Should I click learn more?

It'll take you to info about Windows 11 and a utility that can tell you whether your computer is supported. If you're happy with Windows, go ahead -- you've already signed your life away to the Gates Emporium. That said, MS's offerings are moving more and more to a subscription model: i.e. you own nothing and have to make regular payments to use something you've already bought... It's a bit like modern cars where features can be remotely disabled and the essential software that lets you actually use the car is licensed, not bought!
 
GeoffL said:
It'll take you to info about Windows 11 and a utility that can tell you whether your computer is supported. If you're happy with Windows, go ahead -- you've already signed your life away to the Gates Emporium. That said, MS's offerings are moving more and more to a subscription model: i.e. you own nothing and have to make regular payments to use something you've already bought... It's a bit like modern cars where features can be remotely disabled and the essential software that lets you actually use the car is licensed, not bought!
Click to expand...
To be fair, a lot of software companies are going to a subscription/rental model. And while MS are certainly pushing the subscription method it is still perfectly possible to just buy a perpetual licence so you have full use of the software without further fees.
I just bought Office Professional 2021 one-off licence for around 9 months of the cost of getting 365 for example.

But actually, if you have a few people in a household who all need the software on their own computers, the subscription way of getting Office 365 Family is pretty decent value IMO as it also means everyone is kept up to date plus all have their own cloud storage within the price.
Obviously there are other options such as open office which is fine for those who want that route.
 
I'm fine with Win10 to be honest, I'm not over concerned with how MS makes it's money, and as far as a I know mine won't upgrade anyway.


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Don't have choice.
 
I am not sure what is the "deal breaker" for some systems to pass the upgrade test and some not to. If you haven't done before, go to this site and download the checker .... https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...hardware-f3bc0aeb-6884-41a1-ab57-88258df6812b

You might be able to make some changes to have it upgradable? My Tower is limited to Win 10 and one factor is the processor, which is apparently to slow despite running faster than other PCs I have that are running Win 11?
 
wildebus said:
I am not sure what is the "deal breaker" for some systems to pass the upgrade test and some not to.
Click to expand...
In my case, one machine (3 years old) has an unsupported CPU (i3-7130U @ 2.7GHz) while another (~10 years old and previously upgraded from Windows 7) doesn't support TPM 2.0. Here's the list of system requirements for Windows 11:

www.microsoft.com

Windows 11 Specs and System Requirements | Microsoft

Find an overview of Windows 11 specs and features from Microsoft. Learn about the device specifications, versions and languages available for Windows 11
www.microsoft.com

Looking at the specs for Kev's computer, he too has an unsupported CPU...
 
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All free and works the same, just sorted a i7 for a chap last week, phoned me up and over the moon with linux lite, mint is what most go for.best first distros.jpg
 
TJBi said:
Are you fine with Win 10 without further security updates?
Click to expand...

Pudsey Bear said:
Don't have choice.
Click to expand...
Actually, you do have choices:
  1. Microsoft is ending mainstream support for Windows 10 in October 2025. However, they will provide 'extended support' for three years for those willing to pay an increasing annual fee. Full details have yet to be released but you can get some info ->here<- and it's likely to not be cheap!
  2. Buy another computer with Windows 11 installed. The company I bought my last few computers from offers refurbished business machines at a fraction of the price when new. An example is a 15.6" Lenovo for £200 (cost £500 when new).
  3. Purchase security updates from a third party (I don't have full details, but you can find some info ->here<-).
  4. Install another operating system -- with the plethora of Linux distros being suitable (but not the only) candidates.
  5. Continue using Windows 10 past its "smell by date" -- but be extra vigilant because sure as eggs is eggs, the baddies will be rubbing their hands with glee seeking to exploit every vulnerability found after the last official security update. It might be as well to isolate that Windows 10 machine from the Internet and use another computer (even a Raspberry Pi will do) to retrieve and check material from the 'net.
HTH
 
@Pudsey Bear
FYI W11 can be installed on almost anything that supports a 64bit OS there are dozens of howtos online showing how to get around the cpu and tpm limitations I have it running on a couple of extremely old laptops that I use for vehicle diagnostics

Alternatively don’t be frightened of Linux
I run Linux mint as my primary OS it’s simply better in every way for day to day computing.
By far the best feature in Linux is the updates run efficiently, it does not spend its entire life reducing any older machine to a crawl (especially if it’s still using a mechanical hdd), whilst thrashing the disk drive and consuming 100% cpu installing the endless streams of bloated MS updates!

Linux can be booted from a usb stick and played with without installing it’s a bit slow from usb compared to running from a hdd but worth giving it a go.
 
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