a combination of both. Not all features in an update will work on all devices. A device may not be able to receive updates if the device hardware is incompatible, lacking current drivers, or otherwise outside of the Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (“OEM”) support period. Update availability may vary, for example by country, region, network connectivity, mobile operator (e.g., for cellular-capable devices), or hardware capabilities (including, e.g., free disk space).
So far Windows 11 on the new rig has been very smooth/stable and I can't think of any issues I've had after 2 weeks of gaming and other typical use. But the amount of internet-driven widgets that ultimately are a medium for ads is frustrating.
Look for support at https://endof10.org/
Check it out if you're curious and pass it along. It's some things I wish I knew when I started as a kid.
For the average user and even semi-enthusiast, 5+yo hardware with Win10 works just fine. I just upgraded last year, but it was probably the longest stretch I've gone between new PC's and even then it was as much FOMO as it was necessity.
Also depending upon some variable, there are two different slow image editors that can display the image when you click on it. They work differently also!
In contrast the W10 experience worked much faster and more predictably.
This is Windows 11 home. I wonder if people complaining about ads have some 3rd party adware installed, or are just parroting what they have heard about the evils of Microsoft?
I might just go full linux, but 2-4 times a year this would make some friends sad when I can't play the crazy invasive anti-cheat games.
Was the push I needed to give up on 25 years on Windows which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Linux ended up being a much better and more productive OS for Developers than Windows, esp. if you do all your deployments to Docker/Linux servers.
They probably need to do more to resolve the issues keeping people from updating. (Well, they should have been doing this all along.)
$dayjob issued me a Windows 11 laptop. I asked what to do with my old Windows 10 laptop and they said "dispose of it responsibly"... I put linux on it.
Microsoft, you guys need to give actual incentives to upgrade, not punishments for not doing so.
I've got a backup of my files of course, but this mismanagement of what Windows 10 was supposed to be (the last Windows) combined with all of the new AI stuff in Win11 just wasn't worth the new hardware spend for an OS I only use occasionally. Most of my use is MacOS.
I die a little inside every time I start to type my PIN on Win11, stop, wait for the lock screen to give way to the PIN screen, then type it again now that the keystrokes are going to the right place.
And I launch programs by hitting the windows key then typing eg. "putty" dozens of times a day. And mostly it's fine, and maybe 10% of the time it's like "what's that, boy? you wanna search the interweb for "putty" using bing on edge? YOU GOT IT!" No, friendo, I want to launch the same goddamn putty.exe that's in c:\bin\ and that I've run a bunch of times already in the past hour.
Also the Spotlight-style search built into the start menu was far better than just clicking through nested menus.
It really should just be built-in like Spotlight on MacOS but then you wouldn't see as many Bing ads.
https://www.reddit.com/r/missoula/comments/1nvfvwc/linux_tra... s/
I'm not against a fresh coat of paint but the replacement should be better outright without compromise.
And I’m sure as hell not going to pay for Windows 11 when Windows 10 works “fine” (about as well as Windows ever does, which isn’t exactly high praise).
(Full disclosure: I used to work at Microsoft in the Windows team; obviously the culture there has shifted considerably).
How to keep it going into that good night.
At work, I also have a number of industrial machines that have a Windows 10 PC attached, they're all running LTSC as well (sourced a little more legitimately through OnLogic). It's not likely that Microsoft is going to abandon all the kiosks and CNCs and digital signage with whom they have enterprise licensing agreements - at work, we have lawyers and contracts, and they all say we're covered through January 13, 2032.
Unfortunately, a lot of niche communities have decided to stick to developing for Windows machines no matter what (especially game development and modding ones), so using Linux isn't that practical about now.