I need to replace my laptop - is this feasible?

[captain_cynic]

Condi said:

Isn't W11 basically a continuation of W10? And isn't W11 going to be the last "standalone" version of Windows? I'm sure all future "Windows" will just be built on the same base code in the same way that Apple OS is just incremental builds.

Win11 goes all the way back to Windows NT.

And I wouldn't count on it being the last version. That's something Microsoft says every few years before they realise that people don't want to rent Windows.

The reception of Win11.has been bad enough that it's worth killing with a new version.

[Griffith4ever]

ARHarh said:

Just buy a new laptop and spend a couple of hours installing the apps and programs you need, it will be far less time consuming than trying to get an old HDD to run an old OS on new hardware not to mention the fact windows will not like the hardware change and want you to spend ages trying to get the serial number to work.

And don't store any docs or stuff you need on the HDD as that is just asking for trouble, store them on the cloud, then changing laptop or HDD will be far less painful.

This - bite the bullet and re-install the apps you want. You'd be surprised how much junk you decide not to replicate, also update to latest versions, and find docs burried in places you never knew existed! And you'll have a nice clean install to boot.

[Griffith4ever]

otolith said:

15 months before Win10 goes out of support and stops getting security patches, by the way. Was a bit irritated to find my work laptop is not compatible.

I very much doubt they'll stop patching it for a long time. It's the one huge thing they are desperate to avoid, the bad press of an insuecure OS again.

[otolith]

Griffith4ever said:

otolith said:

15 months before Win10 goes out of support and stops getting security patches, by the way. Was a bit irritated to find my work laptop is not compatible.

I very much doubt they'll stop patching it for a long time. It's the one huge thing they are desperate to avoid, the bad press of an insuecure OS again.

That's been announced as the end of service date for a long time.

[Griffith4ever]

otolith said:

That's been announced as the end of service date for a long time.

I'd still be suprised.. there are way too many Win10 installs out there... lets see....

[ARHarh]

Griffith4ever said:

otolith said:

That's been announced as the end of service date for a long time.

I'd still be suprised.. there are way too many Win10 installs out there... lets see....

But in 15 months time there won't be as everyone has been warned for ages. Why would they carry on supporting an outdated product for the few users who are scared to update. After all win 11 is well proven and only causes issues with users who have messed about with stuff they don't understand or are using out of date applications.

[otolith]

ARHarh said:

But in 15 months time there won't be as everyone has been warned for ages. Why would they carry on supporting an outdated product for the few users who are scared to update. After all win 11 is well proven and only causes issues with users who have messed about with stuff they don't understand or are using out of date applications.

Also, migration to Win11 will require new hardware in many cases, which will require new Windows licences...

[ARHarh]

otolith said:

ARHarh said:

But in 15 months time there won't be as everyone has been warned for ages. Why would they carry on supporting an outdated product for the few users who are scared to update. After all win 11 is well proven and only causes issues with users who have messed about with stuff they don't understand or are using out of date applications.

Also, migration to Win11 will require new hardware in many cases, which will require new Windows licences...

But the reality is that windows upgrades have always needed new hardware, and they have always stopped supporting out of date OS's why would a tpm or whatever it is make them support it forever. After all PC's have met the required spec for years now, my 14 year old laptop will happily run win 11.

[captain_cynic]

otolith said:

Also, migration to Win11 will require new hardware in many cases, which will require new Windows licences...

MS have been trying to get people to upgrade to W11 by practically giving it away to anyone with compatible hardware and Windows 10. It hasn't been working as people have been declining the upgrade )especially as the only way back is a full reinstall of W10).

It seems to be a TPM it gets stuck on. Keeping that disabled makes a new computer "incompatible".

The low takup rates is why I think MS will bring out a Windows 12 that'll be a rehash of Windows 10.... Just like Windows 10 was a rehash of Windows 7 (after the debacle of Windows 8 and those freaking tiles) which was a rehash of Windows XP (after the absolute disaster of Vista) which was just a friendly interface on top of Windows 2000.

The more I think about it the more I think modern OS are the ship of Theseus in practice.

[otolith]

It's not just TPM, there are issues with processor support for virtualisation based security (which is why my i7 laptop can't run it). You can fudge it with a registry key, but it will run like a dog.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

I have a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop with an 8 core Ryzen 7 5800 in it. It has three performance modes Quiet, auto and Performance which is controlled by Pressing FN Q. I always run it in Quiet mode as I only really use it for the internet and it runs at a quarter of the processor speed and the fan rarely if ever kicks in.

I decided to upgrade to Windows 11, after this I noticed it was really noisy and the fans kicked in all the time. After a bit of investigation it turned out that windows 11 had disabled all these performance modes and it was running at Performance all the time.

I ended up downloading Windows 10 from Lenovo and putting it back as I could not live with the fan noise.

[Griffith4ever]

ARHarh said:

Griffith4ever said:

otolith said:

That's been announced as the end of service date for a long time.

I'd still be suprised.. there are way too many Win10 installs out there... lets see....

But in 15 months time there won't be as everyone has been warned for ages. Why would they carry on supporting an outdated product for the few users who are scared to update.

I think you ned to look up some MS OS roll-out history mate. Everyone was warned off Win 7 for "ages".... The HUGE amount of win 10 installs out there are not all going to budge suddenly. They are not "scared" of an update - they just don't want to (or can't - see TPM), with good reason - why bother? Win 10 is an excellent product and works well. I'm only on Win 11 as I wanted HDR support.

MS have even said they'll continue with security updates - for a fee..... but... I reckon, with the pure amount of win 10 installs out there, they will make them free for some time to come. The alternative is the mess they got into with XP.......

[otolith]

Realistically, the home users will just continue running an unpatched OS. Corporates will have to migrate.