Windows 10 support to end in 2025 - longer lifespan for older laptops and PCs thanks to Google ChromeOS Flex

[Redaktion]

The impending end of Windows 10 support (October 2025) from Microsoft means that many owners of older computers will have to switch to a different operating system. One alternative could be Google's free ChromeOS Flex, which runs quite well on weak hardware.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Windows-10-support-to-end-in-2025-longer-lifespan-for-older-laptops-and-PCs-thanks-to-Google-ChromeOS-Flex.935895.0.html

[Bb Tt]

"users have two options: switch to another operating system or postpone the end of support (max. three years) by paying an annual fee"

Actually three options:
3. use Rufus to activate Windows 11 on unsupported devices, because Microsoft is putting fake requirements to force people to buy new devices.

Remember when they said Windows 10 would be the only version of Windows?

[Hotz]

Hello. Windows 7 user here...

When Windows 10 support ends, the Operating System will not suddenly stop to work. It will continue to work like everyday before. For years. Until you find enough reasons to upgrade to a newer or different Operating System.

Btw. why should someone ever install a cloudbased Operating System like ChromeOS? If you really have reasons to go to Linux, then the average Joe is better off with Linux Ubuntu or Linux Mint, where everything works out of the box and is still locally on your computer, instead of a mysterious cloud.

[Logoffon]

"users have two options: switch to another operating system or postpone the end of support (max. three years) by paying an annual fee"

Actually three options:
3. use Rufus to activate Windows 11 on unsupported devices, because Microsoft is putting fake requirements to force people to buy new devices.

Remember when they said Windows 10 would be the only version of Windows?

Nah, four options actually:

4. Keep using Windows 10 as is. As Hotz said an OS will not suddenly stop working right when its "official support" ends. Same applies to virtually any software that run on it, and even if they do there'd be a plethora of patches to get around version checks.

[Ross]

Please clarify - does ChromeOS Flex support Android apps or not?

"Support for...Android apps has been added over time...Android apps cannot be used."

Which is it? Thanks!

[Blazer]

No love for LTSC, all anyone and their grandma needs.

[CajunMoses]

Which is it? Thanks!

The author's language was rather clumsy. This is what he was trying to say:

Google's ChromeOS DOES run Android apps if you choose to turn on that optional feature. Buying a Chromebook is the only way to get ChromeOS. You cannot install ChromeOS yourself. Using ChromeOS without enabling Android apps will be similar to using ChromeOS Flex.

Google's ChromeOS Flex DOES NOT have the ability to run Android apps. So, it's limited Web apps, PWAs, and apps built into the OS. The only way to get ChromeOS Flex is to replace the legacy OS (MS or Apple) on an X86 (Intel or AMD) PC. A person who doesn't need Android apps is free to continue to use ChromeOS Flex. The main drawback to doing that instead of buying a Chromebook is getting used to how function keys are mapped.

ChromeOS Flex was meant to be a gateway product. It costs nothing to install or continue using. Installing it enables people who may be interested in buying a Chromebook to get a very close experience. But many people are installing ChromeOS Flex as a very easy and cost-free way to extend the life of a PC that has become obsolete because of upgrades to its legacy OS.

[GeorgeS]

I'm sorry but what a sad and irresponsible article if there ever was one!!!

Comical at best.

News Flash: No, your WIN10 systems won't suddenly stop working in 2025. Period.

Depending HOW and WHAT you use your WIN10 device for, it could continue functioning EXACTLY the way it currently does until something breaks.

Let us classify three distinct different types of computer use:
- solo
- collaborative
- "online"

Comically the assumption that many in the media/press is that ALL computers must be attached to a unfiltered and unfirewalled Internet 24/7/365 and the nearly constant bombardment of hacker packets and files would surely corrupt & destroy any & all but the constantly patched and Microsoft supported installation.

ROTFLMAO!!!!

Sure, while much like with WIN7/8 and versions before them there will come a time when NOBODY compiles a modern Web browser for your OS version so your browsing days might be numbered.

