Microsoft says it’s time to replace your old Windows 10 PC

Last January CESYusuf Mehdi, the chief marketing officer of Microsoft, announced 2024 as “the year of the AI ​​PC”. Whether you believe the prediction has come true or not—many new PCs come with AI-accelerating neural processing units, but far from all—you can’t deny that Microsoft has it. he worked hard for let it happen.

This year is Mehdi come back with another prediction: 2025 will be the “Year of the Windows 11 PC Update”. Not coincidentally, this year is the year most Windows 10 PCs will stop receiving new security updates.

Mehdi’s post includes few, if any, new announcements, but it sets the tone for how Microsoft handles the sunset of Windows 10, trying to strike a balance between the carrot and the stick. Carrots include Windows 11’s new features (both AI and otherwise) and the performance, security, and battery life benefits inherent in new PC hardware. The bottom line is that Windows 10 support ends in October 2025, and Microsoft isn’t interested in extending that date for the general public or extending official Windows 11 support to older PCs.

“The current PC needs an update, or has security vulnerabilities that require protection supported by the latest hardware, now is the time to move forward with a new Windows 11 PC,” writes Mehdi.

Microsoft and its partners clearly benefit more from users buying new PCs than from Microsoft providing free OS updates for existing machines. It is also true that there are many computers that are not officially supported It can run Windows 11 wellespecially with carefully considered hardware upgrades.

But at the same time, many users of older, incompatible computers could greatly benefit from an update at this point. When Microsoft announced and released the first version of Windows 11 in 2021, it limited support to computers and processors that were no more than three or four years old at the time. By October, these cars will be seven or eight years old. PCs that can’t run Windows 11 will be about a decade or more old. During that time, CPUs and GPUs have gotten faster, laptop screens have gotten bigger and better, and older hardware has had plenty of time to drain its battery and suffer from physical wear and tear.

Limited Time Escape Hatch

Mehdi refused to mention what Windows 10 users wanted stay Windows 10 users have an escape hatch. The company’s Extended Security Update (ESU) program for Windows 10 will allow users and businesses to receive updates for at least a year after October 2025; end users can only get one additional year of updates for their home computers, but organizations can get three additional years. The caveat is that you’ll have to pay for the privilege: $30 for one year renewal if you are an individual and between $1 and $61 per user for schools and institutions, with significantly increased costs in the second and third years.

Windows 10 still accounts for between half and two-thirds of all Windows usage worldwide and in the US, according to the buzz. Sources like Statcounter and Steam Supply Survey. Leaving many Windows PCs potentially vulnerable to security threats could cause big problems, which is at least partly why Microsoft really wants to see a lot of improvements this year. But even if it is 2025 does With this becoming the “year of the Windows 11 PC refresh,” it’s hard to see how it could happen soon enough to get most of these Windows 10 PCs out of circulation.

This story appeared first Ars Technica.