Good bye old friend, you will be remembered for your start menu bloated with candy crush saga and the uninterruptible update whenever the computer felt like.
I'm a big fan of reinstalling all of the default Microsoft online services and resetting your user preferences every time they feel like updating your computer.
If you want to feel real madness try reinstalling Win10 from even the latest installation media, checking for updates, finding none, and then finding your computer restarted the next day with a new iteration of the Bing search box on your taskbar, and repeating this experience at least 4 times.
The defaults are not at all extreme with the knife, it takes away all the advertorial ad-ons and shows how to disable more (including Edge and defaulting to Edge from system links).
Also includes the ability to mod your own ISO to make a lean clean fast install | boot disk for later on or friends.
It's "open" if you read powershell scripts, it's literally just a pipe from a readable GIT reposity to a powershell GUI that toggles scripts that can be read by clicking on [?]'s.
If nothing else you can select the default recommended updates setting which is no new features just security updates.
I literally just did this for my partner and while the defaults of everything are ungodly user hostile they haven't yet reset the preferences I set and I've been watching them like a hawk.
I don't love having to keep a loaded gun pointed at tower and constantly being on guard with supposedly above-board software but it seems to stay down.
My laptop (Win10 home) installed updates over metered connections (and actively combated my efforts to disable the update service, take ownership of the service, etc.). Ultimately the fix was to install Ubuntu.
That's what the corporate propaganda does to people.
IMHO if you're behind a NAT, not running random binaries, and not visiting untrustworthy pages with JS on, that already gets rid of 99.99% of the attack surface. Keep RDP and SMB off the Internet and shut off the other listening ports too.
We shouldn't encourage people to run old software. They will be part of a botnet sooner or later. It sucks yeah but people should rather switch to other operating systems instead of running one without security updates. AFAIK Win10 still gets paid updates though, that will extend the lifespan a bit.
MacOS seems like an obvious alternative to Windows, especially for non-gaming use cases. I can't even tell you which version I'm running on this machine without checking. That's how much the change-over-time doesn't bother me.
Windows on the other hand has me wrapped around a post about 50 times regarding all of its UX quirks. Even the slightest deviation in anything Microsoft always puts me on a ballistic trajectory.
Honestly, Visual Studio is way more upsetting to me than Windows is these days. They are clearly making that experience worse on purpose just to prove they can.
So millions of people with small budgets will get into considerable problems when that coutdown hits zero.
People will not buy new computers, while their old one is still technically good, because Microsoft wants them to run Windows 11 on "compatible hardware".
I am just looking forward to the end of the year when I finish one of my jobs... allowing me to remove Windows from my laptop. Currently I have to use it!
Does not matter if its Windows 11, Windows 10... or even if its Windows 98. I just want GNU/Linux on it!
All my other machines have Linux.
(to note -- it is Windows 11.. and I have mixed feelings about it)
Readit News
If you want to feel real madness try reinstalling Win10 from even the latest installation media, checking for updates, finding none, and then finding your computer restarted the next day with a new iteration of the Bing search box on your taskbar, and repeating this experience at least 4 times.
https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UQZ5oQg8XA
The defaults are not at all extreme with the knife, it takes away all the advertorial ad-ons and shows how to disable more (including Edge and defaulting to Edge from system links).
Also includes the ability to mod your own ISO to make a lean clean fast install | boot disk for later on or friends.
It's "open" if you read powershell scripts, it's literally just a pipe from a readable GIT reposity to a powershell GUI that toggles scripts that can be read by clicking on [?]'s.
If nothing else you can select the default recommended updates setting which is no new features just security updates.
I don't love having to keep a loaded gun pointed at tower and constantly being on guard with supposedly above-board software but it seems to stay down.
Too often, people everywhere, even on HN, talk as if end-of-support means you can't use it anywhere anymore.
IMHO if you're behind a NAT, not running random binaries, and not visiting untrustworthy pages with JS on, that already gets rid of 99.99% of the attack surface. Keep RDP and SMB off the Internet and shut off the other listening ports too.
Assuming your browser is up-to-date and there isn't a 0-day being exploited, can a malicious website even do anything?
Firewall.
Bad ISP routers with/without NAT are no good.
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Windows on the other hand has me wrapped around a post about 50 times regarding all of its UX quirks. Even the slightest deviation in anything Microsoft always puts me on a ballistic trajectory.
Honestly, Visual Studio is way more upsetting to me than Windows is these days. They are clearly making that experience worse on purpose just to prove they can.
PopOS is a wonderful, free, Ubuntu derivative that works really well with video games.
People will not buy new computers, while their old one is still technically good, because Microsoft wants them to run Windows 11 on "compatible hardware".
Does not matter if its Windows 11, Windows 10... or even if its Windows 98. I just want GNU/Linux on it!
All my other machines have Linux.
(to note -- it is Windows 11.. and I have mixed feelings about it)