End of support by Microsoft.
Time to talk about Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 on the 14th October, and what this actually means. So if your computer is on Windows 10 at the moment then this is for you. The first thing to say is that your computer won’t stop working after the 14th. You may be getting a pop-up warning you that support is ending, just click ‘OK’ and it will go away. Secondly, no one from Microsoft, or ‘Windows’, (or similar) is going to ring you to ‘help you upgrade’ so if you get a call like that, it’s a scam so hang up.
What ‘ending of support’ actually means is that Microsoft will no longer be issuing updates, or fixes for Windows 10. But in reality they haven’t been updating it for a while anyway as they concentrated on Windows 11. However, I am confident that should a major issue with Windows 10 be spotted, they would release a ‘fix’, as they did after ending support for Windows 7. Confusingly, they will be releasing updates to their Microsoft Edge browser, and to their Windows Defender Anti-Virus programs for the foreseeable future. I understand other web browsers (Chrome, Brave etc) will also be updated, at least until 2028.
So what should you do with your Windows 10 computer? If you have a message saying Windows 11 is ready to install, then let it do it. If on the other hand, you have message saying your PC is ‘not compatible’, then my advice is to get me to look at it so I can check to see if it can upgrade to Windows 11 a different way, (other computer shops are available, but may give you conflicting information). I want you to keep using your computer and will tell you honestly if it can. or can’t, be upgraded. If you can bring it to my shop in Horrabridge on a Wednesday, I will check it for free but a small fee will be payable for a home visit.
In my experience, any computer running Windows 10, is perfectly capable of running Windows 11. What surprises me is that Governments haven’t woken up to the fact that Microsoft are arbitrarily condemning billions of perfectly good computers to landfill/recycling because, basically, they want to sell more licences. That is my personal opinion and I’m sure would be denied if they were asked!
The reason most of us can’t upgrade automatically is because Microsoft have put a restriction where your Motherboard must have a ‘Trusted Platform Mode 2.0’ module on it, and have ‘secure boot mode’ in the BIOS. There’s a whole article I could write about those two things but you don’t need to know really. What some clever people have done, is to alter the Windows 11 installation files so that the checks for those are bypassed. Interestingly, part way through the set-up, a warning appears that your computer isn’t compatible, and you have to click ‘OK’ to continue! All Windows updates seem to install as normal.
Another irritation with Windows 11 is that during set-up, you are made to create a Microsoft account on the computer. Thus giving them access to all your web searching and what programs you use. It’s bad enough you have to do this on your mobile phone, your Windows computer was the last place you could have some sort of basic privacy. Again, clever people found a way to circumvent this and I use the trick whenever I set up a PC or laptop.
Please get in touch if you have any questions about any of the above.