Ditching Windows 10 machines for Windows 11

[emeryjre]

The push is on for updating/buying new computers capable of running Windows 11
Microsoft is going to stop providing updates and security patches for Windows 10 machines on October 14 of this year
What are people planning on doing
I have already switched laptops several years ago to new machines running windows 11
I have some legacy desktops that were extremely high end 6 years ago and they run just fine
But they are not Windows 11 capable
Thoughts

 

[n42]

If you have a device that is no longer receiving security updates, then I would strongly recommend against connecting that device to the internet.

 

[billymach4]

Have a 10yr laptop not compatible with win11. On this one I will likely get a new model.

The push is on for updating/buying new computers capable of running Windows 11
Microsoft is going to stop providing updates and security patches for Windows 10 machines on October 14 of this year
What are people planning on doing
I have already switched laptops several years ago to new machines running windows 11
I have some legacy desktops that were extremely high end 6 years ago and they run just fine
But they are not Windows 11 capable
Thoughts

 

[billymach4]

Yes I also vote up on this point.

If you have a device that is no longer receiving security updates, then I would strongly recommend against connecting that device to the internet.

 

[GetawaysRus]

Currently planning to keep my desktop and laptop. Both run fine, are plenty adequate for my needs, and I'm not anxious to put the time in to set up new computers and learn Windows 11.

I will probably pay the $30 for each PC to get a year of extended support from Microsoft. I'm guessing that if I delay, I'd hopefully get more than $30 worth of improved hardware if I wait to buy new computers in another year.

There's another extended support option: 0patch. But I don't know much about this company, and from what I've read their extended support is not a lot cheaper.

What would make me change my mind? It would need to be a great deal on very attractive hardware. The other side of this question is: what's attractive hardware that's going to last? I don't want to buy new PCs and then realize in a few years that I need to upgrade yet again.

 

[SmithOp]

I ditched MS at W7, switched to Chromebook and haven't looked back.

 

[billymach4]

I ditched MS at W7, switched to Chromebook and haven't looked back.

Got DW a Chromebook. Feels like a step up from a tablet. Does not support heavy lifting.

 

[callwill]

I have an older MS surface pro (only used when i travel). It would not be viewed by MS as W11 capable, yet i had a computer guy put W11 on it. The same with my sons very old HP 17" laptop. It can be done.

 

[billymach4]

I have an older MS surface pro (only used when i travel). It would not be viewed by MS as W11 capable, yet i had a computer guy put W11 on it. The same with my sons very old HP 17" laptop. It can be done.

Going inquire about that.

 

[DrQ]

I run my Windows in a VM in either VMWare Workstation Pro or Oracle Virtualbox. The abstraction from the hardware provided by the host in either Windows, MacOS or Linux will keep the guest happy as far as hardware requirements. Windows as a host will present you with the same problems as you have now. MacOS requires proprietary hardware/firmware. That leaves Linux. If I upgrade hardware, my Windows and other VM's are available without modification.

I have some old games in a Windows 98 VM (Sierra Online) that are fun to play for nostalgia, but have never been ported to later versions of Windows.

I think what you may be running into is that Windows 11 requires hardware support for security features. IDK if the VM host would provide that layer in software. My two laptops are new, but I have a five year old NUC running both Windows 10 and Windows 11 VM's without an issue. The Windows 10 VM's complain about being upgraded, but when I run the upgrade tester, it fails. I am still able to install Windows 11 from media (Cd ISO image) into a new VM. I purchase and maintain proper licensing for all my Windows guest VM's.

Both VMWare Workstation Pro and Oracle Virtualbox are free for personal use. In the Linux world, I would recommend Virtualbox, because VMWare requires the compilation of two executable programs which which has to be done after kernel patches. For Linux, I would recommend Ubuntu as it is Debian based, but its wide user base has solved most of the hardware and driver issues.

Even if you buy a new Windows machine, once you migrate your data, you could slick the old machine and play with the other side of computing.

