Microsoft gives a subtle reminder about the upcoming death of Windows 10

News
By
published

A new web page was launched to remind users about Windows 10's imminent end-of-support.

Dell XPS 15 running Windows 10
(Image credit: Future)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft has a new webpage in place to remind Windows 10 users about the operating system's end-of-support slated for October 14, 2025.
  • The page features various sections highlighting Windows 11 features, a comparison between Windows 10 and Windows 11, and a detailed guide that will help them identify and a buy a new laptop.
  • This is one of the less aggressive campaigns Microsoft has used to try and convince users to upgrade to Windows 11 compared to February's full-screen, multipage popup ads.

Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system continues to dominate the market share, despite being on the brink of reaching its end-of-support date slated for October 14, 2025. The tech giant recommends upgrading to its newer and AI-infused Windows 11 OS to continue receiving important security updates, new features, and quality-of-life improvements. 

As it happens, the company recently launched a new webpage to remind users about Windows 10's imminent end-of-support. A subtle approach compared to the annoying full-screen multipage popup ads featured in Windows 10 earlier this year, attempting to get users to upgrade. The support page provides important information about the end of support for old Windows versions, including Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 which joined the Microsoft Graveyard last year.

The page also features a section called "Meet Windows 11" where you can learn about its new features. A separate section compares Windows 11 and Windows 10 side-by-side. As you may know, Microsoft's stringent minimum requirements for Windows 11 might prevent you from upgrading to the OS, especially if you're using dated hardware. Luckily, Microsoft also features a dedicated section on the page that will help you shop for a new laptop that meets the set minimum requirements for Windows 11.

Finally, the page also features a detailed guide that will help you transfer your data to a new Windows 11 PC using Windows Backup. There's also a comprehensive FAQ section at the bottom that will help answer most questions you might have about upgrading to Windows 11, including Microsoft's exorbitantly charged extended security update (ESU) for Windows 10 which essentially allows users to continue receiving security updates beyond Windows 10's end-of-support date.

It's apparent that most users prefer Windows 10 over Windows 11, mainly because of the latter's controversial design changes, strict minimum system requirements, and more. A petition filed by a public interest research group asking Microsoft to reconsider cutting support for Windows 10 detailed that over 40% of users still run Windows 10. It further explained the decision to cut the OS's support would negatively impact Microsoft's sustainability goal as it would lead to the "single biggest jump in junked computers ever."

Kevin Okemwa
Kevin Okemwa
Contributor

Kevin Okemwa is a seasoned tech journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya with lots of experience covering the latest trends and developments in the industry at Windows Central. With a passion for innovation and a keen eye for detail, he has written for leading publications such as OnMSFT, MakeUseOf, and Windows Report, providing insightful analysis and breaking news on everything revolving around the Microsoft ecosystem. You'll also catch him occasionally contributing at iMore about Apple and AI. While AFK and not busy following the ever-emerging trends in tech, you can find him exploring the world or listening to music.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • postman
    Talk all they want about "windows 10 is dying" but it's not going to stop gamers and real tech enthusiasts from keeping windows 10 and ignoring 11 while we wait for 12 or the stupidity to get removed from 11.
    Reply
  • TheFerrango
    Microsoft clearly showed they couldn’t care less about their carbon footprint, from this to the enormous push for AI-everything and the related power consumption.
    It’s clear they’re terrified of having another Windows XP, with the OS lasting way more than they intended, and all this scare tactics are to try and push people away from 10.
    Even if a small percentage jumps ship and lands in a non Microsoft one, I guess they see having one less ship to maintain as a big plus. Not to mention ever since they got into the WaaS update scheme, the number of supported platforms exploded due to all the overlapping releases, with all the extra costs attached
    Reply
  • Jack Pipsam
    I haven't minded Windows 11 on my Surface Laptop Studio up till now. But I don't love it either, so I haven't swapped my desktop over from my current dual-boot of 10 & Ubuntu (which I am more than happy with currently).

    This whole AI business though, especially this whole Recall nonsense honestly gives me even less desire to upgrade to 11 on my desktop. To the point where I might even be a sucker to buy at least the first year of extended support (or just risk it without lol).
    I don't think this is going to end the way Microsoft wants it too, the mood for switching just isn't there and there's no signs of that changing. Especially once the Recall stuff starts getting mainstream attention. Whatever pinkie-promises Microsoft makes will not do anything to convince a lot of people of how utterly creepy and suspect it is. Regardless of whatever Microsoft's intentions are, you just know someone will find a way to hack into it and steal the data remotely lol within the first day lol.
    Reply
  • The Werewolf
    So, to be clear, for the majority of Windows users, they had an version of Windows that they mostly liked, worked well for them, had few issues with, that worked on almost anything. Microsoft decided 'screw that' and started another Windows 8 project with a complete overhaul of the UI and more importantly the workflow of Windows, thus breaking a lot of people's long time work processes.

    But wait, they also arbitrarily set a hardware limit so that a LOT of existing systems can't run it (bonus sales to OEMs). THEN got wildly sidetracked with genLLM and needing to stick "AI" - again something no one was asking for - into every aspect of Windows culminating with Copilot+ and "Recall" which set the hardware bar even higher at high end ARM processors, when almost no one has one of those. Even their own previous ARM hardware isn't good enough.

    Worse, Intel and AMD had risen to the challenge by, for the first time, incorporating NPUs in their CPU chips... only to find at the big reveal that their NPUs aren't even close to powerful enough to run MSFT's AI - which needs 40 TOPs when Intel/AMD's NPUs deliver 10-16 TOPs tops.

    And that's ignoring that everyone keeps comparing native ARM performance to native X64 performance which isn't at all surprising, when the real question is "How well can Prism emulation on ARM handle X64 (and X32) apps that will never get ported?" Because that's literally what killed Microsoft's FIRST ARM based device: the Surface RT which was released ten years ago! Yes, long before Apple jumped in.

    TBH, I jumped from MacOS to Windows in the early 2000s when MacOS X came in and broke all my workflows and a lot of software I was using. This is seriously making me think about going back to macOS or even jumping to Linux. In the meantime, I'll try to stay on Win 10 as long as I can and hope that Copilot dies a horrible fiery death and we get a new Win 10-like recovery in Win 12 much as Win 10 was a recovery from Microsoft previous nightmare Windows overhaul: Win 8.

    (Remember kiddies, Win 10 is actually Win 9 and Win 11 is actually Win 10 because Microsoft chose to skip Win 9 - so the "Even Windows versions suck and odd versions are great" curse still holds...)
    Reply
  • Shadow_Death
    postman said:
    Talk all they want about "windows 10 is dying" but it's not going to stop gamers and real tech enthusiasts from keeping windows 10 and ignoring 11 while we wait for 12 or the stupidity to get removed from 11.
    I just rolled back to 10 yesterday. I got so annoyed with 11 and what I thought was AND driver issues that I rolled back to 10 and all my issues went away.

    Fun fact if you disabled HAGS in windows 11 with AND drivers installed some games will continue to act like HAGS is still enabled. Windows 10 doesn't even have it for AMD GPUs at all.

    I forgot how bad I missed Windows 10 and having a local account.

    At this point I think it is fair to say that Microsoft has long since lost touch with its user base and reality. They're too busy chasing after the heals of Apple to do their own thing.
    Reply
  • Annie_M
    My work PC just got updated to Windows 11 last week. I would love to go back to Windows 10! :cry:
    Reply