Windows 11 - e-waste mountian this year?

[3s-gtech]

Windows 8 would run adequately on a piece of cheese. Not even good cheese. 7 had already slapped a load of old kit out of use because it had been so long since XP, things moved on massively. I think the oldest thing I got running on 7 was a P4 laptop, where XP would run on some P1 stuff.

[PotNoodleTech]

Really...? 'Microsoft' are always trying to contact me at home!

 

Dont worry about it, you've won the Nigerian national lottery too - so you can buy a brand new state of the art PC with windows 12 on it as long as you send them your bank details.

[Ditto]

Early reports suggested 25% - 30% of running PCs could not move to W11 and meet compatibility requirements. The most optimistic figure I could find was just under 50%, but that was based on Steam users. It is acknowledge the gaming community is more likely to be running more modern kit. https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24234091/microsoft-windows-11-popular-steam-pc-gaming-survey?utm_source=chatgpt.com

That still leaves a huge pile of waste! I guess many will just move to an 'officially unsupported' model, be that by staying on Win 10 or moving to Win via by-pass installs.

[psydii]

The challenge is that pretty much anything post Sandy Bridge is good enough in terms of power (Watts) and performance (LoB/'Office'/Web browsing), but architecturally they are insecure, and supporting older platforms restricts what can be done to push capabilities forward (AV decoding, modern encryption and on chip security, more efficient CPU inter process management etc etc).

 

I do support Windows 11 being a line in the sand, its basically the same as Apple's defacto position of seven years of OS support, and with the extension for education customers to align with the Windows 10 2019 LTSC 10 year support period it seems pretty reasonable to me.

 

There shouldn't be an e-waste issue this year, and by 2019 our non-windows 11 computers would be 12-15 years old.

 

I have also seen talk that Windows 11 Iot Enterprise LTSC might be an escape hatch for some, though restrictions apply at this time.

[psydii]

This really is a multi-faceted issue. Device Security is linked to national security, older devices draw 100W+ more than a modern device, and people not buying new devices contracts a market at a time when governments are desperate to see growth (of consumer spending). Perhaps, the transition of leaded vs unleaded petrol cars might be a useful comparison.

[psydii]

Domestic home user doesnt really need "support" though. Have you ever reported a big at home and they've patched your OS for you? Have you ever reported anything or contacted microsoft at home at all?? Most people would answer no I would wager.

 

anecdote: since Windows started sending a huge amount of telemetry back to the mothership, overall reliability of Windows has improved. Think about it, most people do not re-install or need to re-install their OS and as per this thread 30% of computers out there are 7+years old.

[3s-gtech]

Windows 10 has been deeply stable for us (I take a cautious approach with servers and being at the cutting edge). 7 was good, 10 has been rock solid. A big part of that over the two OSs has been not having any HDDs though - poxy things.

[Ditto]

Good luck with trying to sue MS for enforced obsolescence with Win 11 requirements - https://www.courthousenews.com/microsoft-sued-for-discontinuing-windows-10-support/

[DreadVector]

I have run into this in practice with a few workstations that are still perfectly fine in terms of performance but cannot officially move to Windows 11 because of the TPM and CPU requirements. In reality the choice is to leave them on Windows 10 or install 11 through bypass methods, and that is not really about old hardware but more about artificial barriers. From the perspective of power use and speed they are still fine, but security support becomes the deciding factor. The result is a paradox where the hardware is still healthy but the vendor is pushing it toward retirement.

[Ditto]

Probably worthy of a poll, but where are you at with Win 11 upgrade with Win 10 desupported (sorta) tomorrow. I'd be interested from both a work place perspective but also home if you run on windows OS.

[3s-gtech]

All supported machines here done (plus a small handful that are not, but have 11 on anyway). Otherwise running ESU.

[Rob_D]

1 minute ago, Ditto said:

Probably worthy of a poll, but where are you at with Win 11 upgrade with Win 10 desupported (sorta) tomorrow. I'd be interested from both a work place perspective but also home if you run on windows OS.

 

At school, we got rid of the last regualr windows 10 machines over the summer (had to make sure we disposed of them as we took them out, otherwise we'd have been pressured into redeploying them like last summer's "upgrade"), so windows 11 for all the workstations and win10 LTSC for xibo and cctv monitors (as neither of those things work properly on linux).