HOWEVER all your offline applications and files will still be fully functional. Your cameras, printers and countless other USB plug-in devices will continue to work just like they did last year.

If you regularly exchange files with others, you MAY WISH to revisit how exactly your doing that and take precautions. Likewise if you have some application that requires internet access you may wish to revisit if that is truly needed or not.

After all the RESPONSIBLE approach here is to investigate quick recovery methods and techniques (WIN10+application recovery thumb drives anyone?) vs getting sucked into a rather comical alarmist rabbit hole of doom and gloom nonsense that the industry press keeps parroting.

At the end of the day, how many of the nearly countless applications and accessories that might being used on WIN10 today will actually work/function on ANY 'ChromeOS' or 'Lynix' distro?

I thought so.

[Jacob F]

Hello, Jacob here, the translator of this article.

While I am not the original author, I will take the liberty of addressing some of the comments that have been raised here.

In response to Hotz and GeorgeS, the article at no point states that Windows 10 will not cease to function beyond October 2025. Only that support for Windows 10 will end in 2025. While it is true that Windows 10 PCs will indeed continue to function beyond the end of support, the author is addressing those who use their PCs with internet access, which is presumably the majority (or a lot of people at least), hence why "...many owners of older computers will have to switch to a different operating system". In any case, I have taken your point on board and made absolutely clear in the opening sentence that this article is aimed at those who require regular internet access.

In response to Ross: Chrome OS and Chrome OS Flex are two distinct operating systems. So if you read the sentence again:

ChromeOS is a lean operating system from Google that is designed for the use of cloud-based services and applications, preferably from Google (e.g. Docs, Sheets, GMail). Support for native applications and Android apps has been added over time, meaning that the system now offers more options than previously. ChromeOS Flex is a limited version of ChromeOS in terms of functionality. For example, Android apps cannot be used.

In response to Bb Tt and Logoffon, thanks for your suggestions!

[Jacob F]

Correction: "...the article at no point states that Windows 10 will cease to..."

[LL]

And Linux don't?!  If i would want to change from W10 i would go Linux route, Mint for example or other easy to use distro.

[GeorgeS]

the author is addressing those who use their PCs with internet access, which is presumably the majority (or a lot of people at least), hence why "...many owners of older computers will have to switch to a different operating system". In any case, I have taken your point on board and made absolutely clear in the opening sentence that this article is aimed at those who require regular internet access.

Son, even decades ago having 'regular internet access' likely does not mean being connected directly to it. :)

After all: "broadband" much? Just about everyone is behind at minimum a Hardware Firewall.

Given that Windows powered systems will ONLY "phone home" to Microsoft by default (if given the chance) the question becomes what exact applications is the user needing that requires access to the internet?

This all mostly boils down to having a modern, patched web browser. Google will likely drop support for WIN10 before Firefox and others. Big deal.

Again, I'd think the technology press ought to be pushing recovery methods rather than parroting a "PC MAG" article on switching to a Chrome based OS.

Of course that is just me.

[Xetwnk]

I don't quite get why the end of Windows 10 support is such a big deal.  I've never relied on Windows "support," per se, at any time since I got my first Windows (95, soon upgraded to 98) PC around 1997. I pretty much ignore / disable Windows Updates as one of my first steps with a new computer or Windows version, and use every version of Windows for a decade or more beyond what the mainstream considers its "death" by forced obsolescence / dropping of support; I used 32-bit XP as my "daily driver" until mid-2022, and gave it up for Windows 10 only reluctantly, on the strength of Microsoft's early promise that there would never be a major version of Windows beyond 10 -- only minor updates -- and only when my XP laptop's keyboard began physically coming apart. (Earlier this year I was belatedly informed that that "promise" was either a misinterpretation or a misstatement, and that Microsoft had walked it back soon afterward -- but I had never heard about that.  If I had, I might not yet be using Windows 10.)

