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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- CR says that Home windows 10’s finish of assist will strand thousands and thousands of PC house owners.
- It calls Microsoft’s actions “hypocritical” and cites nationwide safety issues.
- CR additionally requires continued free safety updates.
Replace, Sept. 23, 2025: Reached for remark, a Microsoft spokesperson informed ZDNET the corporate has “nothing to share presently.”
Client Stories (CR), the venerable shopper rights group recognized for its in-depth product testing, sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella this week. The letter, authored by the nonprofit’s coverage fellow Stacey Higginbotham and director of know-how coverage Justin Brookman, expressed “concern about Microsoft’s resolution to finish free ongoing assist for Home windows 10 subsequent month.”
Additionally: How to upgrade your ‘incompatible’ Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 – for free
Client Stories is not the primary group to return to the protection of the soon-to-be-orphaned Home windows 10. Practically two years in the past, in October 2023, the Public Curiosity Analysis Group (PIRG) urged Microsoft to rethink its resolution, calling it “a bad deal for both users and the planet.” The group warned that as much as 400 million completely practical PCs may very well be discarded just because they do not meet Home windows 11’s {hardware} necessities.
PIRG issued a new plea this week, bringing collectively a gaggle of shopper and environmental organizations, together with the European Proper to Restore coalition, iFixit, and Client Stories.
In its letter, CR argues on behalf of its 5 million members that Microsoft’s resolution “will strand thousands and thousands of shoppers who’ve computer systems which can be incompatible with Home windows 11, and drive them to pay $30 for a one-year extension of assist, spend lots of on a brand new Home windows 11-capable pc, or do nothing and see the safety and performance of their pc degrade over time.”
And this is not only a shopper concern: Having lots of of thousands and thousands of unprotected PCs that may be commandeered for assaults on different entities is a danger to nationwide safety.
Additionally: Windows 11 should have been an easy upgrade – Microsoft chose to unleash chaos on us instead
The group cites a member survey from earlier this yr, overlaying greater than 100,000 laptop computer and desktop pc house owners. “Greater than 95% of all laptop computer and desktop computer systems bought because the starting of 2019 and owned for not more than 5 years have been nonetheless in use,” they reported. These members are likely to hold their Home windows-based computer systems for a very long time, the group concluded. “[I]t’s clear that buyers bought machines earlier than Microsoft introduced the {hardware} wants for Home windows 11, anticipating to have the ability to function them by way of the subsequent Microsoft OS transition.”
The letter’s authors additionally highlight a basic contradiction in Microsoft’s plans. “Arguing that Home windows 11 is a necessary improve to spice up cybersecurity whereas additionally leaving lots of of thousands and thousands of machines extra susceptible to cyber assaults is hypocritical.” The choice to supply extended security updates for one yr can also be consumer-hostile, they contend, with clients compelled to pay $30 to protect their machine’s safety, or use unrelated Microsoft services and products “simply so Microsoft can eke out a little bit of market share over opponents.”
Additionally: How to get free Windows 10 security updates through October 2026
The CR letter echoes a lot of my very own criticisms — certainly, a footnote cites ZDNET in discussing Microsoft’s longstanding compatibility insurance policies. This is what I wrote earlier this year:
That is why it was such a impolite shock when Microsoft launched Home windows 11 in 2021 with a set of unexpectedly rigid hardware restrictions. The necessities have been so extreme that they blocked upgrades even on PCs that had been bought new solely two or three years earlier than Home windows 11 was launched. That successfully lowered the assist lifecycle to properly underneath 10 years for lots of of thousands and thousands of PCs designed and constructed between 2016 and 2019.
In the event you felt such as you’d simply had the rug pulled out from underneath you by somebody in Redmond, properly, you are not alone.
In spite of everything that, the group is making a reasonably modest request. “Client Stories asks Microsoft to increase safety updates totally free to all customers who’re unable to replace their machine whereas additionally working to entice extra folks to get off Home windows 10. … [W]e additionally ask that Microsoft create a partnership to offer recycling of these machines to shoppers abandoning their {hardware}.”
Additionally: Microsoft said these 400 readers couldn’t upgrade to Windows 11. They did it anyway
This most likely is not the publicity that Microsoft needs because it urges its clients to purchase a brand new Home windows 11 PC. The Client Stories model can also be more likely to break by way of to mainstream media in a method that extra technical organizations cannot.
Will this be sufficient to vary hearts and minds in Redmond? It seems unlikely. I requested Microsoft for remark, and after every week, a spokesperson responded that the corporate had “nothing to share” on the topic.