Microsoft’s new warnings come into effect as hundreds of millions of people are at risk of losing their support
It turns out that convincing us that taking constant screenshots of everything we do on a PC might not be Microsoft’s biggest challenge in the coming year. Even if it should. Spoiler alert: Recall is a terrible idea, an absolute privacy-disaster-slash-nightmare in the making, and one to be avoided at all costs.
But the bigger challenge than convincing users otherwise seems to be convincing them to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Users know what they like, and an eerily large 70% of Windows users haven’t made the switch of the operating system that was first seen almost ten years ago and has reached the end of its existence.
If XDA Developers says: “Microsoft has a major Windows 10 migration problem. Right now, the majority of Windows users are using Windows 10… The reason why Windows 10 users aren’t upgrading is that they already know what Windows 11 is capable of, and they’ve made the decision not to use it. So if you are shown the upgrade process or go through a comparison list, you cannot solve the problem.”
If you are among the robbers, you can expect to be constantly harassed with warnings between now and then. As noted by Windows Latest“Microsoft is now introducing two full-screen pop-up banners reminding everyone, including those with supported and unsupported PCs, to upgrade to Windows 11.”
There are two camps this campaign aims to reach. The first with PCs that can make the switch, and the second with PCs that cannot. Windows Latest noted that “the banner on an unsupported PC warns that the PC will not receive updates and is not eligible for upgrades”, while “if you have a supported PC, you will be prompted to upgrade to Windows 11 by the update to plan.”
Microsoft support alert for Windows 10 users
Microsoft’s warning is clear. “It’s time to upgrade your PC before support ends. End of support for Windows will occur on October 14, 2025. This means that your desktop will no longer receive technical support or security updates after that date.”
This is a difficult situation. While there will be the usual slowness and large groups of users waiting to make the switch because they prefer the older platform, there will be many more who don’t have the necessary hardware to make the change. And that’s a problem for Microsoft, those users and all the systems and platforms they have access to.
And while this is a boon for PC manufacturers, the prospect of so many PCs running out of track at the same time brings other problems. If Channels has said: “The end of support for Windows 10 could turn 240 million PCs into e-waste… Microsoft’s Windows 11 will help support a struggling PC market as customers prepare for a new refresh cycle – but the end of the support for Windows 10 could give hundreds of millions of devices no second life, causing many devices to end up in the landfill.”
The outing will be Microsoft’s extended security updates, but that won’t be cheap. As reported by The edge,” for businesses, the first year costs $61. It then doubles to $122 for the second year and then doubles again in year three to $244. If you join the ESU program in year two, you will also be required to pay for the first year as the ESUs are cumulative.” Consumer prices will be different.
Whether you pay the ESU fee or switch, you really need to maintain security updates for your system, as painful as both options are.