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Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

arstechnica.com

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Re: Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

#11

Post by charcircuit »

bezier-curve wrote: post #5
_mlbt wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 10 came out almost 10 years ago and they offered a free upgrade to Windows 11. I know people love to hate on Microsoft, but they’ve done better than most technology companies when it comes to security updates here. You’re lucky to get even half of that length of support from most Android devices for example.

If we're comparing them to other software companies, what would be their fairest comparison? Is there another company that manages the overwhelming majority of client desktops around the world?

Google with over 50% mobile os market share and they support each Android version for 3 years.

Re: Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

#12

Post by gpm »

_mlbt wrote: post #3
bell-cot wrote: post #2

As the article's title notes, with strings attached .

Windows 10 came out almost 10 years ago and they offered a free upgrade to Windows 11. I know people love to hate on Microsoft, but they’ve done better than most technology companies when it comes to security updates here. You’re lucky to get even half of that length of support from most Android devices for example.

Windows 10 was marketed with the promise of being the "last version of windows" by microsoft employees. Personally I think they should be held to that promise, at least in so far as supporting it as long as they still support any other version of windows.

The upgrade to windows 11 is not free in so far as it doesn't support the hardware that people have.

Re: Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

#13

Post by KronisLV »

I have to say that after switching to Windows 11, I don't hate it as much as I thought I would. I'm still a bit upset that they took away vertical taskbars from us, but some things like multi-GPU support is better than in Windows 10: https://blog.kronis.dev/blog/what-is-ruining-dual-gpu-setups

On the other hand, for whatever reason Windows 11 right now refuses to install updates (I think the logs complained about their own web view components being unavailable last I checked, which is wrong because they definitely are there), which is kind of embarrassing.

With news of many games also performing better on Linux distros nowadays like https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/06/games-run-faster-on-s... it feels like vendor lock (certain anti-cheat and software not running on anything else) and familiarity is increasingly what's keeping folks on the platform.

While I've also seen my friends struggling to get an Arch install just right, it's nice to know that if I'm willing to say goodbye to some games (e.g. looking at https://www.protondb.com) and software (I actually like the Windows version of SourceTree and tools like WinSCP and MobaXTerm and even Notepad++), then I could go back to using Linux Mint with Cinnamon as my daily driver again - pretty pleasant setup.

Re: Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

#14

Post by eviks »

> Microsoft's efforts do seem to be paying off (or, at least, some combination of Microsoft's efforts and Windows 10 PCs naturally aging out of the install base). While Windows 10 is still running on the majority of Windows PCs worldwide (about 53 percent, according to Statcounter's May 2025 data)

53% is huge mere months away from the end, and actually means that the efforts have resoundingly failed.

Re: Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

#15

Post by octo888 »

gpm wrote: post #12
_mlbt wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 10 came out almost 10 years ago and they offered a free upgrade to Windows 11. I know people love to hate on Microsoft, but they’ve done better than most technology companies when it comes to security updates here. You’re lucky to get even half of that length of support from most Android devices for example.

Windows 10 was marketed with the promise of being the "last version of windows" by microsoft employees. Personally I think they should be held to that promise, at least in so far as supporting it as long as they still support any other version of windows. The upgrade to windows 11 is not free in so far as it doesn't support the hardware that people have.

> Windows 10 was marketed with the promise of being the "last version of windows" by microsoft employees

It was just that - marketing! To get a load of people to migrate to it, right? "Do it guys, it's the last one you'll need to do, we promise"

Trust Microsoft? Not even once

Re: Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

#16

Post by internet2000 »

It’s silly games like this that justify piracy. If I can get the extended support in 2 minutes by changing the edition and reactivating OR by doing an hour worth of Bing searches with Adblock on to accumulate the points, what’s the difference to them? It’s all fake.

Re: Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

#17

Post by herf »

The backup requirement shows a lot of self-awareness from Microsoft, but it's still too hard to migrate a Windows machine. Contrast with a new Mac, I wait a few hours, and all my stuff is identically copied over via the built-in tools, and it feels like the same machine. With Windows, preferences all over just don't really copy. I don't care about a few .docx files, I want hundreds of legacy apps and settings to be preserved. As it is, it's more than a week of work when you get a new PC.

Re: Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

#19

Post by eviks »

_mlbt wrote: post #3
bell-cot wrote: post #2

As the article's title notes, with strings attached .

Windows 10 came out almost 10 years ago and they offered a free upgrade to Windows 11. I know people love to hate on Microsoft, but they’ve done better than most technology companies when it comes to security updates here. You’re lucky to get even half of that length of support from most Android devices for example.

On the other hand, there is no reason you have to calibrate your principles to some random metric of "most"

Re: Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026

#20

Post by sedatk »

_mlbt wrote: post #3
bell-cot wrote: post #2

As the article's title notes, with strings attached .

Windows 10 came out almost 10 years ago and they offered a free upgrade to Windows 11. I know people love to hate on Microsoft, but they’ve done better than most technology companies when it comes to security updates here. You’re lucky to get even half of that length of support from most Android devices for example.

Win11 doesn’t support all hardware Win10 runs on. Free upgrade is meaningless in that sense.
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