At the start of this month Neowin noticed Microsoft had quietly begun pushing the KB5001716 update, a periodic release that is meant to install feature updates on Windows 11 and Windows 10 computers. We speculated that this was likely the final push as the end of support for the latter was coming up soon (even governments are starting to warn users about it).
However, after our report, Microsoft clarified that it no longer stealthily installs new feature updates any more, which is a nice gesture from the company, though the update still continues to do its other functions.
Regardless, – and despite it still being bug-prone with Microsoft being completely self aware of it – the fact remains that the support for Windows 10 is indeed ending soon, though the tech giant has now made it a bit easier to opt for the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program with new options that allow users to extend the life of their systems for another year by not paying the $30.
However, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) recently criticized Microsoft stating that this was too little to save “as many as 400 million” systems worldwide that would not be able to upgrade to Windows 11, suggesting that an extra year of support, despite being sort of free, was not helpful.
Following that, Neowin noticed today that The Restart Project has also criticized Microsoft on the stringent hardware requirements for Windows 11 that make many relatively modern systems technically outdated. For those wondering, The Restart Project defines itself as a “people-powered social enterprise” and it advocates for the Right to Repair and against e-waste creation in order to help fight climate change.
The group has released a new “‘End of Windows 10’ toolkit” to help guide community repair groups on ways to deal with this massive upcoming change. The toolkit goes through several ways and steps in which such a group can help users and stop them from getting duped into potential scams. They are:
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Adding ‘End of 10’ support to the usual community repair events
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Running dedicated ‘End of 10’ parties similar to a Linux ‘Installfest’
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Working with other local organisations
For those contemplating how to proceed with the situation, if you indeed have an unsupported device, LibreOffice wants to convince you to switch to Linux, explaining the “real costs” of Windows 11.
Source: The Restart Project
