Windows 11 upgrade, a rant!

[Dadam]

I recently upgraded the family laptop, and I've been copying data off the old one ready to wipe and sell, prompted by ebay's fee changes. I thought I'd upgrade it to Windows 11 first to make it more saleable, being conscious of the end of W10 support in a year's time. I thought it would be no problem at all, it's still a fantastic laptop and still performs really well, runs smooth as silk for normal apps. I only upgraded to something that would run more modern games.

But no, apparently the CPU is "not supported" because it's an i5 7th gen, not 8th gen or later.
It's got the TPM.20 chip and enough ram and storage but the cpu rules it out apparently.
This was not a cheap laptop, it is a Dell XPS-13, 9360 with an i5-7200U, 8G RAM, 256Gb SSD. It was over £800 as a Dell factory refurbished laptop! This was in 2017, so ok 7 years old. I'd accept it not being able to upgrade to 11 if they kept 10 in support for critical security patches.

At least with Macs as a rule of thumb you'd expect to get 10 years of support. Not necessarily on the latest version of Macos but you'd still get critical fixes on the older OS versions.

 

[Drago]

I have two laptops and the older one, a 2013 Dell, upgraded to 11 OK. Mrs D got the IT guy at work to do it for me as I wanted to do it with a hammer.

 

[richardfm]

A bit of Googling will reveal how to upgrade it to Windows 11

 

[Dadam]

A bit of Googling will reveal how to upgrade it to Windows 11

Thanks yes I've seen a couple of posts on that topic.

 

[HLaB]

I upgraded to the Flying out the Windows screen saver a while back

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

My desktop computer is back with the shop just now. It's Windows 8.1 with an i5 chip and the guy was pessimistic about being able to upgrade it. He said anything over 6 years old is basically obsolete.

 

[markemark]

I recently upgraded the family laptop, and I've been copying data off the old one ready to wipe and sell, prompted by ebay's fee changes. I thought I'd upgrade it to Windows 11 first to make it more saleable, being conscious of the end of W10 support in a year's time. I thought it would be no problem at all, it's still a fantastic laptop and still performs really well, runs smooth as silk for normal apps. I only upgraded to something that would run more modern games.

But no, apparently the CPU is "not supported" because it's an i5 7th gen, not 8th gen or later.
It's got the TPM.20 chip and enough ram and storage but the cpu rules it out apparently.
This was not a cheap laptop, it is a Dell XPS-13, 9360 with an i5-7200U, 8G RAM, 256Gb SSD. It was over £800 as a Dell factory refurbished laptop! This was in 2017, so ok 7 years old. I'd accept it not being able to upgrade to 11 if they kept 10 in support for critical security patches.

At least with Macs as a rule of thumb you'd expect to get 10 years of support. Not necessarily on the latest version of Macos but you'd still get critical fixes on the older OS versions.

So you bought it 7 years ago and it was a refurb so more like 8-10 years old. I don’t think you’re being that hard done by here.

 

[Dadam]

So you bought it 7 years ago and it was a refurb so more like 8-10 years old. I don’t think you’re being that hard done by here.

Er...nope!
It's a 9360 which came out that same year, 2017. A Dell factory refurb was most likely an open box return. So it is 7 years old.

 

[Alex321]

Er...nope!
It's a 9360 which came out that same year, 2017. A Dell factory refurb was most likely an open box return. So it is 7 years old.

But Windows 10 will be just over 10 years old when support stops (it was released in July 2015).

The difference with Macs is that Apple produce both the hardware and the software, while with Windows, Microsoft only produce the software.

 

[Dadam]

But Windows 10 will be just over 10 years old when support stops (it was released in July 2015).

The difference with Macs is that Apple produce both the hardware and the software, while with Windows, Microsoft only produce the software.

XP was supported for over 12 years. Windows 8 for 11. Even Vista was 10 years and 3 months, but pretty much anything that ran Vista could run 7 so you could have got 13 years out of hardware that shipped with Vista.

My point is not necessarily that 10 isn't being supported but that together with the block on the generation of cpu means there is NO supported upgrade path for a still very capable device that's only 7 years old. This wasn't a cheapo netbook after all. It's not a performance restriction it's an artificial one. My cynical mind suspects an cartel type agreement with Intel (and it wouldn't be the first time)

I could put Linux or other distro on it. A while back I had a dual boot on it and it ran Ubuntu perfectly, so if I end up keeping it I'd flatten it and make it a dedicated linux device. But I don't really have a need for this machine now and we're trying to declutter; I'm very bad at getting rid of stuff!

 

[markemark]

I think you can pay for the w10 security updates beyond next year.

 

[Alex321]

I think you can pay for the w10 security updates beyond next year.

Nope.
They finish in October next year.

There won't be any further updates to be able to pay for.

 

[markemark]

Nope.
They finish in October next year.

There won't be any further updates to be able to pay for.

https://uk.pcmag.com/migrated-3765-...pdates-for-windows-10-beyond-2025-for-a-price

Now this is not an MS article but that's how I understand it.

"
Enrolling in the Windows 10 ESU program enables you to continue receiving monthly security updates for your Windows 10 devices. That way, you have more time to complete your move to Windows 11.

Extended Security Updates are not intended to be a long-term solution but rather a temporary bridge. ESUs do not include new features, non-security fixes, or design change requests. The ESU program does not extend technical support for Windows 10. Technical support is limited to the activation of the ESU licenses, installation of ESU monthly updates, and addressing issues that may have been caused due to an update itself.

You can purchase ESU licenses for Windows 10 devices that you don't plan to upgrade to Windows 11 starting in October 2024, one year before the end of support date."

 

[Oldhippy]

I like my old windows. I loaded it on the laptop with cd's and it has always worked. Written loads of stuff and only ever used online for research. Still use it.

 

[Alex321]

https://uk.pcmag.com/migrated-3765-...pdates-for-windows-10-beyond-2025-for-a-price

Now this is not an MS article but that's how I understand it.

"
Enrolling in the Windows 10 ESU program enables you to continue receiving monthly security updates for your Windows 10 devices. That way, you have more time to complete your move to Windows 11.

Extended Security Updates are not intended to be a long-term solution but rather a temporary bridge. ESUs do not include new features, non-security fixes, or design change requests. The ESU program does not extend technical support for Windows 10. Technical support is limited to the activation of the ESU licenses, installation of ESU monthly updates, and addressing issues that may have been caused due to an update itself.

You can purchase ESU licenses for Windows 10 devices that you don't plan to upgrade to Windows 11 starting in October 2024, one year before the end of support date."

I was just coming back to edit my opst, having seen the above after I made it.

And there is detail about it on the MS site as well.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/l...hat-reach-end-of-support-on-october-14--2025-