Non-profit group begs Microsoft to extend support for Windows 10

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Why it matters: The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) is a federation of US-Canadian non-profit organizations working to promote consumer protection, public health and transportation. The group is now asking the largest software company in the world to defer the end of official support for Windows 10.

The PIRG network recently opened a petition to Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella, asking his corporation to not "junk millions of computers" which are still using Windows 10. The operating system will continue to receive official, mainstream support and security updates until October 14, 2025, while the newer Windows 11 OS will be supported for the foreseeable future.

Microsoft's decision to end support for Windows 10 in 2025, ten years after the system's original release to manufacturing and retail channels, could cause the "single biggest jump in junked computers ever" PIRG's petition says. Microsoft would miss their self-imposed sustainability goals, the petition continues, and Windows 11's stringent hardware requirements could result in 40% of PCs still in use being left behind.

For the first time in Windows history, Windows 11 introduced unprecedented system requirements (like a functioning TPM chip) that forced many Windows users to avoid the (mostly free) upgrade. Even if they wanted to, they couldn't jump to the latest and greatest Windows version, which was released in 2021.

Windows 10 remains the most widely used operating system in the PC ecosystem, powering 71% of all Windows computers, whereas Windows 11 holds just 23% of the market share. Perfectly functioning, Windows 10-powered PCs are present in hospitals, businesses, and homes, PIRG's petition states, and Microsoft's decision to stop supporting them is a "raw deal" for customers who expect their expensive technology to last.

All software eventually reaches the end of its support period, PIRG concedes, but the Windows 10 situation is different. Hundreds of millions of PCs could potentially turn into "junk," the non-profit organization says, and the consequences to our environment are so grave that we "shouldn't accept it" yet.

Microsoft is planning to extend its exclusive, paid support for Windows 10 until January 13, 2032, at max. But the company would, of course, very much prefer customers purchase newer PCs to run Windows 11. The company was already forced to lengthen official support for extremely popular Windows editions (XP, 7) in the past, and market conditions could suggest a similar fate for Windows 10 as well.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100661-non-profit-group-begs-microsoft-extend-support-windows.html

 

[Superconductor]

MS, saving the planet - one version at a time.

 

[yRaz]

If Ms has been forced to extend support for older operating systems, what does that say about the wants and needs of customers. Microsoft also said windows 10 would be the last windows so if I was a business owner and upgraded all my pcs under that assumption, I'd be pissed

 

[JKnight]

Corporations would happily destroy the planet to make their shareholders happy in the short term. If they really cared about sustainability they would not have required TPMs in Windows 11.

 

[Adhmuz]

Windows 11 will run on many older systems, just need to remove the TPM 2.0 requirement from the installation media. Granted I don't know the long term effects of doing this as once I tried Windows 11 I immediately passed on it and went back to Windows 10. Then upgrade my computer which could now run it without this tweak. However, I will remain on 10 for as long as I can as 11 doesn't provide any meaningful advantages to me.

 

[noel24]

The poorer half of My family still runs Windows 7/8 and Haswell/Phenom CPUs. And see no reason to upgrade. No viruses, no money stolen from bank accounts, so I suppose It depends what You do on Your PC. Just corporations peddling scary headlines.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

For anyone whom just browses the internet, give them linux. There is no reason to use windows for basic home tasks anymore.

Business is a sticking point with active directory. Always will be. but now, with everything moving to web, web based platforms are gaining traction, and they are OS agnostic. See also: Apple and JAMF.

MS marketshare is already down to 75%, I predict thats gonna get a lot worse over the next decade if they keep this up.

MS, saving the planet - one version at a time.

MS cares about the planet as much as they care about their employees.

 

[OortCloud]

I've used Windows all my life but recently the OS has become such a burden - constant updates nobody asked for, constant prompts to switch to Edge and Bing, constant nonsense about AI Copilot etc, constant attempts to snoop on the user in new ever more devious ways - even the new free email client now includes adverts. I dual boot a Linux Mint install these days and find myself using this more and more and Windows less and less. If they could just make it play all the games without issues at launch I would be fully done with Windows and would not miss it at all. If you had told me this five years ago I wouldn't have believed you.

 

[slybunda]

Photo in the article shows machines which would barely run windows xp lol.

