Microsoft will stop selling Windows 10 on January 31, 2023

Bree · 25 Jan 2023

cheaterslick said:

There may even be an ESR for Win10 after 2025 so it could be even longer than that.

That's possible, but Win8.1 didn't get an ESR. The Win7 ESR was for three years, but to get the ESR updates you had to pay an annual subscription.

cheaterslick · 25 Jan 2023

Bree said:

That's possible, but Win8.1 didn't get an ESR. The Win7 ESR was for three years, but to get the ESR updates you had to pay an annual subscription.

Win 8.1 didn't have the wide spread adoption that 10 does. That's why it never happened.

XP and Windows 7 both had ESR and there are ways to get it without paying for it. I definitely won't mention how to do that in this forum.

There are workarounds to install 11 on almost anything though, I have several unsupported devices running 11.

That's another possibility. I won't do it now, though. Only if and when I have to.

And Linux is still yet another possibility, so there are still plenty of ways to avoid junking this computer.

Bree · 25 Jan 2023

cheaterslick said:

...That's another possibility. I won't do it now, though. Only if and when I have to...

It's quite easy to try Win11 without affecting your currently installed Windows. Some of my unsupported devices dual boot their original W10 and native boot a W11 .vhdx. As long as you install the same edition as your W10 (Home or Pro) it will activate from your PC's existing digital license. One advantage of using native boot is that when you are done testing you can just delete the .vhdx file to remove 11 from your system.

Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) Tutorial | Windows 11 Forum

cheaterslick · 28 Jan 2023

Bree said:

It's quite easy to try Win11 without affecting your currently installed Windows. Some of my unsupported devices dual boot their original W10 and native boot a W11 .vhdx. As long as you install the same edition as your W10 (Home or Pro) it will activate from your PC's existing digital license. One advantage of using native boot is that when you are done testing you can just delete the .vhdx file to remove 11 from your system.

Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) Tutorial | Windows 11 Forum

As a virtual drive, yes that is also a possibility. I'm not sure my hardware has the specs to run it, though. I'd have to check.

I've also heard people upgrading from Win 10 to Win 11 using unsupported hardware, but aren't you stuck using the same old build and can't upgrade from that?

tinmar49 · 24 Mar 2023

I mostly use W11, but my laptop is W10 because it only has a sixth generation Intel processor, not because of missing TPM, it has TPM2 built in from new.

Phone Man · 24 Mar 2023

cheaterslick said:

As a virtual drive, yes that is also a possibility. I'm not sure my hardware has the specs to run it, though. I'd have to check.

I've also heard people upgrading from Win 10 to Win 11 using unsupported hardware, but aren't you stuck using the same old build and can't upgrade from that?

I upgraded an old unsupported Lenovo laptop from W10 Pro 22H2 to Win 11 Pro 22H2 and it works great. It does get build updates but it may not get a Feature updates when 23H2 is released in the fall. May have to do a repair install with 23H2. Once a year is not bad. I started with Build 22621.525 and updated to 1194, 1265, 1344, and now on 1413 through Windows Update and no problems.

Jim

Mark Phelps · 24 Mar 2023

cheaterslick said:

...
I've also heard people upgrading from Win 10 to Win 11 using unsupported hardware, but aren't you stuck using the same old build and can't upgrade from that?

I have a couple of "unsupported" PCs upgraded from Win10 to Win11 -- and they are still getting updates regularly.

I am surprised because I thought MS would have cut them off long ago ...

erpster4 · 26 Mar 2023

Bree said:

That's possible, but Win8.1 didn't get an ESR. The Win7 ESR was for three years, but to get the ESR updates you had to pay an annual subscription.

although the Win8.1 client OS didn't get ESR updates, its "server" counterpart (aka Server 2012 R2) will get ESR updates after October 2023

cereberus · 26 Mar 2023

The single biggest issue is MS's shameful arrogance in having an OS that forces users to upgrade hardware to officially install it.

This totally ignores lower paid, unemployed, disabled persons, pensioners etc. who cannot afford hardware upgrades.

It totally cocks a snook at 3rd world countries where buying new pcs is very difficult. So much for "we are a global country and believe in equality".

MS have to relax the W11 upgrade criteria or else they are going to take a big reputation hit as we approach end of 2025.

Look at the current usage:

Microsoft will stop selling Windows 10 on January 31, 2023-s.png

73% of users are still on W10!

There is no way, the usage levels will change that much in the next couple of years.

"2026 MS market evaluation - the company that abandoned over 50% of its users as they did not contribute enough to their profit. They can no longer be trusted".

RingTailCoon · 26 Mar 2023

cereberus said:

The single biggest issue is MS's shameful arrogance in having an OS that forces users to upgrade hardware to officially install it.

This totally ignores lower paid, unemployed, disabled persons, pensioners etc. who cannot afford hardware upgrades.

It totally cocks a snook at 3rd world countries where buying new pcs is very difficult. So much for "we are a global country and believe in equality".

MS have to relax the W11 upgrade criteria or else they are going to take a big reputation hit as we approach end of 2025.

Look at the current usage:

73% of users are still on W10!

There is no way, the usage levels will change that much in the next couple of years.

"2026 MS market evaluation - the company that abandoned over 50% of its users as they did not contribute enough to their profit. They can no longer be trusted".