Hundreds of orgs urge Microsoft: don’t kill off free Windows 10 updates
- Reference: 1759336049
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/10/01/hundreds_businesses_urge_microsoft_not_end_win10_support/
- Source link:
The letter, [1]organized by consumer activist non-profit US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), was signed by 382 repair businesses and nonprofits worldwide, as well as 83 elected representatives, 19 librarians and school officials, and 49 consumer advocacy and environmental organizations. They're all worried that they, and many other PC owners, stand to lose big if Microsoft follows through with its plans to end support for Windows 10 in less than two weeks.
"About 40 percent of PCs currently in use can't upgrade to Windows 11, even if users want to," the [2]letter reads. "That means when Microsoft stops providing security updates for Windows 10, those computers will either be insecure and unsafe to keep using, or else turn into junk and get thrown out."
Sign in to sound off
[3]Register for The Register's Forums here.
Along with the business-led letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, PIRG said it also passed along a petition to Microsoft signed by more than 16,000 US citizens. French nonprofit Stop Planned Obsolescence has also been circulating a [4]petition to extend free Windows 10 security updates, which has been signed by more than 44,000 individuals.
Critics argue Microsoft's Windows 11 push is worsening the world's [5]growing e-waste problem . As we've noted before, the supported upgrade path [6]requires PCs to have Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 - a hardware-based security component found in many machines shipped over the past five years - along with other modern hardware. Unofficial bypasses exist, but they aren't supported and may break in future updates.
[7]
In practice, that leaves a huge chunk of hardware behind – PIRG estimates around 400 million Windows 10 machines can't meet Windows 11's requirements. While Microsoft has [8]patched certain TPM bypasses , many argue that such devices may never be officially upgradeable.
[9]
[10]
"Cutting off support from hundreds of millions of computers is uniquely harmful to consumers, the environment and public safety," PIRG right to repair campaign director Nathan Proctor said in a statement. "Simply put, there have never been more computers cut off from support in one fell swoop."
[11]Healthcare lags in Windows 11 upgrades – and lives may depend on it
[12]Critics blast Microsoft's limited reprieve for those stuck on Windows 10
[13]Campaigners urge EU to mandate 15 years of OS updates
[14]The 'End of 10' is nigh, but don't bury your PC just yet
While support for Windows 10 officially ends in a couple of weeks, it won't be completely going away – those who really want to keep the security updates flowing can [15]sign a bargain with Microsoft to get a year of extended security updates for the low price of $30, redemption of 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or opting to sync their PC's settings to the cloud using Windows Backup.
Microsoft recently caved on providing [16]free Windows 10 updates to European residents following complaints from consumer rights groups and threats to lodge a Digital Markets Act complaint.
Windows 11 continues to be a slow-seller - it took the OS four years to [17]finally surpass Windows 10 as the leading version of the PC OS, and even then, it still doesn't have a true majority. [18]According to Statcounter, which measures market share of various platforms based on traffic to more than 1.5 million monitored web sites, Windows 11 holds 48.94 percent of the Windows market share, down from a high of 53 percent in July.
[19]
Curiously enough, Windows 7 has been experiencing a resurgence in popularity in the past few months, climbing from just two percent of the Windows market share in July to nearly 10 percent in September. No matter how you slice it, it seems like people really don't want to upgrade to Windows 11.
Microsoft acknowledged receipt of questions from The Register for this story, but didn't immediately respond beyond that. ®
Get our [20]Tech Resources
[1] https://pirg.org/media-center/release-hundreds-of-organizations-elected-officials-and-businesses-call-on-microsoft-to-delay-the-end-of-10/
[2] https://pirg.org/take-action/tell-microsoft-to-extend-free-support-for-windows-10/
[3] https://account.theregister.com/register/
[4] https://www.halteobsolescence.org/petitions/non-a-la-taxe-windows/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/ewaste_grows/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/04/microsoft_windows_11_tpm/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aN2kdyvX_30TYRgerALDOQAAAxA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/05/windows_11_hardware_requirement_workaround/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aN2kdyvX_30TYRgerALDOQAAAxA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aN2kdyvX_30TYRgerALDOQAAAxA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/30/windows_11_healthcare/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/01/windows_10_updates_criticism/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/16/campaigners_urge_eu_to_mandate/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/15/end_of_10_campaign/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/25/microsoft_free_esu_tier/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/26/not_in_eu_and_want/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/04/windows_11_market_share/
[18] https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/worldwide
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aN2kdyvX_30TYRgerALDOQAAAxA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Nothing In The UK News About This
Are you expecting mainstream media to actually pick up meaningful stories between stories of Mary Berry's 60th media anniversary and Bad Bunny?! You must be smoking something, those are far more important don't you know.
I tried to get media - almost any media - involved in a computer failure at a large city clinic, servicing a minority population, that helped cause a death, and therefore could put other people at risk as well. Not a single media outlet, not a single reporter, was interested in the collected details nor the testimonies. They were "too busy", one actually said to me. Too busy covering Taylor Swift, the latest food trend, social media memes, and other super-important questions of the nation.
Re: Nothing In The UK News About This
They probably all use macs at the BBC. Clarissa from Cla'm would never be see dead touching an oik pc.
Re: Nothing In The UK News About This
I remember that from the mid 1980's, the posh people renaming things or pronouncing others stupidly - Battersea was Batter-C-Ahhh.
