this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025

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225

Microsoft is cracking down on people upgrading to Windows 11 on unsupported hardware (www.xda-developers.com)

submitted 7 months ago by moe90@feddit.nl to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[+] LostXOR@fedia.io 114 points 7 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

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[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 103 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Let's not kid ourselves, most people will not start looking at Linux. They should, but they won't. They'll continue to use the version of Windows their machine came with, becoming a botnet petri dish in the process, forever, until it breaks or becomes unusable. If Microsoft actually forces their machine to become unbootable they'll rush off to the mall and replace it with a Mac.

And in the meantime they'll click off any nags and warnings Microsoft sends them without reading them.

Just like happened with XP.

Just like what happened with Vista.

Just like what happened with 7.

Etc.

Most users are clueless, barely understand how to use their computers except by rote, and therefore are extremely afraid of change. Microsoft could offer a free puppy with your updrade to Win11 and I think about 75% of users would still refuse to take it.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Most users won't. Users that are happy to fiddle with registry settings might be a little more likely to though

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They are already here..

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My partner keeps telling me to stop trying to install Linux on things... It will fix all the problems though! Like someone that only ever uses chrome they could just have an Ubuntu install and I am sure they will be able to manage using firefox.

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago

Yes! I di so too 😆 every device with an open/hackable boot loader, I am be like, “You know, you can install Linux on this and be free!”

[–] Bruncvik@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I work in IT, run Mint on my travel laptop, and yet at home use the desktop I got 10 years ago, still with Win 8.1. And I use my current desktop quite extensively. There's still a lot of perfectly fine hardware with outdated OS floating around, and I'd argue that a significant portion of it is used by people experienced enough that they know what they are doing. Much of that will shift towards Linux. Not most of it, I'll grant you that, but more than people expect.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 14 points 7 months ago (6 children)

This is so cursed i have to ask why? Windows 8.1 is riddled with vulnerabilities and its ugly.

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[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 26 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

Nah, just us tech heads that are willing to put in the effort (and I'm not, Linux on the desktop has a long way to go, and I use Linux for all sorts of services).

99% of users can't be bothered to understand the concept of a web browser, and that there are different ones. Switch them to any Linux distro and they'd freeze like deer in headlights.

Source: decades of providing support.

And yes, dumb move my MS, not sure what they're trying to do here.

[–] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 20 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Linux on the desktop has a long way to go

What do you perceive is missing? I've been using Linux exclusively since 2006 (while supporting Windows users at work), there's never been a time when I felt like I was missing a particular Windows feature. Mostly I just find Windows' lack of user-friendliness to be extremely maddening.

[–] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

To be fair, if you've been using Linux exclusively for nearly 30 years then yeah, you wouldn't be missing any Windows features because you don't daily it. That's a no-brainer.

I'm a daily Windows user but I do sometimes dabble in Linux both out of curiosity and also for challenge reasons. I used to use it for my school laptop(s) and at one point I had a 2nd desktop rig running it. I can gladly say it has come a long way and improved in many ways since the early days, but it still has a ways to go. Unfortunately one of the biggest obstacles is the Linux community itself which is both resistant to change and exceptionally hostile to new users.

About two years ago I was troubleshooting an audio driver that refused to work and I was asking in several Linux communities for assistance. The responses ranged from standoffish to indifferent to several people outright saying "If you can't even figure this out then maybe you shouldn't use Linux lmao". And I agree. Maybe I shouldn't. Because I was tired of spending so much time screwing around in a terminal while talking to people that think I am trash for struggling to use the operating system they claim is so good.

Linux can be an extremely polished, smooth, and effective experience but that experience is like the frozen surface of a lake. Once something goes wrong and you break through the surface - you are screwed unless you are highly experienced already. That has been my experience, at least.

[–] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 5 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Ugh that's terrible about the experience with the audio driver, and unfortunately I have to agree... there ARE some really elitist linux communities out there. My last bad experience was on Digg, I was trying to ask a question about changing the resolution on the console from the grub config. The admin of the group was so hung up on insisting that I couldn't have a "real" server because I had a monitor connected to it, that he wouldn't even let anyone else try to answer the question (and it's actually a simple setting). He actually deleted the post because he was so disgusted by the idea that my rack of servers has a kvm switch attached.

The communities here on lemmy have been so much better with helping people out. Yeah there is definitely still hardware out there that is impossible (or nearly so) to get to work under linux, but those are usually the "software" devices (like the 56k modems we saw just before broadband become widespread). I've also run across issues trying to get a soft keyboard to pop up on a 2-in-1 Dell laptop (where you can flip the keyboard to the back and use it like a tablet), but I didn't really poke at that for long. On the other hand I've run into similar issues on Windows over the years, trying to reinstall it on a machine and discovering even the manufacturer no longer has the drivers for the hardware they sold, so I don't feel like linux is unique in this problem.

