New updates now here.
Republished on July 24 with another update twist that could affect millions of users.
It’s now here. Microsoft’s controversial u-turn on Windows 10’s end of life has morphed into a free update offer, whereby the problem for 700 million users is postponed.
Windows 11 is the faster, better, safer option Microsoft wants the 700 million Windows 10 holdouts to move to. But says “we understand that moving to a new PC can take time, and we’re here to support you throughout the process.”
In a Tuesday blogpost, Microsoft says “starting today, individuals will begin to see an enrollment wizard through notifications and in Settings, making it simple to select the best option for you and enroll in ESU directly from your personal Windows 10 PC.”
While the u-turn to the free 12-month security update extension has been reported as including a catch, that just means you need to pick one of Microsoft’s options. Using OneDrive for example or some of your reward points. It’s essentially a free offer.
In other news, Microsoft is also pushing the AI benefits of new Copilot PCs hard, touting a range of new features, as well as the latest push for users to switch Chrome for Edge. “Microsoft Edge is the only browser built for Windows, offering the most seamless PC browsing experience with AI-powered tools, productivity features, and built-in performance and security features that help you browse quickly and safely.”
Meantime, for those already on Windows 11, the company is heralding its latest update as “the most reliable Windows yet.” Compared to Windows 10 22H2,” it says that Windows 11 24H2 “failure rates for unexpected restarts have dropped by 24%. These improvements reflect deep collaboration across engineering, design, and user research teams and a commitment to making Windows more resilient for everyone.”
And for those not yet using Windows 11, there’s also the new PC-to-PC migration tool making an appearance, per Windows Latest. The new migration feature “coming to Windows 11 and 10 was expected, but it’s the first time Microsoft has shared details.”
Windows Latest tells me this has been tested and seems to works fine for the Windows 10 to Windows 11 migration, which is the real reason this matters of course.
“With the new migration tool, Windows can pull your folders and many personal settings over the home network. Microsoft warns that Apps and passwords don’t get copied, but that’s okay as long as you’ve everything synced to OneDrive. You can always restore Store apps from the library, and passwords from the Microsoft account.”
Meanwhile, Neowin has just reported another twist in the Windows 10 upgrade saga. After the website “noticed that Microsoft had begun releasing the KB5001716 update, one which it periodically releases to nudge users to jump from a previous Windows version to a newer one,” it seems that it may have still “triggered a Windows 11 feature update, even on systems that do not officially support the upgrade.”
Neowin says that “according to a report from German news blog Borncity, Microsoft seemingly offered Windows 11 on a PC that does not meet the requirements. A reader of the blog notes that their system had TPM disabled in order to avoid any forced in-place upgrade, and despite that, their Windows 10 PC got the update offer to Windows 11.”
No confirmation of this as yet or what it might mean. And so whatever you do — extending updates or taking the still free Windows 11 upgrade, just make sure you do something before October when the usual Windows 10 updates end.
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