Not sure which is worse Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter or Microsoft Corporation 454,46 +2,87 +0,64% trying to force people from Windows 10 to Windows 11. On April 27th, Microsoft provided a “Windows client roadmap update” which basically says Windows 10 is now a dead-end and since 22H2 was the last feature update there is nothing to see here. More over, Microsoft’s ‘recommendation’ says “We highly encourage you to transition to Windows 11 now as there won’t be any additional Windows 10 feature updates.”. There’s a couple problems with said recommendation:
- Many people are unable to ‘transition’ to Windows 11 because their perfectly useable hardware is not supported. Especially since said hardware does not provide support for the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 introduced in mid-2016. I am in that boat with my Lenovo Yoga laptop which I purchased in March 2017
- Windows 11 is crap. Why else would 70% of the Windows current user base still be running Windows 10? Hell, I used Windows 11 for a few hours and was ready to chuck the brand new laptop out the window. If Windows 11 can not handle watching a YouTube video without choking, it sure as heck can’t handle multiple tasks. Sure disabling S-Mode fixed the YouTube issues, but it is not going to fix the ‘broken’ start menu and taskbar. There is a reason why only 20% of the Windows user base is on the latest (and sure ain’t the greatest) version (Windows 11).
Unlike Musk and Twitter, there is still time (September 2025) for Microsoft to get their act together and do any of the following:
- Extend the support of Windows 10 past the 10-year limit. There was never was suppose to be a Windows 11 at least that was what Microsoft said back in 2015.
- Rollback the hardware requirements for Windows 11.
- Fix and finish Windows 11 instead of releasing (and advertising within the OS) broken features. This also means stop trying to clone Apple with horrible the user interface changes in Windows 11.
Perhaps #1 can happen if Microsoft gets pressured by certain governing bodies…say the EU…not to be pushing users into forced obsoletion. Of course even if by some miracle the EU does require Microsoft to continue support for the currently most used version of Windows, there is no guarantee they would do so in the US. #2 would be nice, but that would really require Microsoft to take care of #3. The ball is in your court Microsoft, you have a chance to fix this before it becomes a PR nightmare and a major revenue boost for Apple (for those who rather ‘get a Mac’ then be forced to use Windows 11.
