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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and Chris discuss SmartTV owners leaving hooks for live streaming TV, the Nintendo Wii U being discontinued due to parts shortage in Japan, the satellite plans of the big cellphone companies, Netflix getting rid of an ad-free tier, and more.
Mark in Jackson Lake, Georgia asked: My question concerns the announced discontinuation of support for Windows 10 starting in 2025. I have two Windows 10 Laptops. Unfortunately they are not able to update to Windows 11. They run well, have virus protection and currently meet my needs. What are your thoughts about the use of Windows 10 in the post-support era? Should I upgrade to at least one Windows 11 laptop next year, or as you say… Into Tomorrow?
Mark, without Microsoft updating your operating system you will run into issues that a virus scan just wont catch.
For example, BlueKeep in 2019 was a Remote Desktop Environment was a security issue that could have allowed remote attackers to run arbitrary code on your computer. BlueKeep was bad enough that Microsoft took the step of patching older systems that were past their end of life, but thats not something that can normally be expected.
In 2024 Microsoft has patched at least 3 zero-day exploits affecting Windows.
That wouldnt have required you to install a virus first, it was just a problem thats already baked in.
Zoom, Chrome, Word and many other programs that youd use without questioning their safety have all had known 0-day exploits and at times those 0-day exploits worked exclusively on older versions of Windows.
Depending on how many hoops youre willing to jump through, you could also give those computers a new lease on life by installing a supported Linux distribution on them.
Linux does very well on older machines but its still not the smoothest operating system to use as a daily driver. Still installing something like Mint or Ubuntu or a myriad of other options can keep your machines running for many more years.
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