 

[billymach4]

I run my Windows in a VM in either VMWare Workstation Pro or Oracle Virtualbox. The abstraction from the hardware provided by the host in either Windows, MacOS or Linux will keep the guest happy as far as hardware requirements. Windows as a host will present you with the same problems as you have now. MacOS requires proprietary hardware/firmware. That leaves Linux. If I upgrade hardware, my Windows and other VM's are available without modification.

I have some old games in a Windows 98 VM (Sierra Online) that are fun to play for nostalgia, but have never been ported to later versions of Windows.

I think what you may be running into is that Windows 11 requires hardware support for security features. IDK if the VM host would provide that layer in software. My two laptops are new, but I have a five year old NUC running both Windows 10 and Windows 11 VM's without an issue. The Windows 10 VM's complain about being upgraded, but when I run the upgrade tester, it fails. I am still able to install Windows 11 from media (Cd ISO image) into a new VM. I purchase and maintain proper licensing for all my Windows guest VM's.

Both VMWare Workstation Pro and Oracle Virtualbox are free for personal use. In the Linux world, I would recommend Virtualbox, because VMWare requires the compilation of two executable programs which which has to be done after kernel patches. For Linux, I would recommend Ubuntu as it is Debian based, but its wide user base has solved most of the hardware and driver issues.

Even if you buy a new Windows machine, once you migrate your data, you could slick the old machine and play with the other side of computing.

Yeah I had a copy of Virtual box running on the 10yr old machine and VMware Workstation.
So fire up Virtualbox with a Linux image and run Win11. That's a wormhole.

The issue on the 10yr old Lenovo is the hardware for sure.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Bought w11 office desktop recently for biz. Currently using QuickBooks 2016 and refuse to pay for a subscription which costs significantly more. I plan on retiring in a few years so will keep the old W 10 deskside running locally for quickbooks off the Internet and will walk files into it since we only use it once a month and do not have many transactions these days. There are reports that QB 2016 desktop runs on W 11. I. will try but I want to keep W10 as a backup just in case.

Also have a surface and laptop for travel and only keep necessary files for travel on these. Usually PowerPoint presentations so no big deal if hacked. Need to have bare bones burner machines these days anyway for border crossings.

We moved most of our files to a private cloud at our home so putting less on desktops these days.

 

[billymach4]

Workarounds to Install Windows 11 on Unsupported Hardware​

1. Registry Edit Method (In-Place Upgrade)​

• What it does: Bypasses CPU and TPM 2.0 checks, allowing installation on unsupported hardware.
• How to do it:
  • Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
  • Navigate to:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup
  • If MoSetup does not exist, create it.
  • Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named:
    AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU
  • Set its value to 1.
  • Restart your PC and run the Windows 11 installer from within Windows 10 (not by booting from USB)

 

[billymach4]

Rufus USB Installer Method (Clean Install)​

• What it does: Rufus can create a Windows 11 installation USB that removes checks for TPM, Secure Boot, RAM, and CPU compatibility.
• How to do it:
  • Download the latest version of Rufus.
  • Download the Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft.
  • Use Rufus to create a bootable USB, making sure to select the options to remove hardware requirements.
  • Boot from the USB and install Windows 11

 

[billymach4]

You can install Windows 11 on your old Lenovo laptop using registry tweaks or a Rufus-modified USB installer, but you do so at your own risk and without any guarantee of updates or stability from Microsoft

 

[JudyH]

I am in the same boat. I have new Win11 Lenovo laptop I just use when traveling and my old faithful 2016 HP desktop Win 10 I use for very heavy duty large file photography editing.
What I learned with the new laptop was that it would not interface with my very old Brother printer. Wouldn’t format correctly. Then the new Win 11 would not run my old Word 2007 which I installed from the disc. It wrote Cyrillic instead of English. It also wouldn’t run Excel either.
So I bought a new Brother printer and my son gave me one of his Microsoft 365 licenses for Word and Excel.
But I can’t do the photo editing on the laptop so I need to do something eventually.
Most of the members of my photography forum are men who are retired engineers or computer people.
They discussed a “workaround “ for Win 10 found somewhere online that keeps Win 10 functioning with updates. Not the one where you pay the $30 to Microsoft.
Some of them replaced the motherboard and other components, like adding bigger larger cooling systems and way more memory.

