What does that mean?

That means that at the end of 2025, PC's running Windows 10 will no longer get updates, including security updates. That will mean that for the same reason Windows 7 is not recommended for the average user, Windows 10 will also become outdated and, most importantly, increasingly vulnerable to security issues when exposed to the internet.

To be clear, it won't mean that Windows 10 machines just stop working. Programs will still run as they always had, and may even still get updates from their makers for a while. Years even. For example, I have a computer that still uses Windows 7 (just for fun) and I still use it like it's 2019. I still browse the internet, all my programs still work, I even get updates for many programs. New programs, however, aren't always available for Windows 7 and require Windows 10. So far I've had no compatibility issues with anything I do with that machine, but there will come a day where Windows 7 will be a relic of the past like Windows XP, or Mac OS X Snow Leopard. They will be useful only for special purposes or the hobbyist like myself, but not for general use as no current common programs will run on them. This will eventually happen to Windows 10 too. It will take years, but it will be a gradual process meaning it's possible users will start running into compatibility issues right away, though probably not for more common programs like web browsers and office software. We're all at the mercy of software companies, so who knows what the timeline will actually look like.

What does that mean for Unused RAM?

With only about a year left, it means I'm going to have tough decisions to make when deciding to give out a computer that isn't supported by Windows 11. I may still give out a Windows 10 machine because a year is still a long time, I may start handing out Ubuntu machines, I'm just not sure yet.

About 95% of the computers I've refurbished are not eligible for Windows 11, despite having the hardware to otherwise competently run modern software for years to come. I do not get many Windows-11-eligible machines, as the earliest machines are still only 5 or so years old. That may change as we get closer to the October 2025 doomsday, but that still leaves everyone who has or will receive a perfectly fine Windows 10 machine left out in the cold.

What can be done?

Keep using Windows 10

In all reality, it will probably be just fine to use Windows 10 after the expiration date, possibly for years without consequence. Keep your programs updated, use the internet wisely, and you'll probably be just fine.

However, I cannot in good conscience give out unsupported computers, especially to people to who probably aren't aware of this issue or the implications.

Install Windows 11 on "unsupported hardware"

Microsoft won't completely stop you from installing Windows 11 on devices without the new hardware requirements. They slap a silly watermark on your desktop and have published a disclaimer that pretty much says that they can't guarantee it will work correctly now or in the future, though I have been reading reports that they are at least supplying security updates, and it's possible to manually install feature updates. There are plenty of anecdotal reports of Windows 11 running just fine on unqualified machines, and I am currently testing this on a 2009 Dell Latitude E5500. However, I am currently not comfortable supplying people with computers that lack full support.

Use Linux

This is honestly probably the best option for Unused RAM because there are some very robust and user friendly distributions of Linux that feel a lot like Windows. It will of course put people in a slightly different universe, but at least it will be kept up to date and secure and they may or may not ever notice depending on their use case.

Hope and pray

Windows is still the dominant operating system and will be probably for the rest of my life, and therefore it is the best thing to be giving out on free computers to pretty much anyone the Unused RAM project serves. 

I truly hope Microsoft does something to prevent the forced obsolescence of millions of perfectly good computers. Right now I can do 90% of what I do on a computer from 2009, including running Windows 11. That's right, it's possible to work in 2023 with a Core 2 Duo P9600 and a 1280x800 display (and a killer keyboard!). Come 2025 when Windows 11 is the standard, will Microsoft allow it to run on anything that actually can run it, even if it's 16 years old? What about even 8 years old? 

My hope is that Microsoft finds a way to allow Windows 11 to run fully supported on anything that can run Windows 10. I realize it's a business, but I don't think it's actually on Microsoft's agenda to create an e-waste crisis, and I can't imagine it's that difficult to open up Windows 11 to machines without these largely superfluous hardware features. Honestly, who even uses BitLocker?

Tell us how you really feel!

The major difference between this extinction event and the one that buried most computers that wore Windows XP stickers is that hardware was actually changing. Processors moved from 32- to 64-bit architecture and had relatively rapidly evolving instruction sets. Motherboards found themselves unable to support enough RAM for the newest operating system well before their 10th birthday. Hardware was actually unable to run Windows 10, or at least barely able.

That evolution is not really happening anymore. Moore's law is dead. Sure, more cores are great, faster RAM is awesome, but for the vast majority of PC users these gains are invisible. If you don't believe me, look at the brand new $200 PC's still being sold with Celeron processors running at sub-2.0GHz. Windows 10 requires 2GB of RAM, and Windows 11 requires 4GB. Consumer laptop motherboards have been supporting 8GB or more since the late 2000's. The speed and resources are all there. The problem is entirely security features and "AI" gimmicks that literally no one asked for. 

Now I admittedly do not know why TPM 2.0 is so essential that we can no longer live without it (I do know Secure Boot is not essential!), but my suspicion is that it's just faster and not an actual paradigm shift like 64-bit processing. This is most frustrating to me because I don't understand it. My philosophy is that if it's not easily explainable why something is important or necessary, then it's probably not (how you doin', Bitcoin?). More RAM is obvious. 64-bit architecture makes sense. These features affect everything about a computing system. TPM 2.0 sounds entirely optional, and this is being proven so by PC's with no TPM at all running Windows 11. For this reason it seems completely unjustifiable to prevent an otherwise capable computer from running Windows 11.

Honestly, it just sounds lazy. As someone who could be considered a software developer, it sounds like it was just too much work to make the TPM-dependent features optional throughout the operating system, so they just said "screw it, let's just make it a requirement." Again, I am actually completely ignorant on how the TPM is involved and am probably way off, but I can't ignore the fact that "ineligible" machines can absolutely run Windows 11, while Windows 2000 machines retired because they physically could not run later versions.

For the vast majority of PC users, their Windows-10-capable computer is and will continue to be fast enough to carry them well beyond the lifespan of Windows 10. These machines will most likely physically degrade before everyday programs (including the operating system) outgrow the processing power, memory, and storage capabilities of these machines. I will continue to educate myself on the necessity of these security features, but it's going to take a lot to convince me it's worth turning off billions (estimated) of PC's forever.