Were you hoping for an extension of Windows 10 support? Microsoft has just quietly destroyed your dreams

When the big listed companies have good news to share, they write a press release so that the publications that cover their news spread this message and that everyone reads it. When they have bad news to announce, they publish a blog post on Friday in the late afternoon, before a long holiday weekend.

And when they have real bad news to share, they bury it at the end of a press release or blog post unrelated to the topic, hoping that no one will notice.

Now that you are armed with this knowledge, I invite you to read this unsigned article from Microsoft support, published today and entitled “How we are maximizing value in Windows 10.”You will find, in a footnote, this sentence: “The Windows 10 end of support date, set for October 14, 2025, remains unchanged”.

Customers have made it clear to Microsoft that they are not satisfied with this decision

To the untrained eye, this is a rather bland statement. If it’s unchanged, it’s not news, is it?

Well let me translate for you. Many Microsoft customers are still using Windows 10. Some do it by choice, others because they have perfectly functional hardware that runs on Windows 10 but does not meet the strict compatibility requirements of Windows 11.

For all these PCs in all these homes and offices, Microsoft is going to stop sending security updates in less than two years. At the end of the support date. These customers will then have a difficult choice to continue using unsupported software, which will make them vulnerable to cyber attacks, or to get rid of hardware in perfect condition and pay for new PCs equipped with an OS supported by the publisher.

Many of these customers have made it clear to Microsoft that they are not satisfied with this decision. In California, the public interest group CALPIRG has written an open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, asking him to rethink this policy. “Microsoft’s decision to end support for Windows 10,” they claim, “could cause the largest ever increase in the number of discarded computers and prevent Microsoft from achieving its sustainability goals.”

Microsoft’s announcement is therefore a way of saying: “No. No extension of the support. Sorry, not sorry”.

Upgrading is not possible for customers who use Windows 10 on hardware that does not meet the hardware requirements of Windows 11

To take a step back, Microsoft obviously put itself in a funny state of mind by putting itself in competition with… himself. The company claims that there are about 1.4 billion Windows PCs in use around the world today. But does not specify how many of them are still on Windows 10. Third-party statistics suggest that the percentage is still well over 60%, and over 70% in some parts of the world. That’s at least 800 million computers. Even if half of them are decommissioned or upgraded over the next two years, this still represents 400 million computers.

Microsoft’s defenders could argue that Windows 10 has reached the end of its normal 10-year life cycle. Windows 7 has not received a reprieve, nor has Windows 8. So why should Windows 10 be treated differently?

But upgrading is not possible for customers who use Windows 10 on hardware that does not meet the strict hardware compatibility requirements of Windows 11. When the month of October 2025 arrives, these devices will not have any migration path to a newer version supported by Microsoft.

“Replace ineligible Windows 10 devices with new Windows 11 Pro devices”

So what are the choices available to owners of computers that cannot be upgraded to Windows 11?

In another blog post, under the title “What about Windows 11? Microsoft offers this advice to these customers: “Replace ineligible Windows 10 devices with new Windows 11 Pro devices”.

I suspect Microsoft is offering corporate customers a loophole in the form of a paid support option for extended security updates. This is exactly what Microsoft did for three years after the end of support for Windows 7. Corporate directors may grumble, but they will sign these checks.

A dangerous and irresponsible choice

Unfortunately, this choice is unlikely to be offered to the very large number of people who use Windows 10 on home PCs or in small businesses. These people will probably continue to use their old operating system and ignore the increasingly urgent calls from Microsoft for them to replace their computer in perfect condition. Windows 10 will continue to work as it always has, even after the end-of-support deadline. But he will not receive security updates, which makes this choice more and more dangerous and irresponsible.

The good news is that this announcement from Microsoft does not close the door to a change of heart next year.

But finally, here’s a good tip: don’t forget to publish your press releases on a Friday at the end of the afternoon.

Source: “ZDNet.com “