 

[Gezzer]

I'm with them on this one. There's really no reason for a lot of people to upgrade to Win11. I'm not saying that M$ has to keep releasing features or drivers. All they really need to do is stability and security patches. While security is always an issue, stability IMHO should eventually become a non issue. Hell, half the problem with Win10 is new features keep borking the stability. But I fear M$ has more sinister plans with either Win11 or it's successor, Win12? Eventually they want Windows to be a closed environment just like Android or iOS. That's the motivation behind making bit-locker and TPM mandatory. And that'll be impossible with a large Win10 user base...

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I'm with them on this one. There's really no reason for a lot of people to upgrade to Win11. I'm not saying that M$ has to keep releasing features or drivers. All they really need to do is stability and security patches. While security is always an issue, stability IMHO should eventually become a non issue. Hell, half the problem with Win10 is new features keep borking the stability. But I fear M$ has more sinister plans with either Win11 or it's successor, Win12? Eventually they want Windows to be a closed environment just like Android or iOS. That's the motivation behind making bit-locker and TPM mandatory. And that'll be impossible with a large Win10 user base...

They could just release a windows 11 lite, or windows rolling release, for those on older hardware to keep them secure. But no.

They absolutely want that walled garden, they've tried it before (remember the metro app fiasco?), but they also know that legacy is the only reason anyone uses windows as a consumer. They'll lose all non business customers to the likes of apple if they push too hard, and they know it. Hell they're still losing marketshare, down to 75% now.

 

[i like foxes]

I stayed on Win 11 just 5 min . Once I noticed it was taking 3GB RAM just in idle , I right away uninstalled it . Win 10 is taking 1.9GB . Despite my PC has 16GB , I dont want memory hogs as Win 11 . My CPU doesnt have e cores so I m in no need of Win 11 .

 

[Ben Myers]

Photo in the article shows machines which would barely run windows xp lol.

You beat me to it with your comment. They all probably run MS-DOS quite well.

 

[Ben Myers]

I'm with them on this one. There's really no reason for a lot of people to upgrade to Win11. I'm not saying that M$ has to keep releasing features or drivers. All they really need to do is stability and security patches. While security is always an issue, stability IMHO should eventually become a non issue. Hell, half the problem with Win10 is new features keep borking the stability. But I fear M$ has more sinister plans with either Win11 or it's successor, Win12? Eventually they want Windows to be a closed environment just like Android or iOS. That's the motivation behind making bit-locker and TPM mandatory. And that'll be impossible with a large Win10 user base...

Bitlocker is not mandatory. If you install Windows 11 from a flash drive onto a fresh new SSD, no BitLocker. You can also circumvent Microsoft conning you into having an account on the Microsoft borg ship. If you choose to use BitLocker, save the BitLocker key on a flash stick and print it out. DO NOT put it into the greedy hands running the Microsoft borg, or you will be assimilated.

 

[Manu Arg]

Windows 11 will run on many older systems, just need to remove the TPM 2.0 requirement from the installation media. Granted I don't know the long term effects of doing this as once I tried Windows 11 I immediately passed on it and went back to Windows 10. Then upgrade my computer which could now run it without this tweak. However, I will remain on 10 for as long as I can as 11 doesn't provide any meaningful advantages to me.

The problem is not the end user that probably does not care alot about security, the problem is the business user where you have an it department trying to get the most security possible for the employees and disabling TPM is the opposite of that.
I'm not a tech savvy guy but I really hope that there was not another way around for Microsoft to improve security, otherwise this is going to be a electronic waste nightmare

 

[Manu Arg]

I stayed on Win 11 just 5 min . Once I noticed it was taking 3GB RAM just in idle , I right away uninstalled it . Win 10 is taking 1.9GB . Despite my PC has 16GB , I dont want memory hogs as Win 11 . My CPU doesnt have e cores so I m in no need of Win 11 .

A lot a w11 ram usage comes from cache, is hungry af.
It honestly runs at the same level if not a little more faster than w10 once you give it time to cache, index and all that stuff.
Anyway, if you can avoid the update I would lol

 

[Hotlynx16]

The poorer half of My family still runs Windows 7/8 and Haswell/Phenom CPUs. And see no reason to upgrade. No viruses, no money stolen from bank accounts, so I suppose It depends what You do on Your PC. Just corporations peddling scary headlines.

Unfortunately most of the browsers will quit supporting Windows 7/8!

 

[magisys]

MS could simply remove the fake requirement of tpm and other crap from windows 11, it can run everywhere where 10 runs now...