So I reject your omission of the easiest, simplest, response to the ooga-booga FUD about the impending demise of Windows 10: "Ignore Microsoft's heavyhanded orders and just keep using Windows 10, unsupported." That's what I've done since the 90s, and it hasn't inconvenienced or harmed me in any way that's ever risen to the level of my conscious awareness. Indeed, I've experienced much greater difficulty, indignity, injury, and insult, from Microsoft's deliberate removal or alteration of features between Windows versions, on the occasions I've replaced a machine or upgraded an OS, than I ever have from continuing to use an "obsolete" version of Windows.  I metaphorically spit on all the "sheeple" who've allowed Microsoft to talk them into replacing perfectly good commuters, year after year, decade after decade: don't you people know when you're being ripped off?!?

The only thing I can think of is that I wouldn't put it past Microsoft to have embedded logic bombs in Windows 10 such that it will at some point literally stop working, in response to some kill signal sent out from Microsoft. That ought to be illegal, but it would hardly be the worst of MS''s crimes over the years.

So is that it?  Is Windows 10, unlike every earlier version, simply going to stop in its tracks on October or November 1st, 2025?  I need to know!

[A]

I don't quite get why the end of Windows 10 support is such a big deal.  I've never relied on Windows "support," per se, at any time since I got my first Windows (95, soon upgraded to 98) PC around 1997. I pretty much ignore / disable Windows Updates as one of my first steps with a new computer or Windows version, and use every version of Windows for a decade or more beyond what the mainstream considers its "death" by forced obsolescence / dropping of support; I used 32-bit XP as my "daily driver" until mid-2022, and gave it up for Windows 10 only reluctantly, on the strength of Microsoft's early promise that there would never be a major version of Windows beyond 10 -- only minor updates -- and only when my XP laptop's keyboard began physically coming apart. (Earlier this year I was belatedly informed that that "promise" was either a misinterpretation or a misstatement, and that Microsoft had walked it back soon afterward -- but I had never heard about that.  If I had, I might not yet be using Windows 10.)

So I reject your omission of the easiest, simplest, response to the ooga-booga FUD about the impending demise of Windows 10: "Ignore Microsoft's heavyhanded orders and just keep using Windows 10, unsupported." That's what I've done since the 90s, and it hasn't inconvenienced or harmed me in any way that's ever risen to the level of my conscious awareness. Indeed, I've experienced much greater difficulty, indignity, injury, and insult, from Microsoft's deliberate removal or alteration of features between Windows versions, on the occasions I've replaced a machine or upgraded an OS, than I ever have from continuing to use an "obsolete" version of Windows.  I metaphorically spit on all the "sheeple" who've allowed Microsoft to talk them into replacing perfectly good commuters, year after year, decade after decade: don't you people know when you're being ripped off?!?

The only thing I can think of is that I wouldn't put it past Microsoft to have embedded logic bombs in Windows 10 such that it will at some point literally stop working, in response to some kill signal sent out from Microsoft. That ought to be illegal, but it would hardly be the worst of MS''s crimes over the years.

So is that it?  Is Windows 10, unlike every earlier version, simply going to stop in its tracks on October or November 1st, 2025?  I need to know!

windows updates isn't just about features, it is also about security. Just because you haven't gotten your pc hacked (or you may have and just not know about it), doesn't mean there isn't an increased risk.

On top of that, software in itself bases on libraries that come with the OS, so with time you would lose access to browser updates which is probably the biggest security risk, on top of that as websites use new html5/javascript features, you will eventually find websites broken.

[GeorgeS]

windows updates isn't just about features, it is also about security. Just because you haven't gotten your pc hacked (or you may have and just not know about it), doesn't mean there isn't an increased risk.

On top of that, software in itself bases on libraries that come with the OS, so with time you would lose access to browser updates which is probably the biggest security risk, on top of that as websites use new html5/javascript features, you will eventually find websites broken.

Sure. No 'modern' browser supports NT4.0/XP/Vista/7 or 8. (they ALL support 10 & 11)

So at some point in the future they will no longer support WIN10.

That is only important to folks that having a functional Web Browser on the computer is important.

Much/most of consumers have moved much/most of their web browsing to their phones and tablets anyway.

This pretty much frees up their legacy hardware to run their legacy software.

:)