Re: Nothing In The UK News About This
The Daily Express covered the story last week.
Re: Nothing In The UK News About This
So did the Mirror, but it does need the TV media to run a campaign.
Re: Nothing In The UK News About This
This small part of Wiltshire is included so presumably the rest of the UK is too - our two laptops and one PC still running W10 have been enrolled in the continuing update programme. The enrolment offer appears under Update & Security so many will see it and may even be curious enough to find out what it does.
As we've noted before, the supported upgrade path requires PCs to have Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 - a hardware-based security component found in many machines shipped over the past five years
Really? Only the last five years you say? I bought my HP Probook 470 G5 from Amazon in 2018. It has TPM2.0 and is currently running Windows 11.
No, they don't say, because the original text doesn't include "only" or any other wording which could unambiguously be taken to mean that TPM2.0 was never shipped in machines more than 5 years ago...
What it does say is that it's been shipped in "many" PCs over the past 5 years, which you've interpreted as meaning it wasn't available at all in older PCs, but which could also be interpreted as meaning 5 years ago was the tipping point between TPM2.0 being available in only some PCs (such as yours), and it being available in many.
Hardware TPM is not necessarily needed
You don't have to have a hardware TPM2 though...
If your BIOS has a built-in TPM2 you can use that one, I'm on W11 now having discovered my PC's BIOS has the option to turn the TPM on...
My processor is a Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8400 - So pretty old in the scheme of things...
Re: Hardware TPM is not necessarily needed
You do know the BIOS (more likely UEFI these days) IS the hardware?
I doubt it'll happen
Isn't Windows 11 essentially a new OS (at least at the kernel level) starting with 24H2? I don't think M$FT will want to maintain two OS codebases indefinitely.
Re: I doubt it'll happen
Output of the "ver" command on Windows 11:
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.6584]
Re: I doubt it'll happen
Windows hasn't been a new OS for quite some time. Apart from some new shiny shiny Windows 11 UI, under the covers its running a heck of a lot of code that Window 10, 8, 7 and even Vista was using. And probably some stuff going back to XP era.
Re: I doubt it'll happen
Any software of significant age has a ton of legacy code. How much crap is in the Linux kernel which dates back to the 90s?
Win11 "security benefits"
I do not know about Y'all, but I'd rather have windows endpoints protected from "bring your own vulnerable driver" attacks by HVCI technology, and not loosing performance for it by using MBEC.
I also like Intel and AMD plugging security flaws from the drivers and microcode of their SoCs...
This is available on Win11 OotB, but quite hard (or downright impossible*, depending on hardware) on Win10.
So, TPM 2.0 and secureboot be dammned (they are quite irrelevant), from a security standpoint, win11 moves the minimum common denominator massively forward.
* Remember meltdown and spectre? Remember how many processors that supported Win1 at the time did not receive the relevant microcode updates? Pepperidge farms remembers?
Re: Win11 "security benefits"
I like the new (kernel) features too, but if you don't have that hardware you can't have them.
Microsoft could have produced a Win11 that had all those nice things if you had the hardware and yet still worked if you didn't. It would have made life a little harder for them so they didn't. Now there's a chance they'll have to maintain two complete Windows versions for a few more years. Well, cry me a river.
Nice idea, but no
Given Microsoft have already deprecated various CPUs, and could very easily have taken the more palatable option of only enabling enhanced security features [1] on CPUs that could handle it, but haven't done so, the idea they'll be nice at this stage is laughable. You're only complaining *now* when it finally starts to be an issue you can't ignore, rather than literally years ago when this was obvious the way it would go?
Nothing will get in the way of forced obsolescence.
Well, nothing but using and *paying* (by donating for future upkeep) a similar amount as a retail copy of Windows to open source alternatives.
[1] enhanced security features that have stopped just how many exploits on Windows 11? If it's so much more secure, Microsoft would have been shouting about it, and other than guff about 'our architecture is so much better because shut up it is' I'm not seeing notable instances of articles saying 'we had to do a really complex workaround for Windows 10, but in Windows 11 we had to do nothing'
Shitty MS
“…or opting to sync their PC's settings to the cloud using Windows Backup”
Even for MS, this is utterly ridiculous. Why would backing up your PC setting to their servers be considered payment for receiving security updates for the OS?
Oh yea - so they can pilfer your data!!!! What a bunch of shitesters
The whole of MS’s board and staff should be thrown in jail - ALL of them. They’re all guilty
As for the TPM requirement, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn in the future that it’s needed by MS to hide their spying and/or to stop users from disabling their spying
Stop feeding Microsoft
For goodness sake, migrate to another platform already!
Windows 7 surge
Well, I suppose if people are given the choice of:
1) An out-of-support operating system that's full of telemetry, minimal borders on windows so that, often, you can't tell where one starts and another finishes, a hybrid and awkward settings system, gets in your way when you try to do things and has a fugly "flat" and inconsistent look and feel.
2) An out-of-support operating system that has a good, consistent look and feel, windows borders of a decent width, far less telemetry, a single (if archaic) settings system and doesn't nag you quite so much.
...I know which I'd prefer.
Nothing In The UK News About This
I wrote to the BBC indicating this is a problem and no article on this at all.
People just do not know it is going to occur, until they get the warning and will probably pay the fee - i am unsure if the UK is included in the European response of continued free security updates.
I suppose the world could circumvent this using a VPN or other mechanism to get the free updates ?