October 14 is behind us, and that means one thing: the countdown to the end of extended support for Windows 10 has begun. Redmond is about to enter another self-inflicted crisis, giving the thumbs down to its most popular operating system, with less than ten years under its belt and 62 percent of the market share. That equates to millions of perfectly functional computers that cannot receive Windows 11 because of the arbitrariness of its requirements… and the underlying question is always the same: What about users?
The Story So Far
Windows 7 debuted on October 22, 2009, and its extended support under the ESU program lasted until January 2023. In fact, the “Embedded POSReady 7” edition for point-of-sale and kiosks concluded its ESU support last week, marking nearly fifteen years of patches and hotfixes.
If we count Windows 8 and 8.1 as a single operating system, support lasted from October 26, 2012, to January 10, 2023. Windows 8.x received no ESU, and the only exception (Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry) came in July of the same year. Less than eleven years, not bad for such a controversial design.
Now, everything seems to indicate that Windows 10 will be more aligned with what happened with Windows 7. Between July 29, 2015, and October 14, 2025 we have more than ten years, but we must add another three under ESU, and we cannot forget the LTSC versions that push the limit to January 2032. If this doesn't sound so bad on the surface, then what's the problem?
Windows 11: "yOu hAvE tO cHaNgE tHe Pc"
Besides not offering convincing reasons to make the jump, and suffering regressions in basic aspects like the position of its taskbar (which can't be changed without additional software), the biggest offense of Windows 11 lies in its hardware requirements. Under the argument of “greater security”, entire generations of functional computers have been left out of official support, and the solutions available on the Web (with Rufus at the forefront) only confirm the artificial nature of those restrictions.
When the time comes, it's likely that a good number of users will decide to bet on installing Windows 11 on "unsupported" hardware. There's also the possibility of using more exotic editions like Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC (which turns TPM, Secure Boot, and UEFI into “recommended”), and of course, it would be disrespectful to forget the different flavors of Linux.
However, no one can deny that the situation is very different: Previously, Redmond proudly announced the backward compatibility of its operating systems. Today, it is determined to annihilate any legacy option for the retail space, and the only “official path” it offers users is to upgrade hardware. Fortunately, there are alternatives, but the problem was created by Microsoft… again.
