Earlier this year, Microsoft officially yanked the cord on Windows 10, ending support for an operating system that had been superseded by Windows 11 four years earlier.
But the tech giant’s controversial attempts to shoehorn AI into every aspect of the software appear to have turned off a staggering number of users from upgrading. While it’s to be expected at this point that not everybody will have jumped at the opportunity to update their machine’s operating system, the sheer scale of that refusal is staggering.
As Forbes reports, a whopping 1 billion PCs are still running Windows 10 — despite half of them technically being eligible for an upgrade.[…]
It’s an already familiar battle, with AI emerging as a major turn-off for consumers across several other industries as well.
Last month, Windows president Pavan Davuluri announced that the operating system would become an “agentic OS,” baking AI features directly into the software.
Core users, however, were appalled by the notion.
You’re going to live in a pod, eat bugs, wait for MAID and you’ll like it: After Outcry, Firefox Promises “Kill Switch” That Turns Off All AI Features
That’s our laptop. It’s about 6 or 7 years old and still functions very well. Especially after deactivating the Windoze Update tool.
We were having issues with the laptop being dysfunctional about once a month, though it was more random to be honest. It would be unresponsive after about 20 seconds of operation. Thought it was AVG, so uninstalled it and went to Windoze defender. Cleared out a couple other things, but no improvement.
Went thru multiple reboots, clearing the cache and such, and cancelled the Windoze Auto Update feature.
All problems solved!!!!!! And, laptop “can’t run 11” according to the Windoze team. Right.
We will continue with this puter for some time yet, but, the next one? Until something serious changes, will consider other alternatives including Mac Book. Current using IPads for more than PC.
AI is a useful tool, however, we have to control it, not the other way around. It has its limitations, namely, the political slant it is programmed with.
Give Linux a look, Mint or Xubuntu.
It’s not AI you need to worry about with the Windows 11 update. It’s the relentless trend to changing things for the sake of changing. Adding features nobody will ever use. Making older programs obsolete after their .dlls don’t work with the new update. Giving people access to Windows .NET and then making it obsolete with nearly every other upgrade. Sure, Windows 11 updates are free. Upgrading all your other software to keep things running costs a small fortune.
Add to your list the mandatory cloud subscriptions that automatically renew. This change has made MS $Billions … and sent their sluggish stock price soaring. But it is annoying as hell to me. Sorry, but I’d rather download the software myself. The cloud can GFY … itself.
I hated Windows 11. I believe MS killed my laptop when I tried to keep Windows 10. Can it do that?
Yes, it can. They have access that they don’t tell you about.
No.
A botched upgrade can brick your computer, though. Which is why you should familiarize yourself with the “reset to factory state” features of your laptop and ensure you have regular backups of your critical files.
Windows update is such a pain, randomly breaking stuff, while trying to install their AI spyware on your systems.
I am using this to remove and prevent most of it:
https://github.com/zoicware/RemoveWindowsAI
I would recommend Ubuntu as a Windows 11/10 replacement. It doesn’t discriminate whether a system is WIndows 11 compliant, runs Libre Office and Steam, and has an incredibly light foot print and lower boot times. We just did a system for my son-in-law and it works like a charm. Small interface changes that one has to get used to , but not like a system terminal version of Unix (I was a systems administrator for both for 5 years).
Hell, Yeh! Both our pc’s are now Ubuntu, the latest very recently after its Win7Pro OS started causing issues.
It’s a very easy user transition…I and my wife are both un-geeky.
Thanks for bringing this up, Kate; I hadn’t really thought about the AI concern, as it applies to Ubuntu.
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ai-chat-intergrated-into-ubuntu-desktop/47296/5
My desktop will be Windows 10 forever, because it can’t upgrade. My laptop is Windows 11 and all I can ask is why did MS think Win 11 was a good idea? Because it’s a definite step back from Win 10. I’d go with a Linux operating system (already run a home server on Ubuntu that I set up myself) if my 3-4 business software packages worked with Libre Office. But they don’t and I need them. So I’m stuck in the MS world.
I had a similar problem when i switched our pc to Ubuntu last November. Our Epson ET2850 printer, which I bought a year ago and loved using… on Win7pro, wouldn’t communicate with the LinuxOS. I think I knew that when I bought it but hadn’t really thought it through. In any case there are alternative drivers available, and work-arounds, so it’s back up and running.
I discovered (in mid-December) that ‘LightBurn’ abandoned supporting Linux, they claim because they’re aren’t enough users… seriously?!
Fortunately there are alternative software programs that do support Linux;
https://github.com/inkscape/inkscape
This Laptop is locked to Win 10 Pro. Ran Win 7 Pro till my screen broke. I got a used faster Lenovo Z7080 and Win 7 and my CAD program didn’t recognize the hardware. So, upgraded to 10 pro and locked it down.
Windows 11 requires a TPM module used for “Secure Boot” and which 99% of older computers don’t have.
So even if folks wanted to upgrade they can’t, unless they figure out how to buy and install this module, and many legacy pc’s don’t support it at all.
Not the smartest move.
Stay on Windows 10 if you will, but then your PC will get infected and used as a botnet if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky it’ll be infected with a keylogger and you’ll lose your bank accounts.
Switch to desktop Linux if you will, but your system will crash randomly after your first in-place major version upgrade. And every open source desktop environment project is run by insane Communist loons who hate you, so there’s that.
If you want a functional OS without AI features that will last another five years, pay for a Windows 10 IoT LTSC key. It’s still vulnerable to zero-day attacks but it’s at least being patched sort-of regularly.
Or get a Chromebook.