 

At home,  the desktop's been on windows 11 since christmas 2021 (was already hardware comepatibile so I didn't see any point in waiting), and the laptop got upgraded in a black friday deal last year.

[Ditto]

For domestic, this video answered an approach that seems worth following 

 

 

As for M$, the whole process has left me with a sick feeling of forced privacy invasion and data harvesting. 

[robintech]

@ £1 a device may as well use ESU to get at least another year out of any Win10 machines .  

[Rob_D]

4 minutes ago, robintech said:

@ £1 a device may as well use ESU to get at least another year out of any Win10 machines .  

Depends, if they'r right on the edge (7th gen), then you'd be better putting them into a buyback scheme for £100ish off a new machine, as that extra year is going to make them too old. At least for HP and Lenovo buybacks (I think).

[Ditto]

For domestic, free ESU for 1 year appear to be an option. I've got several family members who are less IT savvy quite spooked by all of this.

[robintech]

28 minutes ago, Rob_D said:

Depends, if they'r right on the edge (7th gen), then you'd be better putting them into a buyback scheme for £100ish off a new machine, as that extra year is going to make them too old. At least for HP and Lenovo buybacks (I think).

 

Didn't think of that but anyway these are way older

[mavhc]

On 20/08/2025 at 10:06, DreadVector said:

I have run into this in practice with a few workstations that are still perfectly fine in terms of performance but cannot officially move to Windows 11 because of the TPM and CPU requirements. In reality the choice is to leave them on Windows 10 or install 11 through bypass methods, and that is not really about old hardware but more about artificial barriers. From the perspective of power use and speed they are still fine, but security support becomes the deciding factor. The result is a paradox where the hardware is still healthy but the vendor is pushing it toward retirement.

Add a tpm and upgrade the cpu

[southhamster]

No longer at the coalface, but moved my old home i3 laptop and i5 desktops to Linux Mint. No drama, faster and avoids the MS treadmill of random "upgrades."

I also think some older hardware is just nicer to use - lots of useful ports and aesthetically pleasing.   

[Ditto]

@DreadVector, let me know how you get on with the added TPM and CPU upgrade. I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before, but I will be reassured when someone else has succesfully gone through this process before venturing down this path myself.

 

Sarcasm is entirely deliberate and intended.

[Ditto]

So I see that if you have yet to exit the Windows 10 world (estimate up to 400 million devices globally), then your device says 'Activate Windows - got to settings to Activate Windows'. So now it looks like I have an illegal copy, rather than one out of support - nice one Microsoft, classy, real classy!

Edited October 16, 2025 by Ditto

[Ditto]

On 16/10/2025 at 16:46, Ditto said:

So I see that if you have yet to exit the Windows 10 world (estimate up to 400 million devices globally), then your device says 'Activate Windows - got to settings to Activate Windows'. So now it looks like I have an illegal copy, rather than one out of support - nice one Microsoft, classy, real classy!

Hmm - it's disappeared. This is proving to be like my work environment - I haven't a clue what is going on.

[Ditto]

Thought I'd pop this in here - I guess I am 80-90% aligned with the messaging.

[mthomas08]

On 23/01/2025 at 10:57, Chockster said:

I'd love to know how to get the money some of you have managed to get. Our trust and SLT have known about this since the first announcement of Windows EoL and we've had a real terms budget cut since. There is no extra money for replacements beyond our normal cycle, which leaves us with >200 devices that are in limbo.

 

I simply said if we get hacked like another local school did and a few others around our area..  I'm making it clear it is not my fault.

 

All I can do is pre-warn the above and we either try to do something about it.. or we completely accept the risk. And when bereaches occur.. what's the possibility we're back in action within 3 working days? Low. This came after about 18 months of working on a disaster plan which basically said.. if we're hit bad.. everything stops working. No servers. No network. No broadband. You'll have to use your 3G/4G devices to get anything if you're lucky because our mobile coverage is terrible in our area. The discussion of our school closing popped up because we couldn't even safeguard/attendance registers.

 

How do we track which of our students are here and contact parents? We use en-mass message system instead of phoning them all. Now do it without IT which includes our phones.. everything.. even cashless catering stops.. reception sign in.. boiler management.. all this before you get to classrooms which would be shutdown.

 

Luckily the SBM works hard on the budget and managed to get some ££. We just spent a large amount of money replacing a good portion.

 

 

Edited February 6 by mthomas08