As far as fixing problems goes... Have you ever had Windows break so badly that you had to burn an install disk, boot up to a command prompt, and perform a series of cryptic commands trying to get the system up and running again? I've had to deal with that both from viruses and from Windows breaking itself. Meanwhile linux has such tools built in from the boot menu, and yeah the commands are still cryptic to most people, but at least you don't have to visit pirate bay from another machine to get back online.

[–] LucidNightmare@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I can safely say that over 20 years of mainly Windows, I have never had any crashes or bugs. Ever.

I was using the same install of Windows since 2017, up to 2021, without a single issue. Why I had to reinstall it was because of a foolish mistake on my part, late late at night, trying to install Linux on a spare SSD I had lying around thanks to a laptop was really struggling to do anything any longer. Again, this was my fault 100% as I didn't understand SDA/SDB/etc. I do now though!

With Linux, there is always something that prevents me from using my computer in a manner that I would consider "normal". I mainly game. I use save editors, WeMod, and love to use mods on games that support it. I like how easy it is to set up my NAS, through Windows, without any extra fussing around in some config file somewhere. I like that I can just do what I'm planning to do with the computer that day, unlike in Linux where sometimes I can't even do something basic like set a jpg as a poster for a downloaded YouTube video on Plex that is all hosted on my NAS. On openSUSE, apparently I can't just do that. There is some arbitrary permissions issue preventing me from doing that, while on Windows, it just works.

Sometimes I wonder what actual programs Linux permanents use on the daily. I truly find it hard to believe it is a lot of applications, because most of the applications I like/need to use, will not work on Linux through Wine/Bottles/Proton. Nor do they have a Linux alternative. It makes me sad, because I truly want to get off that OS, but the wide amount of things I like to do always get snagged up on something in Linux.

All this to say that I absolutely fucking LOVE Linux, what it stands for, and the idea behind it. Just a counter argument, is all.

P.S. I've been an on and off again Linux noob since at least 2010, and even today, I am still trying to make the move. It's just not as simple as the Linux evangelicals like to say it is.

[–] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 3 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Sometimes I wonder what actual programs Linux permanents use on the daily.

For me it's the usual stuff like Firefox and Thunderbird, plus chat programs running constantly, with ssh consoles, VM managers, and text documents sitting in the background. Depending on which project I'm working on at the time I might be using GIMP, OpenSCAD, developing circuit boards, printing 3D models, writing arduino code, designing model train layouts, managing photographs or using kstars to run my star tracker. And there's the more mundane stuff like having LibreOffice and PDF docs open, playing music, or watching a downloaded TV show. I really get into a lot of different projects so from month to month there will always be something different running on my desktop.

I did finally break down and order a newer LGA1155 motherboard so I can bump up to 32G of memory, should be here tomorrow and then maybe I won't run so dangerously close to running out of memory all the time. Having to wait half an hour while firefox does garbage collection really sucks.

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[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 13 points 7 months ago

Switched my mum to Mint, and encouraged her to attend outreach meets put on by local Linux groups. She's well pleased with it and has been recommending her friends to switch.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 6 points 7 months ago

not sure what they're trying to do here

Maximise profits and minimise losses. My guess is that someone important at Microsoft thinks that this will do just that, and if not that, will make them, personally, a lot of money. That person has no-one who will dare challenge their authority and so we go down this road.

They (that individual or Microsoft as a whole) almost certainly have a stake in the companies that provide newer hardware, and if they didn't before this decision, they will have by now.

It theoretically makes Micosoft's job easier too. A huge chunk of backwards compatibility maintenance goes out of the window, if you'll pardon the pun.

"Oh you have 5 year old hardware? We don't support that."

Sounds fairly similar to Apple's business model if you think about it that way.

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago

Just install them a browser and pin it to task bar on mint. Maybe add all important websites to favourites, and boom 99% of use cases of common people: Check ✅

[–] redwattlebird@lemmings.world 17 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Nope. Brother in law is upgrading all the family PCs (a total of 3) so he can carry on with 11. Only nerds like everyone here and myself will switch to Linux because we know upgrading your PC just to support the OS is ridiculous.

[–] embed_me@programming.dev 6 points 7 months ago

Two sides of the same coin though. For every ten people not switching even if there is one, it's good just for the push alone

[–] balder1991@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Well, I guarantee you that the whole world that don’t have strong currencies (like the dollar or euro) will find workarounds to avoid buying new computers.

