Posted on 02/23/2025 9:59:57 AM PST by fireman15
It’s official: after 10 years of noble service, Windows 10 will reach its end on October 14, 2025, and what a great decade it’s been. For many users, Microsoft redeemed itself after a run of disappointing operating systems – the mere mention of Windows 8 still sends some people into a rage – but Windows 10 got it right.
That’s why the announcement of Windows 11 came as a shock. It felt too soon, too rushed – and unnecessary. Many believed that Windows 10 deserved more time to marinate. At least until it finally managed to migrate the whole Control Panel to Settings.
Jokes aside, Windows 10 made its mark with its support of legacy software, flexibility and its introduction of enhanced cloud integration in the form of OneDrive, which made accessing your files from any internet-connected PC a breeze. Its regular security updates and long-term servicing channels (LTSC) made it especially popular with businesses. (If you want to see the good stuff you will have to follow the link above.)
(Excerpt) Read more at techradar.com ...
Go back to Win-7 Pro x64; still the best OS that MS has ever released.
How do I figure out what Windows do I have?
No!
Not ready...
Putting aside the fact I have HP stock and not Dell stock, I find the fingerprint reader on my personal HP to be easier to use than the fingerprint reader on my work issued Dell. Other than that, I don’t find much difference in usability. Both use Intel processors which have been problematical in recent years, but I’ve had no issues. AMDs are as good these days and are frequently a little cheaper.
HP does start sending nagware at about the 3 year point that they won’t sell you hardware or service so you need to buy a new one. I’ve been ignoring that without issue.
Of course, my mainstay is a 12 year old Acer tower running Win7. It’s choked a few times on high needs graphics, but otherwise continues to meet all of my needs.
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I still vote for XP for the best; but Win7 is a strong second.
heck, i haven’t upgraded from windows 7 ... just use the “User Agent Switcher and Manager” addons to fake latest versions of chrome, firefox and Windows to the outside world and pretty much all websites still work just fine ... and so far, H&R Block Software continues to work just fine on W7 ... i could care less about much of anything else ...
I have a laptop that was very expensive and top of the line in 2017. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have TPMS 2.0 and the CPU, although very fast, isn’t “approved”. There are ways to get Windows 11 on this laptop without those things, but it may degrade security and MS may on a whim stop updating it if I do. So, I might buy a used Win11 laptop and put Linux on the older machine. I have software the requires Windows and I just can’t get rid of it yet/cut the Windows 10 machine off the network.
Or, I might just get a very powerful laptop, put Linux on it, and run Windows 10 on it un-networked in a VM.
These days, I would NEVER operate an unsupported machine/OS on a network or introduce new un-scanned software on it.
I’m a Linux guy, but here is something I ran across at Ghacks the other day that might be useful...
Win95 has all I need.
XP Pro was a great OS, and is maybe a tie with Win-7 Pro. Anything from Win-8 on, is pure poison and stupidity.
Win 7’s GUI is still the best IMO. The modern Windows UI is designed to operate on a traditional desk computer or a tablet or a computer (laptop or desk) with a touchscreen, and it stinks at all of them.
Windows 10/11 are giant pieces of spyware. It’s galling that they have the nerve to charge for it.
I also setup most of our computers to dual boot but I also use virtual machines either locally or over our home network. With USB 3 and beyond combined with fast external NVME drives... Windows or Linux “to go” installations work as well or sometime better as than a normal installation to the internal drive.
I have been a computer hobbyist since the late 1970s. I got my first “digital” experimentation kit probably from Radio Shack about the same time handheld electronic calculators started becoming affordable to consumers. I had a bunch of electronics kits from Heathkit and from Radio Shack.
My initial obsessive interest was in chemistry, but my mother made me switch to electronics after I stunk up the house one too many times. Although I was always a curious child.
My favorite author growing up was Alfred P. Morgan and I worked through a bunch of his books such as the Boy Electrician, which has always been one of my favorites.
Thanks, that is helpful.
EXCEPT — XP has quite a few known exploits that can be targeted by many bots, hackers and probes.
The whole Windows Kernel was rewritten in Windows Vista (5.0) to specifically close them.
As the years went by, exploits were found in the 5.X kernel, and Windows 10 is kernel 10., as is Windows 11.
The cybersecurity profile of every operating system gets pored over by experts and bad guys every day. The longer in production, the more likely a unpatchable hole is found.
Microsoft stopped providing any patches for XP LONG ago, and & a few years ago. The same will happen to Windows 10 next year.
Using them when connected to the Internet is risky.
Start>run>winver
Yes, I meant to notify you about this thread; I just got sidetracked.
I spent several days wrestling with Windows installations with my wife's old laptop to get it to work well with a computer controlled bicycle trainer that we use. It plays video on our big screen television while we ride through the Italian countryside (or thousands of other locations) in perfect weather. When we go up a hill it gets much harder and I have to shift down, and we can coast going downhill. It is called Rouvy. https://rouvy.com/ It is a little expensive compared to other programs we have used but more pleasurable for us.
I purchased my wife a new laptop on a Black Friday special at Costco this year with Windows 11. She absolutely loves it and doesn't care what OS she is using as long as it works smoothly and she has the software that she is familiar with.
I upgraded a laptop from 7 to 10 for free, and another from 10 to 11 for free. So eager to get the spyware on that they didn’t charge me.
No, windows 2008r2 was/is better than all those. 2012 was good also.
Have not done much with 2022 or 2025
I’ve had W11 on four computers since it came out and it has been rock solid on all them.
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