I've received an email from Microsoft saying that support for Windows 10 is ending on 14th October, 2025. If I do nothing my PC will continue to work but support will be discontinued or I can move to Windows 11 (I presume at a cost). Any advice, please?

I believe windows 11 is available as a free upgrade. My computer is actively always trying to upgrade itself.

Your computer won't suddenly stop working. It will work perfectly fine.

Ive an old Dell laptop running Windows 7 thats still working OK. No security updates but it works fine once its warmed up!

If you choose not to upgrade to windows 11, the main issues as I understand them are:

* New software will eventually require higher specifications and windows 10 will slowly become obsolete.
Eg. Eventually programs like Chrome or internet explorer might stop working.
If you download, for example, some video editing software it might require windows 11 to work.

* Hackers and people creating viruses will eventually get the upper hand because windows 10 won't be receiving updates that tackle novel viruses etc.

***"

The first will happen slowly. It's not likely to be urgent. There's enough people still using windows 10 that software developers are still reticent not to exclude their programs from working on windows 10.

The second won't happen immediately and if you've got virus protection / anti malware and don't visit dodgy sites you shouldn't have any issues.

Consider updating but don't fret about it and your computer will not suddenly stop working, no matter how much they insinuate it will.

Leisure wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 9:43 am

I've received an email from Microsoft saying that support for Windows 10 is ending on 14th October, 2025. If I do nothing my PC will continue to work but support will be discontinued or I can move to Windows 11 (I presume at a cost). Any advice, please?

I don’t think that it necessarily has to cost you anything Pete, just be careful that the download is genuine as non genuine ones may try to charge
I had an issue upgrading to Windows 10 as my main planning system wasn’t compatible with it, don’t know if it’s because it was French, and that’s not a joke, if the dates of updates vary country to country which I doubt, so I had to un update it but a few months later it was updated for use with Windows 10
Don’t know what you use on there
Maybe Cad is the man, think he does computer stuff

mikeS wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 9:55 am

Ive an old Dell laptop running Windows 7 thats still working OK. No security updates but it works fine once its warmed up!

i still use Windows 7 on my computer. I like it.

Leisure wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 9:43 am

I've received an email from Microsoft saying that support for Windows 10 is ending on 14th October, 2025. If I do nothing my PC will continue to work but support will be discontinued or I can move to Windows 11 (I presume at a cost). Any advice, please?

I stuck on Windows 10 for ages but recently (couple of months ago) upgraded to Windows 11 and I've had no issues at all. It was a free download for me and the only problem I had was finding how to shut it down because it had been moved.

Windows 11 is much better if you can.

Just check the specification of your PC meets the minimum requirements…

- Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with two or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or system on a chip (SoC).
- Memory: 4 gigabytes (GB) or greater.
- Storage: 64 GB or greater available disk space.
- Graphics card: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later, with a WDDM 2.0 driver.

When windows 10 expires, stop using that computer for porn, pirating anything, online banking, downloading 3rd party add ons for computer games, using foreign streaming services for watching football, and change any log in details that are shared between sites (e.g, if you have an online pension scheme that shares log in details with this site, for instance).

I speak from experience with earlier windows and have since stopped doing most of those activities even on safe computers. Most.

Many thanks for all the responses. Much appreciated.

One of our 2 windows 10 laptops was upgraded to 11 and then wasn't compatable with our printer so we didnt upgrade the 2nd laptop.

Are there any programmes that will enable TPM without me having to go digging in the BIOS settings? TPM has to be enabled in order to run Windows 11.

Clovius Boofus wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 2:46 pm

Are there any programmes that will enable TPM without me having to go digging in the BIOS settings? TPM has to be enabled in order to run Windows 11.

TPM?

Leisure wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 3:41 pm

TPM?

It may be this:

TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module, which is a specialized chip on your computer's motherboard designed to enhance security. It securely stores cryptographic keys used for encryption and decryption, ensuring that your operating system and firmware are authentic and have not been tampered with. TPM 2.0 is the latest version of this technology, which has been around since the early 2000s.

I'm on Windows 10 on my laptop. Unfortunately, it couldn't be upgraded to run Windows 11. MS has been saying for sometime that Windows 10 support will end in October. We also have another laptop running Windows 11. I'll be following advice about what not to run on my Windows 10 laptop before October.

Leisure wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 3:41 pm

TPM?

What Paul said.

Paul Waine wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 3:48 pm

I'm on Windows 10 on my laptop. Unfortunately, it couldn't be upgraded to run Windows 11. MS has been saying for sometime that Windows 10 support will end in October. We also have another laptop running Windows 11. I'll be following advice about what not to run on my Windows 10 laptop before October.

Paul, is this because TPM wasn't enabled or wasn't the hardware up to running it?

All depends on your hardware as to if you can upgrade. I couldn't upgrade my old windows ten machine so built a new one that absolutely kicks it's arse. Best thing about building your own is you down get all the bloatware they pre-install.

I also still have Windows 10 on an old Hewlett Packard desktop. It suffices for some old Word and Excel files that are still on their. I also have a laptop that I bought a couple of years ago and thought I would put a cheap newer version of Microsoft Works on it. So I bought a cheap copy of Windows 2019 via Amazon (I know). I worked perfectly, only problem it was in Czech language and I couldn't convert to English UK. That'll teach me.

I deliberately avoid operating system updates on my Mac as they have a habit of killing off my music software - generally by adding 'improvements' that my Mac is unable to run. I think the OS I'm running is about 5 years out of date.

Clovius Boofus wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 2:46 pm

Are there any programmes that will enable TPM without me having to go digging in the BIOS settings? TPM has to be enabled in order to run Windows 11.

There are workarounds and versions of Windows 11 out there that bypass the TPM requirement, I do it often. It requires a clean install though, so you may find it more cost effective to replace your machine with a newer second-hand model that supports Windows 11 than pay someone to do it for you.

If you're unsure if your machine will support Windows 11 or has a TPM on the motherboard, you can download the Windows Health Check application to check your computer and let you know.

https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp

whiffa wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 9:14 pm

There are workarounds and versions of Windows 11 out there that bypass the TPM requirement, I do it often. It requires a clean install though, so you may find it more cost effective to replace your machine with a newer second-hand model that supports Windows 11 than pay someone to do it for you.

Cheers for that. The PC is only a couple of years old and I had built to my requirements, and it should have had TPM enabled, however, the people that built it didn't enable it. I've now seen a couple of YouTube vids and you can rummage around in the BIOS settings and sort this out. Mind you, you would think that MS would have a tool you can download for this purpose.

Clovius Boofus wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 10:21 pm

Cheers for that. The PC is only a couple of years old and I had built to my requirements, and it should have had TPM enabled, however, the people that built it didn't enable it. I've now seen a couple of YouTube vids and you can rummage around in the BIOS settings and sort this out. Mind you, you would think that MS would have a tool you can download for this purpose.

The only reason they don't is because TPM is enabled in the BIOS which is different for every manufacturer - it's also a setting that can only be enabled from within the BIOS which loads before your Windows operating system, so any download or tool wouldn't be able to access it.

I'm still using Windows 7, will I be able to get windows 11 download ?

whiffa wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 10, 2025 10:34 pm

The only reason they don't is because TPM is enabled in the BIOS which is different for every manufacturer - it's also a setting that can only be enabled from within the BIOS which loads before your Windows operating system, so any download or tool wouldn't be able to access it.

Makes sense. Cheers for the info.

yosserhughes wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 11, 2025 7:01 am

I'm still using Windows 7, will I be able to get windows 11 download ?

Definitely not, and being brutally honest you should have updated your machine some time ago.