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Will Microsoft really make older pre 8th Gen working laptops obsolete electronic waste in Oct 2025

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  • booneruk
    booneruk Posts: 713 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 3 January 2024 at 3:31PM
    alanwsg said:
    Windows 10 will be 10years old in 2025, which is the usual length of OS support from Microsoft.

    Given there are plenty of people running Windows7/8 and even those still running XP, I don't expect Windows 10 use to vanish even after support for it drops. Some people seem to have a dislike of patching and subsequent tolerance of vulnerabilities.
  • Bonhomie
    Bonhomie Posts: 365 Forumite
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    edited 4 January 2024 at 11:55AM
    facade said:
    Bonhomie said:
    facade said:
    It depends on what the damage caused by all the stories of shipfulls of perfectly serviceable PCs going to poorer countries to have the metals recovered by environmentally destroying & dangerous processes will cost them, compared to what they will get from the licences on all the new PCs sold to replace them.

    As Bonhomie says, Win 11 will run perfectly on most of these machines (I'm running it on a 3rd gen Intel), all they need do is make it official.  Secure boot was a requirement for win 8 certification, which would have been 4th gen intel, and possibly some 3rd.

    Things aren't looking good though, Microsoft have recently stopped people using Win 7 keys to install Win 10 & 11.

    I don't really understand most of what you have written. They have 'made it official' that you can install Windows 11. They just aren't going to guarantee that everything will work on your older laptop for it's lifetime. What's new? Nothing.
    Carry on as normal.
    If people were that worried about such things, they wouldn't have carried on utilising Windows 7 for as long as they did. But they did. 
    There are always going to be sheep waiting to do as they are told, by Microsoft or whomever. Even if we tell them here, they'll wait until it's done for them(or not).

    Official in the sense that the message that says



    is replaced by the offer to install win 11.

    Yes, if you know how to search for how to do it, and are comfortable editing files, or use Rufus to make an installer you can get win 11 to install, a lot of people aren't.


    I still think it is just a ploy to sell more new PCs, and with them a lot more licences.



    Anything is possible, but it's also understandable that they might not want to have to support devices say from perhaps 2009. No one else is doing that.
    They could allow the install to go forward with the same provisos and warnings of "up to you"  Would that make it 'official' enough for you?
    What would you do?
    You don't even need to dig down into the Registry. You can apply a simple .reg file. Double click it to apply, confirm and it's done.
    But then there is the trust factor in the reg file download that might become an issue.

  • alanclarke
    alanclarke Posts: 295 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    I've just installed Windows 11 on a 12-year-old laptop that fails most requirements for Win11, see video at https://youtu.be/ug__CVQQQsc

  • tghe-retford
    tghe-retford Posts: 1,018 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Newcad said:
    Windows 10 is going to be in use for years to come. Just like XP and Win7 are still widely used in business, (and in many homes).
    Or if you want to then you can forget MS Windows and put a different Operating System on those machines.
    Other OS's will do everything that Windows can.
    Linux has long been a favourite to put on old XP and Win 7 laptops to give then a new lease of life. (I've done it myself and it's fairly easy).
    Linux Mint is a popular 'flavour' (version) of Linux, there are others:
    https://helpdeskgeek.com/linux-tips/linux-mint-a-beginners-guide-and-pro-tips/
    ChromeOS Flex is also fast becoming popular for turning an old Windows (or Mac) laptop into a 'Chromebook' like computer.
    It can be used on desktops as well.
    https://www.androidpolice.com/chrome-os-flex-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-use-it/
    There are plenty of other OS's out there, but those are the 2 which are the currently popular Windows replacements.
    So older computers can continue to be used, with up-to-date modern Operating Systems, and with Microsoft nowhere in sight.
    Old computers only become e-waste if/when YOU choose to throw them out.


    Major Linux distributions and the kernel (if you want Linux to work, you'll need the kernel!) are also going the same way with planned obsolescence. A number of computers with older CPUs up to recent times will find themselves unable to boot and there's also the planned transition from the Xorg Server display and input standards to Wayland which will cause problems for older hardware using legacy graphics drivers.
  • Newcad said:
    Windows 10 is going to be in use for years to come. Just like XP and Win7 are still widely used in business, (and in many homes).
    Or if you want to then you can forget MS Windows and put a different Operating System on those machines.
    Other OS's will do everything that Windows can.
    Linux has long been a favourite to put on old XP and Win 7 laptops to give then a new lease of life. (I've done it myself and it's fairly easy).
    Linux Mint is a popular 'flavour' (version) of Linux, there are others:
    https://helpdeskgeek.com/linux-tips/linux-mint-a-beginners-guide-and-pro-tips/
    ChromeOS Flex is also fast becoming popular for turning an old Windows (or Mac) laptop into a 'Chromebook' like computer.
    It can be used on desktops as well.
    https://www.androidpolice.com/chrome-os-flex-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-use-it/
    There are plenty of other OS's out there, but those are the 2 which are the currently popular Windows replacements.
    So older computers can continue to be used, with up-to-date modern Operating Systems, and with Microsoft nowhere in sight.
    Old computers only become e-waste if/when YOU choose to throw them out.