 

[toooooot]

I stayed on Win 11 just 5 min . Once I noticed it was taking 3GB RAM just in idle , I right away uninstalled it . Win 10 is taking 1.9GB . Despite my PC has 16GB , I dont want memory hogs as Win 11 . My CPU doesnt have e cores so I m in no need of Win 11 .

32gb is the new standard. I mean you can't possible stay for this long on 16GB hoping it is enough. 8GB used to be enough. Now 16 is barely enough.

 

[brucek]

Glad to see this issue being understood by mainstream organizations. They should also help the public understand that the units not junked, and no longer patched for security, will become weaponized against not only their owners but all those who are in some way dependent on the modern IT ecosystem (I.e., everyone.)

But the pressure shouldn't only be on Microsoft. It should be on legislators and courts to make sure that should Microsoft proceed with this, the legal liability for the predictable outcome falls squarely on its head. Microsoft created Windows 10, is responsible for the bugs in it, and has the ability to either keep supporting it, or to allow the devices running it today to run Windows 11 in the future.

 

[brucek]

32gb is the new standard. I mean you can't possible stay for this long on 16GB hoping it is enough. 8GB used to be enough. Now 16 is barely enough.

I understand how it can feel that way on Windows, but using any other operating system will show how unnecessary that is.

 

[Puiu]

I stayed on Win 11 just 5 min . Once I noticed it was taking 3GB RAM just in idle , I right away uninstalled it . Win 10 is taking 1.9GB . Despite my PC has 16GB , I dont want memory hogs as Win 11 . My CPU doesnt have e cores so I m in no need of Win 11 .

Checking RAM like that is useless. In fact you want to the OS to allocate more of your free RAM to speed things up.

What you are seeing isn't a problem, it's a good feature. The OS doesn't actually block that RAM, it just reservers it for commonly used apps/tasks until it is needed by a RAM hungry application.

 

[nismo91]

The poorer half of My family still runs Windows 7/8 and Haswell/Phenom CPUs. And see no reason to upgrade. No viruses, no money stolen from bank accounts, so I suppose It depends what You do on Your PC. Just corporations peddling scary headlines.

both sandy-bridge and haswell are really good. I forgot which article did a 10 year intel core comparison and I remember haswell was the most power efficient. skylake and the following generations were consuming more power.

I had two i5-4460 system and one i5-2500 system which serves me well for over 8 years. all of them ran windows 11 just fine (with TPM disabled naturally) and with 16GB RAM they are still capable of running modern games. I remember last year DDR3 prices were so cheap I still find upgrading them to 16GB is worth the price.

all those pcs can still play fortnite chapter 4 season 1 which was out in march this year. game was well known for CPU and RAM heavy. it's pretty obvious when you're in a match the CPU are often at 100% constantly, RAM usage is maxed out at 16GB and the loading screen is a little slow sometimes. but with the right graphics card you can still play smoothly at 1080p.

I only upgraded to 12th gen i5 few months ago, as the ssd and memory prices were record low. just realized that I used the same PC for 9 years. it's a testament how good haswell architecture is. I mean frankly speaking back in 2013 I don't think I can run modern games on my 2004 socket 478 pentium 4. it's pretty slow and hot.

 

[i like foxes]

@Puiu , 3GB usage of Win 11 , not including cached data . I have 16GB and I am not going to 32GB any time soon .

nismo91 , I tried to install Win 11 (Tiny 11) on i3 2350M and it crashed at installation - the laptop hung . I used the options /product server to skirt the requirements but to no avail .

 

[Ben Myers]

Windows 11 will run on many older systems, just need to remove the TPM 2.0 requirement from the installation media. Granted I don't know the long term effects of doing this as once I tried Windows 11 I immediately passed on it and went back to Windows 10. Then upgrade my computer which could now run it without this tweak. However, I will remain on 10 for as long as I can as 11 doesn't provide any meaningful advantages to me.

TPM 2.0 is not the only requirement for Windows 11. Microsoft claims that CPUs older than Intel 8th gen lack some instructions or capabilities that would slow down Windows 11 a lot. I have long believed that this claim is a large crock of steaming horse manure, and people running Windows 11 on older hardware have not complained about serious performance issues. TPM 2.0 debuted in 2014(!!) and mainstream systems built soon after had TPM 2.0 built in.