You may have already heard that the Windows 10’s end of life is coming in October 2025.
What this means is that if Microsoft doesn’t decide to delay it they will be stopping any further updates from then onwards.
There are rumours that there may be some options to buy the ongoing updates for a further period but obviously most people will look into Windows 11 at this point.
We are getting asked many times a day what will be the issues with the updates stopping especially if you are using your own virus checker. It is never recommended to run an operating system (Windows) without regular updates as although a third party virus checker may help, over the years it’s been proven that security flaws have been found deep inside the operating system which create weaknesses that even the virus checker will struggle to protect against. This is as well as other known updates or quirks found throughout the year.
We are also being asked whether the machines can handle Windows 11 and can confirm that Microsoft have set the bar that the specification of your machine must be Intel generation 8 or newer. We are aware that other Companies have been advising that they can still install Windows 11 on these machines that fall below this spec and although true and we can do the same the question is whether you should. The reason is that the changes they make to force Windows 11 to un incompatible machine could become undone in the future by further updates and then the business could be left with machines- following another update -that no longer function correctly.
You should also bear in mind that the level that they set to the spec runs at a good standards and therefore a spec below this may run a lot slower then needed.
The other things to bear in mind if you are putting Windows 11 on an older spec machine - that Microsoft have excluded- is that you may be breaking software agreements especially If you are using the free upgrade from 10 option as this may now be classed as an illegal copy.
Therefore, we recommend when purchasing or upgrading in the near future that you bear in mind the age of the machine as many Companies will now be pushing to sell older spec stock.
Of course there will be businesses that need to continue to run Windows 10 for a period of time due to having legacy programs or certain hardware such as CNC Machines that are not compatible or not been tested yet with Windows 11. Currently we have seen the transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 to be much smoother compared to the previous Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 update from several years ago.
Please note you may have a compatible CPU that can meet Windows 11 requirements, yet your computer may inform you inside the Windows Updates section that your machine does not meet the requirements for Windows 11, this is often a matter of required changes outside of the operating system most commonly a simple BIOS setting change other tweaks may be required on an individual computer basis.
Please see Microsoft list of supported processors for Windows 11 below.
AMD Processors: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-amd-processors
Intel Processors: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors
Thanks
Ahead4 Team