windows 10 will be dead in a week
Under a week, actually. The doomsday date official support ends for Windows 10 is 14-Oct-2025.
Even though I have Windows 11 installed on my other computer, I still have an SSD that I kept with a full install of Win10 on it.
Why?
Just in case I needed it, that's why.
Have I needed it? No. Win11 works. But I could go back to 10 if I wanted to. All it takes is popping out the SSD with Win11 on it and popping in the one with 10 and it boots right up.
SSDs are certainly cheap enough to where you can do this. The process is that in addition to getting an SSD, you buy two cheap flash drives, copy all the crap you want to save to one flash drive, put in the other flash drive, download Win11 from Microsoft and use their utility to make a Win11 install stick, pop in the new SSD, boot from the Win11 stick and you're off to the races. Once done, pop in the flash drive with all your saved crap, copy it over and it's a done deal.
Confession: For the second computer, I actually have 3 SSDs for it. One Win10, one Win11, and one Kubuntu. For whatever OS I feel like running, I just pop in the SSD I want, boot, and go. However, it's probably true that before January '26 rolls around, I will wipe the Win10 SSD and install a different Linux on it just to try a different distribution. I've been meaning to try Debian for a while now.
I know exactly what would happen if I kept Win10 on the second computer for the long haul. Windows itself actually wouldn't be the problem. There would come a day where some program has an update, and uh-oh, not supported on 10. Or, the program would run but act wonky because it's expecting something Win11 has that Win10 doesn't.
My guess as to the first program that will start getting wonky on 10 would be the web browser. Doesn't matter which one it is. Chrome, Firefox, whatever. The experience of that will probably be similar to what I used to do in Windows 7.
In Win7, what I used to do is purposely run an ESR version of Firefox with all updates disabled, including add-on updates. I locked that browser down as much as I possibly could. This worked... for a while. At some point, be it months or even up to a year later, I'd start getting wonky problems that I'd have to find workarounds for, which I did. That bought me maybe about 3 more months until some add-on broke and/or some web site I used regularly had a change to where I couldn't even load it properly anymore. Begrudgingly, I would update, but not to the latest ESR. Rather, only up to the bare minimum version I needed to get to so everything still worked.
This is a song and dance I did until the browser got so jacked up with crap that I threw my hands up in the air and just installed the latest version. Sure enough, some add-ons I was using broke or were outright not offered in the latest browser version. I'd have to find workarounds, fixes and whatever. All of it was just annoying.
I do browsers different now. In Linux, I have several browsers installed. I have one "wide open" for sites that absolutely won't work with anything otherwise, others that I can turn off/on things at whim with add-ons and whatnot, and even a Terminal text-based browser. I just use whatever works. And I keep them updated.
The problem staying with Win10, even on a secondary computer I don't use often, is that the "your Windows is too old" crap would rear its ugly head at any time. I'm certain it would be the web browser first that spits that message at me. Or maybe Garmin Express (I use that to update my DriveSmart 76) will stop supporting 10. Or it could be something as stupid as a printer driver update that won't work on 10, and happen exactly at the time when I need to print, because you know it would happen that way.
In my particular situation, it is best to keep a second computer with Windows on it for whenever I need that trash. Whenever the need arises, I jump in the trash bucket that is Windows, get whatever I need to get done, get out, dust myself off (probably along with a shower), then go back to Linux.
I think I've said this before but will say it again: I'm not telling anybody to switch over to Linux. That's something I did over 2 years ago for my main computer and it works for me.
I'd tell anybody else just to buy a cheap mini PC with Win11 on it since that's a stupidly easy solution. Plop a little box on the desk, plug in a keyboard, mouse and monitor, boot, set it up, whatever, done. The only "hard" part would be using a flash drive to copy files from the old PC box to the new mini box.
What are the gamers saying about this?
I honestly believe the worst possible PC experience you can have is to use one made for gaming.
Why?
It's not the fact you're going to drop over a grand for a "gamer PC", as that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's the control software where things go stupid and stay there.
Control software for video cards, monitors, mice is ridiculously bloated, poorly programmed, and it's honestly amazing any of it even works. It's also especially true that companies who make the control software get the jump on dumping support for an "old" OS early.
A few months ago, gamers were screaming loudly "I'M STAYING ON 10 FOREVERRRRRR!!1!1!!"
But then control software updates started getting deployed (automatically, of course). Shortly afterward, things started breaking in Win10 left and right. Yep.
And that's when gamers started dumping 10 for 11.
At this point, most gamers have already switched over to 11 just to have a Windows PC that actually works with the latest control software.
This does not mean gamers won't "debloat" their Win11 installations to eke out faster gaming performance, because of course they will since that's what they do. Gamers have a longstanding history of wrecking Windows installations with "tweaks", and 11 will be no different...
...but at least they're wise enough to know the control software is the main reason to dump 10 and go 11. That software isn't made by Microsoft, but rather by whatever company made the video card, mouse, monitor or whatever. To game and keep on gaming, that software absolutely has to work for the best gaming experience, and that's the way it is.
For the rest of us non-gamers, it's like I said, either get some cheap SSDs and flash drives for a Win11 install, or just buy a cheap mini PC with 11 on it. Not the end of the world.
Published 2025 Oct 8