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[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It’s like they forgot that their monopoly is ensured by their lenience towards piracy and industry leading backwards compatibility. Being consumer hostile this way is unusual from Microsoft but I guess they hope to make it up by making Windows subscription based in the longer term.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Tbh I thought they would have already gone subscription by now. When they announced win11 after saying 10 was the last I was very surprised it wasn't either free or subscription based. Now I wonder if they will at some point release win12 with AI tools behind pro and make that subscription only.

I use Linux so I won't be touching it but will see how it goes. Usually end up having to know at least a little about this as people ask me to fix their windows PCs

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[–] vala@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Should they really though?

Been daily driving Linux for 15+ years now.

I recently got a computer that officially supports Linux (framework 13). Running Fedora, an officially supported distro.

Had to literally compile C code just to change my touchpad scroll speed.

I love Linux and it's improved a LOT over the years but there are still things that IMO make it not quite ready for average consumers.

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago (3 children)

That is most likely not a linux issue, but a driver issue, if the driver was as bad on windows as it is on Linux, you would need to do the same to achieve that with that hardware. 🤔

Or, if handled by window manager, it may be, that there are different implementations for different managers, and yours happened to not support scroll speed change🤔

To be fair, most common user do not change scroll speed.

But I agree, most will just continue using unsafe windows 10

[–] embed_me@programming.dev 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

To the user it's an OS issue. Manufacturers don't provide good driver support for Linux. They treat windows as the only first class citizen so there is no need to change the default speed or config on windows.

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[–] dmtalon@infosec.pub 40 points 7 months ago

And here I am with windows 11 compatible hardware refusing that upgrade. I'm primarily in Linux on my desktop these days, but it dual boots into windows 10.

[–] Shady_Shiroe@lemmy.world 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The year of the Linux Desktop is coming!!!

[–] Darkenfolk@dormi.zone 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Soonish™

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[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I guess it's a good thing I am switching to Linux.

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Mint. There you forgot to finish your sentence.

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[–] lazynooblet@lazysoci.al 19 points 7 months ago

How is this cracking down? The article says the documentation for the registry edits have been removed and an automated approach of removing restrictions is now a false positive for windows defender.

I'm assuming the registry edits still work (article doesn't say) in which case where am I meant to point my outrage?

Now if they block windows 11 from running and the registry entries do nothing, that would be a worthy news article.

[–] MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

While this article is about upgrading to Win11, not necessarily a clean install, I found the best way to bypass the requirements is to make an autounnatend with Schneegans.de . Make a Win11 installation USB, generate an autounnatend to bypass the requirements, remove bloat, allow offline install (local account instead of Microsoft account), and a couple other little tweaks like dark mode etc. Drop the xml on the root of the flash drive, and boom.

Or... You know... Install Linux.

[–] macgyver@federation.red 10 points 7 months ago

Rufus can do this too

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The update claims that Windows Defender now identifies the app as potential malware. Flyby11 is a popular third-party tool that allows people to dodge the TPM 2.0 requirement and install Windows 11 on any machine, so Defender suddenly taking a dislike for the app does raise a few eyebrows.

Well, it was only a matter of time until MS abuses their malware scanner for software they don't like.

[–] DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

This is just going to push people who aren't locked into Windows, away from Windows, and Linux is making a pretty good argument for itself as a viable alternative atm, particularly for gaming.

Although another option would be to virtualize Windows on a Linux host too, that's what I'm doing right now /w Win10 LTSC for general apps that aren't entirely WINE-friendly, and then Win8.1 for some older games that aren't entirely WINE-friendly, and the Win8.1 VM has my R9 270 being passed through to it over vfio-pci for graphics for that reason.

The Win10 VM is using VirtIO paravirtualized graphics because its intended use case doesn't need anything more than basic acceleration as it was spun up mainly for running CUETools on for the things that app can't do in Mono, eg. like transcoding FLAC images to Vorbis or Opus.

As for gaming beyond the few edge cases that don't run well in WINE that are due to just being old code, I don't play anything that has an anticheat so 99% of my gaming is easily doable in Proton.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Why do they care? Don't they want the tiny market share of Windows 11 to go up?

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[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

This isn’t the story. All that’s changed is that a 3rd party script is being flagged my Defender as malicious. You can still update unsupported machines like always.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I was really considering getting a new laptop and now I want it to be a Debian laptop. :^

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

I wish Debian's installer didn't suck. I want to be able to use btrfs without manually partitioning. I know how to manually partition in Calamarus or whatever it's called but Debian's installer confused the shit out of me. Void Linux also had a more straightforward installer. Aside from that, Debian is great.

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[–] Zacryon@feddit.org 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I am using Linux for work anyway and used Windoof just for gaming. I have heard good things about gaming on Linux recently, so that's a good incentive to make the full switch.

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