Posted on 07/18/2025 1:35:20 PM PDT by fireman15
Choose wisely. Your PC could end up vulnerable to online threats otherwise.
This fall, Windows 10 will reach its end of life—at least, as defined by Microsoft. On October 14, the company ends feature updates to the operating system. Security and stability updates also become restricted—a potential liability, depending on the choices you make now.
To help users successfully navigate Windows 10’s extinction event, Adam Patrick Murray sat down with ethical hacker Mike Danseglio to talk options. The goal: To find the best option for your PC to stay current with security updates and patches, no matter the age of your hardware. AI tools have increased the speed and volume of online attacks, with vulnerabilities more easily discovered and exploited.
The duo frames the possibilities as a decision tree, with two main branches: PCs compatible with Windows 11, and those that aren’t. For systems ready for Windows 11, Mike simply recommends upgrading—and making the jump before the October sunset. I echo this advice, as doing it well before the deadline ensures your PC will keep receiving uninterrupted security patches.
(Not sure if your PC’s compatible? If it has an Intel 8th-gen or Ryzen 2000 chip, you’re probably fine. Windows Update—or a Microsoft nag screen—will tell you.)
If your Windows 10 computer is too old to upgrade to Windows 11, you can choose between five different potential paths—but only three are smart choices, according to Mike:
Do nothing Buy a new device Pay for updates Modify your Windows install Install another OS Doing nothing leaves you open to vulnerabilities in Windows 10, which attackers will unearth as time passes. Exploits could then allow hackers to run code on your PC, steal your data, or even potentially remotely render your hardware unusable.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
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I wouldn’t discourage you from purchasing a new PC with Windows 11. I purchased a new Windows 11 Ryzen based mini-pc a couple months ago for $129 on sale at Amazon and it is absolutely amazing. Of course, I am someone who never stops tinkering so by the time that I ended up upgrading the memory, upgrading the wifi & bluetooth module and upgrading the storage I have more into it than if I would have just purchased a more expensive unit. This one has twice the storage, and twice the memory for $30 more if you use the coupon. That is $159 for a very capable Windows 11 mini-computer.
https://www.amazon.com/MAGICNUC-AS1-Computers-Graphics-3%C3%97USB3-2/dp/B0FCFQDPKK
Of course, my best advice for purchasing a new computer is to wait until one you like at Costco goes on sale. I have a gaming laptop with one of the latest Intel processors and a NVidia GPU but I am a big fan of Ryzen based computers. They are the best value by far... It would be hard to go wrong with this one from Costco.
At Costco you get a two-year warranty and if you decide you don’t think the laptop’s color matches your drapes you can take it back 3 months later with no questions asked.
Tiny 11 is not supported by Microsoft.
I upgraded to LINUX MINT. It also runs many windows programs with WINE software or Crossover. I use Libre Office software for word processing, spreadsheet, presentations and draw. It works great on older machines without the windows bloatware taking 15 minutes to load software. YMMV. IMHO.
RE: Post 53. I considered Mint for my old Win10 PC but found setting up and maintaining Linux was tedious "for me". Windows provides me convenience and ease of use. Finding a great deal on a Win11 laptop is what sold me on Win11.
The best thing people can do is upgrade to Linux
i love that diskette image...
Disk 1 of 7079 indeed!LoL!
Yeah, I’m on a fixed income and can’t afford to plonk down $1k+ on a new desktop computer. I get a deal for cheap ISP service @ $30 mo. and use consumer cellular @ $25 mo. for my telephone service.
Honestly when I run Win10 on my i3 2 core PC it takes 15 minutes to load and I have to click and wait a minute when I open an app. Honestly it reminds me of my C64 and disk drive 40 years ago. :-)
It's an oldie but goodie, and I forget where I stole it from, nearly a decade ago. The original was Windows 10, so when Win11 came out I touched it up in two places to say "11". I didn't touch the copyright, so that still says "...-2015".
So by now it's probably well over 7079!
