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  • Needs to be logged in, so not exactly user friendly. But made me happy, I was afraid I might have to do updates again now I can continue life not being bothered by windows update.
    by tjoff
  • I think you can log in to activate without changing to a microsoft account for desktop login (or at least you can switch back, I have some machines on microsoft account and some not)
    by toast0
  • You can use https://github.com/abbodi1406/ConsumerESU to bypass the account requirement.
    by layer8
  • I have Win10 on a computer on my left side as "backup" system.

    I decided I won't change to Win11, so Win10 will be last Windows version to use. It's no issue in that I am using Linux since late ~2004 anyway, but I am also unwilling to cater to Microsoft anylonger. I think it is time that governments no longer force people to use Windows in general. For similar reasons I reject the upcoming mandatory age sniffing that lobbyists are pushing for (together with their attempt to kill off VPNs).

    by shevy-java
  • Especially with hardware prices at the moment, this is a welcome announcement for many companies right now who need a refresh.
    by jbird99
  • And sad for us. We may have to wait for nice cheap used hardware for use with Linux or *BSD.

    But I wonder if components would have been stripped out due to AI. I heard even older RAM and SDD/HDD are getting expensive.

    by jmclnx
  • They could actually help with the RAM and SSD shortage by extending support for Windows 10.
    by computer23
  • Too late! Win10 Pro absolutely demanded and harassed me til I upgraded to the dreaded 11. I put up with it for gaming and did registry hack workarounds to stop the stupid web connectivity and TV-like content it was pushing. It wasn't enough. The system was rebooting with updates all the time, messing with my settings I'd googled, and then someone on HN said:

    'Linux on the desktop runs Steam games better than ever. Join us, brother.' I installed Fedora Workstation 43, played my games (albeit with a few quirks), but then as a side effect started all these little Linux and Claude projects after I got home from work, which I hadn't done since my 20s.

    Thank you, brother!

    by mancerayder
  • I wish there was a security-only-updates channel for Windows in general. I basically want no new features, I just want something that doesn't change and doesn't brick on random tuesdays.
    by overgard
  • Too late. Had to switch to Fedora last year because my machine didn’t support TPM 2.0 and the CPU was one generation older. I know TPM 1.3 is less secure, but I didn’t care in the context of that specific machine. I wish I had the option. Fedora runs great on it though.
    by sedatk
  • Windows 10 for me until new games won't run on it
    by techteach00
  • And then?
    by kgwxd
  • New games run really well on Linux. At this point, I don't even check. If it's an online competitive game, I can't play it. Otherwise, it almost certainly will work on Arch Linux
    by robby_w_g
  • My last Windows machine is for games. Hopefully I'll be able to get a Steam machine for an easy exit. If a game doesn't run on it, I won't buy or play it.
    by bauble
  • You can get a completely minimalist Windows 11 by grabbing an ISO from Microsoft then reprocessing the ISO by feeding it into this utility: https://github.com/christitustech/winutil (Win11 Creator Tab) to get a NEW ISO which you then install. The end result is an extremely clean and stable Windows 11 installation.

      The resulting image can remove telemetry, bypass hardware requirement checks, and enable local account setup out of the box.
    Official docs:

    https://winutil.christitus.com/

    https://winutil.christitus.com/userguide/win11creator/

    by greenavocado
  • Even cleaner when you don't install Windows at all :P

    Why would people put themselves through the painful process of keeping themselves safe from their own computer?

    by dietr1ch
  • That won't help you get to the minimum of Win10, though
    by eviks
  • NTlite has also been around for more than a decade, although it has a freemium model.
    by pizza234
  • To anyone reading this: please don't use ISOs downloaded from not-official sources.

    Use an autounattend.xml, the mass graves, and a WinGet JSON to customise an online image.

    [1]: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/

    [2]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/package-manager/wi...

    by delta_p_delta_x
  • I was a ubuntu user and work forced me to use a windows machine. Over the years I've accumulated so much software that I have no intention of leaving behind (photoshop cs2). In the past year though, I've been transitioning back to Ubuntu. So many software now offer Linux support, there's even less incentives to stay with Microsoft products. And of course is doing everything in it's power to alienate us.
    by firefoxd
  • Have you tried wineHQ? It works very well IMO. But I also understand your point of view here; I have a second computer system on my left running Win10.
    by shevy-java
  • What even is Microsoft's strategy? Windows 11 requiring TPM, Secure Boot and being all react wasn't great. Now we have a hardware shortage and ai in everything. I miss the time when it was "My computer" and not "This PC". I just hope they keep Windows 10 around till 2030 and longer...
    by mawadev
  • I don't think requiring secure boot is a big deal given every computer since Sandy Bridge iirc ships with it.
    by ChocolateGod
  • I assume they're secretly trying to get people over to Mageia.

    The people I've switched from windows to Mageia since win11 all love it.

    (As great as Mageia is, it does have small repos compared to Debian or fedora.)

    by nosioptar
  • Old versions of Windows always fell out of support.

    Some old versions of windows also had newer hardware requirements (95 dropped support for 16 bit systems, Vista required a DirectX9 GPU).

    There's nothing really new here.

    by nomel
  • Microsoft doesn't care about end users like you or I. We don't impact their bottom line at all. 0%. They care about business customers using other products, and occasionally data collection.

    Windows has to be just functional enough to keep businesses that use it from raising a stink about it.

    by Night_Thastus
  • Requiring a sodding Copilot advert on the keyboard too, in the case of laptops..
    by bluescrn
  • >What even is Microsoft's strategy? Windows 11 requiring TPM, Secure Boot

    Their goal is to help their OEM buddies sell new computers despite the fact that PCs have been “good enough” for a decade or longer, because those new PCs will come with Windows and the cycle is what keeps each one relevant.

    Otherwise they'd risk being usurped, which almost happened circa 2006 with the one-two-three-four punch of GNOME2 (great UI), Compiz (‘wow’ factor that gets people to jump in and try it), OpenOffice-dot-org 2.0 (when OpenDocument Format was getting a ton of press), and Windows Longhorn/Vista being famously late-and-then-hated. Luckily for Microsoft, the Desktop Linux community decided to throw all that out with Wayland (which is Fine but set us back two decades) and GNOME3 which is irredeemable — *James Rolfe voice* what were they thinking??

    by Lammy
  • >> Windows 11 requiring TPM, Secure Boot and being all react wasn't great.

    For me a bigger concern is that Windows 11 requires MS account, and making harder and harder to bypass it. This is a disrespect for my freedom and privacy. The hardware is not the biggest issue because it might catch up eventually. https://waspdev.com/articles/2026-03-12/i-ll-probably-never-...

    by senfiaj
  • Anyone who still needs to run Windows 10 for whatever reason should switch over to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 (version 21H2) which will continue to receive security updates up through 2032.

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/rel...

    by vunderba