    Major Linux distributions and the kernel (if you want Linux to work, you'll need the kernel!) are also going the same way with planned obsolescence. A number of computers with older CPUs up to recent times will find themselves unable to boot and there's also the planned transition from the Xorg Server display and input standards to Wayland which will cause problems for older hardware using legacy graphics drivers.

    I heard that there was talk of dropping i486 support, is anything newer than that going to be dropped?  I don't read the kernel mailing list so am not up to date.

    As for X that's OS independent so whether it appears in a particular distro is up to the distro.  See also init vs systemd.
    Proud member of the wokerati, though I don't eat tofu.Home is where my books are.Solar PV 5.2kWp system, SE facing, >1% shading, installed March 2019.Mortgage free July 2023
  • Newcad
    Newcad Posts: 1,746 Forumite
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    edited 9 January 2024 at 3:01PM
    Well this weekend I sucessfully installed the latest Windows 11 23H2 on a 15 year old laptop that doesn't meet a single one of Microsoft's 'minimum requirements' for Win 11.
    Microsoft will block you if you try to just do the upgrade, but there are ways round that.
    I used a programme called Rufus to create an installation USB with the workrounds included. it was very easy to do and took just a couple of hours to get Windows 11 up and running.
    I didn't even need to boot from that USB, just running the 'Setup.exe' created on it started the upgrade.
    All my apps and data carried over without problem and are now running fine in Windows 11.
    Personally I don't care much for the Win11 interface, but like any new Windows version I suppose I'll get used to it.
    The point is that the Microsoft 'Minimum Requirements' for Windows 11 are not technical requirements at all.
    Technically if your computer can run Windows 10 then it can run Windows 11.
    It's just that M$ want you to only run it on "newer/better" hardware.
    So if you do upgrade an older machine from Win10 to Win11 then it should work fine, with 2 things to bear in mind though.
    1- Windows Update will still do all the required updating for Security, monthly updates, etc. - except that you won't be able to do 'Feature Updates'.
    That is updating a version from say Win11 22H2 to Win11 23H2, M$ will again say 'does not meet minimum requirements'.
    So for that you will need to create a new USB and use that to update to the new version, a bit more of a faff but you will only be doing it once or twice a year.
    2- You have used work-arounds to install Win11 on your older hardware, and M$ could block those work-arounds at sometime in future.
    In the end it's probably not for a user with absolutely no computer knowledge, but it doesn't take that much knowledge to do it sucessfully.
    For those interested in trying it here's a good how-to video:
    Install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.
    Backup you current computer first, (make a full image if possible), and make sure you know how to reinstall Win10 if it should go wrong.
    As with all such things if you are not sure then don't try - you are doing it entirely at your own risk.



  • spud17
    spud17 Posts: 4,431 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 9 January 2024 at 10:45PM
    I've got Windows 11 running fine with an i5-6500, 16GB RAM and 500GB NVME.
    I installed it using Rufus and everything was straight forward, not my first install.
    I need to do a feature update, I've been otherwise occupied and have got behind.
    Can I update straight to 23H2 or do I need to do the intermediate first?

    Edit: I see that that it jumps from 22H2 to 23H2, I thought that there was one in between.
    Move along, nothing to see.
  • Newcad
    Newcad Posts: 1,746 Forumite
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    edited 10 January 2024 at 11:36AM
    spud17 said:
    I've got Windows 11 running fine .......
    I need to do a feature update, I've been otherwise occupied and have got behind.
    Can I update straight to 23H2 or do I need to do the intermediate first?

    Edit: I see that that it jumps from 22H2 to 23H2, I thought that there was one in between.
    There wasn't a Win 11 23H1.
    As you already have Win 11 22H2 installed then it's even easier to update it to Win11 23H2.
    You could use Rufus again, see the video linked above for how to use Rufus to update Win11, however:
    This video (from the same guy as the one I linked above) gives 2 new ways to do it, one using a Win11 23H2 ISO, the other even easier if you already have Win11 22H2 installed:
    Update 'unsupported' hardware to Win 11 22H3
    (Note that he hints there that the first method will also work to update Win10 to Win11 23H2 on 'unsupported' hardware, as it's installing from an ISO I think that it should do, but it's actually Win11 22H2 that he updates).
    In the video listen to the warning at 15:50, M$ are aware of the work-arounds and may be working on blocking them.
    The ethical aspects of M$ forcing non-technical requirements on users are another question, but be aware that it could happen.
    Personally I'll keep saving money and am not buying a new computer until I really have to.

  • spud17
    spud17 Posts: 4,431 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Quote: "Personally I'll keep saving money and am not buying a new computer until I really have to."
    Totally agree, mine runs fine and does everything I need it to do.
    Move along, nothing to see.
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