Just a question.

I have an old laptop I wanted to donate. Came with Windows 8 and today has a good working copy of Windows 10 Pro on it. As most know, Microsoft Windows 10's main support ended last fall. Now the only Windows 10 still supported is paid support, and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC. The latter for another 6 years. The laptop will not run Windows 11 without hacking the installation process.

I'm still planning to donate it, but was wondering what everybody else was doing with PCs that won't run Windows 11, or, for that matter, any really old PCs that had Vista on them?

 

I yanked the SSD out of it and am currently running a military-grade program that adds zeros all across the storage. It will take several hours. Once that is done, I will reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 10. It will self-activate with the SLIC in the BIOS.

 

I actually am already running LM on another PC with Windows 11. The laptop I was talking about is one I never use anymore.

Now for a general comment.

I am not somebody who sees conspiracies everywhere I look. I am more of a proponent of Occam's razor when confronted with a problem or situation. However, I can no longer support Microsoft after watching all their actions since they released Windows 8 over a decade ago. As @Star Rider mentioned, many people are moving to Linux-based operating systems. I do think if Microsoft wants to keep Windows as the go-to OS, the company needs to change its business model. Another thing that is not helping is the fact that Bill Gates seems to have turned into a creepy human being.

Because Microsoft is STILL SUPPORTING the Windows 10 Kernel with plans to do so for another 6 years concerning Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC, I see no good reason for, at a minimum, supporting Windows 10 for critical security updates, other than they are forcing people to dump good equipment and buy new Windows 11 PC's.

I used to be a 100% Windows guy. Today, that is more like 50%. As Linux grows and more and more software is developed, I see that percentage dropping to nearly nothing.