I'm not a gamer. Edge Browser, Open Office and Thunderbird are what I run 95% of the time. I recently bought an out-of-box Ryzen based laptop from BestBuy - $120. Performance is far better than my old Win10 laptop. I make use of a 150GB external storage device previously used on my Win10 machine as my Win11 'Documents' library.
I use various flavors of Linux every day in my little hobbyist style "home lab". I have a great NAS setup that uses Debian. I have an Apache2 Webserver running in Ubuntu Server. I have various niceties running in CasaOS inside Xubuntu Minimal. My favorite distribution is Ubuntu Studio and I could go on. Every machine I own has some form of Linux available on it either in a multiple boot setup, a virtual machine, or on “To-Go” NVME drives.
But there are many very valid reasons why there are still approximately a Billion machines running Windows 10. A big part of it is because the vast majority of people have chosen to use Windows machines since it was first introduced 40 years ago. I have a bunch of hardware and software designed for Windows 10 that I have no intention of trashing or retiring because Microsoft and a bunch of hardware manufacturers and software developers want to extract every last dime from my wallet.
“For desktop computers and laptops, Microsoft Windows has 71%, followed by Apple's macOS at 16%, unknown operating systems at 8%, desktop Linux at 4%, then Google's ChromeOS at 2%.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
Like it or not these are the numbers quoted pretty much everywhere. Approximately 1 in 25 people who use desktop computers and laptops choose Linux. The other 24 out of 25 people choose not to use Linux. Why? Their reasons vary.
I started this thread to let people here who are Windows 10 users who for whatever reasons do not want to migrate to Windows 11, or switch to Linux or Apple that there currently is an economical solution that will allow them to keep their current setup. This solution will probably until their computer is on its last legs. Because errors in their operating system will be detected and corrected, all their old updates will be replaced with fresh ones, and their core OS will be replaced... most machines will run slightly faster and likely a little more reliably than they are with their current setup.
Is this a good solution for everyone? No, most people should probably spend the money for new hardware and software and migrate to Windows 11. Some of us just do not appreciate having our arms twisted and manipulated into this type of action. Microsoft is a bad actor for trying to encourage people to send perfectly good hardware to a landfill. If instead of helping Windows 10 users stick with what has been working for them for a lot of years... you want to chastise them and try to shame them into switching to an operating system that may or may not eventually work out for them... Be my guest!
Yes, I love my new little guy. I put some extra money into it. I have a bunch of older computers that I use for server and other duties. I bought my wife a Ryzen based Dell Laptop with Windows 11 for a reasonable price. And I purchased a powerful Intel/NVIDIA laptop to use with various Flight Simulators. I am using the little mini computer for various purposes, but I am shocked by the performance that I get out of it. Most people here would do well to replace their older desktops with one of them. They use much less power, so the cooling is more than adequate.
I am sorry that I did not notice your post until reviewing the thread just now.
There is no excuse to put up with that type of performance. You must realize that there is something very wrong with the Windows 10 installation on your i3 2 core PC. I have Windows 10 running on much less capable hardware with very quick bootup times and apps loading very quickly. One of them is a Lenovo G560 laptop with a Pentium P6200 processor which has maybe half the power of your i3.
To be that slow but still functioning your computer is using “virtual memory” on an old spinning hard drive. There could be many reasons why all of your actual RAM is being used up by the operating system or malware. You could likely get it working acceptably by replacing the old drive with a much larger SSD for less than $20 and doing a clean install of Windows or Linux. Then put your old hard drive in a spare slot in your computer or a USB enclosure and copy your data to your new SSD.
Honestly though unless you like tinkering like I do... you would be better off buying a new or used replacement. You don't have “plonk down $1k+ on a new desktop”. The last new desktop computer that I purchased few months ago was a “mini-pc” that came pre-installed with Windows 11 and was on sale for $129. By your description it is dozens of times more capable than your current machine and was ready to go out of the box. All I needed to use it was a keyboard, mouse and monitor all of which I and probably do as well.
Or you could get an older “refurbished” machine already working for even less. There is no good excuse to put up with the performance that you describe.
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