My old HP has worked great. It’s slow and has trouble with large photo files. Like me.

 

[billymach4]

I have an older MS surface pro (only used when i travel). It would not be viewed by MS as W11 capable, yet i had a computer guy put W11 on it. The same with my sons very old HP 17" laptop. It can be done.

Will check the 10yr Lenovo tomorrow. But I believe this is the issue. No TPM 2.0.

TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module version 2.0) is a security technology standard for a specialized chip—either physical or embedded—on your computer’s motherboard or processor. The TPM chip is designed to provide hardware-based security functions, making it much harder for attackers to access sensitive data or compromise system integrity.

 

[DrQ]

Yeah I had a copy of Virtual box running on the 10yr old machine and VMware Workstation.

VMWare used to work fairly well with the Debian architecture, but then there was a significant kernel change which FUBAR'd VMWare and I had to use tweaks off the internet to compile vmmon and vmnet with each patch of the kernel. They finally came out with a version (17.6.3 build-24583834) for a clean compile but I have to turn off graphics acceleration on the VM's for stability.I ru

As I run secure linux, there is an additional step of signing vmmon and vmnet each time they are recompiled. That's just me being stubborn, you could just turn off secure linux and not have to deal with that, but I like the additional security.

 

[DrQ]

TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module version 2.0) is a security technology standard for a specialized chip—either physical or embedded—on your computer’s motherboard or processor. The TPM chip is designed to provide hardware-based security functions, making it much harder for attackers to access sensitive data or compromise system integrity.

Yeah, I need to fire up my old Lenovo and see if VMWare and Virtualbox provide support for TPM 2.0 in software.

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

The other option is to install a Linux version. I use Linux Mint with Cinnamon, looks and works like Windows, and it will run on ANYTHING! Then install GIMP for photo editing and LibreOffice for MS Office-like programs. While there are millions of Windows viruses, there are less than a handful of ones for Linux.

TS

 

[easyrider]

The other option is to install a Linux version. I use Linux Mint with Cinnamon, looks and works like Windows, and it will run on ANYTHING! Then install GIMP for photo editing and LibreOffice for MS Office-like programs. While there are millions of Windows viruses, there are less than a handful of ones for Linux.

TS

I think that's what I did with one of our old laptops by installing Opera. I ended up with a Chromebook but I'm thinking of getting Win 11 laptop of some kind. Maybe just a Win 11 Surface tablet, idk.

Bill

 

[easyrider]

Got DW a Chromebook. Feels like a step up from a tablet. Does not support heavy lifting.

What would you recommend for a laptop ? I'm happy with a Chromebook.

Bill

 

[ScoopKona]

Utterly unconcerned. My older computers have zero financial data on them. I will continue to use them ripping Blu-Ray discs and SACDs. The truly ancient computers are used for Emulation and HTPC.

I run computers until they drop dead. There's always something you can do with one. My oldest computer is 45 years old. My second oldest computer is 20 years old.

 

[n42]

Utterly unconcerned. My older computers have zero financial data on them. I will continue to use them

Identity theft isn't the only concern. It's far more likely that your unpatched devices are compromised as part of a botnet, and then used for attacking other victims.

 

[Bucky]

We recently bought a Mac Mini. With the military discount it works perfect for us. We have a place at the beach that we spend time at every month during spring, summer and fall. Had a PC at each location so the Mini was a no brainer since we already have a monitor, mouse, printer and keyboard at each location. Had an extra SSD Drive I reformatted to exfat and loaded all of our needed files to. Now I can load everything into a bag like the ones Marriott is always giving away and be ready to go when we get to either location in 10 minutes. We love the compatibility of the Mini with our iPhones and iPads.