Category: Windows

Windows 10, the operating system that barely anyone loved when it first came out, is supported until October 2025 by Microsoft. The operating system is still widely used with a commanding lead over Windows 11.

Statcounter, for example, lists Windows 10’s usage share at about 68% and Windows 11’s at just 26% as of November 2023. Windows 10’s usage share will drop until October 2025, but it seems unlikely that Windows 11 will overtake it by then.

A percentage of Windows 10 devices is compatible with Windows 11. These can be upgraded to Windows 11 and a good portion will likely be upgraded in the coming 2 year period.

Millions of Windows 10 devices are not compatible with Windows 11 on the other hand. Microsoft changed the operating system’s hardware requirements. Main restrictions affect the processor and also the TPM security component.

A Windows 10 support extension is coming

Microsoft confirmed yesterday that it will offer Extended Security Updates for Windows 10. These extend the life of the operating system beyond the official date.

Notable is the inclusion of individual consumers. When Microsoft launched ESU for Windows 7, it restricted the offer to Enterprise and business customers.

This changes under Windows 10. Everyone, basically, may extend support of Windows 10 beyond October 2025. This option comes at a price though. Microsoft did not reveal it at this point.

A look back at ESU for Windows 7 may provide estimates. Microsoft increased the cost of support each year.

Businesses could get support extensions for Windows 7 Pro for $50, $100 and $200 per device. Enterprise customers paid half of that. To extend support by three years, businesses paid Microsoft $350.

Microsoft might use the same system for Windows 10 and consumer devices. The company has no vetted interest in keeping users on Windows 10 and likely won’t make the offer too cheap.

Some might say that Microsoft’s main motivation behind the move is to avoid the risk of losing millions of users to alternatives.

As a reminder, here are the available options that Windows 10 users have if they want to keep the device:

• Keep on using Windows 10 without updates.
• Keep on using Windows 10 with Extended Security Updates.
• Keep on using Windows 10 with third-party security updates by 0Patch.
• Keep on using Windows 10 and use ESU updates or other updates restricted to certain editions or subscriptions unofficially.
• Upgrade to Windows 11 (enforce upgrade if hardware is incompatible).
• Migrate to Linux.

The right option?

Most options make sense. You may not want to run Windows 10 without security updates support, but all other options work for a period or even indefinitely.

The selection between an ESU and a 0Patch subscription is not as straightforward as it looks on first glance. 0Patch subscriptions cost about $25 per year, whereas Microsoft is likely going to charge a multiple of that.

Microsoft patches are official on the other hand and they include patches for security issues that are not critical. 0Patch focuses on high-risk security updates for the most part.

The upgrade to Windows 11 is a free option. It works for most devices, even those that are incompatible. Running Windows 11 on incompatible devices is not all that different from compatible ones. A few features may not work, but the main inconvenience is that feature updates require another compatibility check.

You could install a feature update every second year, as Microsoft supports all major Windows 11 versions for 24 months. Still, you need to bypass the compatibility checks again when updating.

Microsoft fuelled uncertainties by stating that it can’t guarantee any update or support if a device is incompatible. At least the update part of the statement is unsubstantiated up to this point.

Linux is another option, but it has the highest hurdle of them all. There is no direct migration path from Windows to Linux. This means that users need to back up data, install Linux and import that data to Linux after installation. Other issues include that some programs are not available for Linux, but there are usually alternatives.

Gaming has improved on Linux in the past couple of years, but there are still games that you can’t run on the platform.

Closing Words

ESU for Windows 10 adds another option for home users, which is good. No one is forced to subscribe, but users may do so to extend support.

Now You: do you run Windows 10? What will you do in 2025?

Windows users who want to look at the desktop may use the “show desktop” button to do so. Many users may not be aware that such a button exists on the taskbar.

The main reason for that is that it is transparent. Hover the mouse cursor over the rightmost spot on the taskbar. You should get a tooltip that hints at the feature.

A click hides all open program windows and shows the Windows desktop in all of its glory. Another click restores all program windows to their previous state.

It is a handy option to quickly access icons on the desktop. While Show Desktop has lost some of its appeal, as many users are now pinning icons to the taskbar directly, it is still widely used.

Windows users who display widgets on the desktop, e.g., using Rainmeter, may also find it useful to glance quickly at whatever widgets are displayed at the time.

Begone Show Desktop says Microsoft

Microsoft announced a change in the most recent Windows 11 preview build for the Dev channel that affects the feature. The change turns off the icon on the taskbar by default. In its place comes Windows Copilot, which Microsoft moves from the center position to Show Desktop’s place on the taskbar.

In other words: when you click the area now, you activate Windows Copilot and not Show Desktop. The Windows Copilot icon is displayed there, however, which may reduce the number of accidental clicks.

Microsoft explains the change in the following way:

We are making a change where the Copilot icon is shown on the right side of the system tray on the taskbar to make the entry point to Copilot more clear and easily accessible by being closer to where the Copilot pane opens.

Good news for Windows 11 users who use Show Desktop is that they may restore the classic functionality. This is done by opening Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and re-enable Show Desktop.

There you also find an option to hide Windows Copilot, in case you don’t use it.

Another option is at your fingertips

There is another option, however. Instead of using the icon to show or hide the desktop, Windows users may also use a keyboard shortcut to do so.

Just press Windows-D on the keyboard once to show the desktop, and another time to restore the program windows to their original position. It is easy to invoke the shortcut with one hand, so that the other can stay on the mouse or elsewhere.

Closing words

Windows Copilot is still listed as a preview feature. It shows, especially in regards to the Windows-specific functionality that Microsoft promised the AI would support. You may turn off Windows Copilot, in case you don’t find it useful.

Now You: do you use Show Desktop?

Hundreds of million of Windows 10 devices will run out of support in 2025 with no option to upgrade to a new version of the operating system.

Up until now, every version of Windows could be upgraded to a new version. All Windows versions reach end of support eventually. Microsoft stopped support for Windows 7 and 8 just recently, but this did not place users in a cul-de-sac. The upgrade path to Windows 10 allowed them to continue using their devices.

Things changed with the release of Windows 11. Microsoft changed the system requirements for the first time in a long, long while. The last big change dates back to Windows Vista, which Microsoft released in 2007 to the public.

From that moment on, Windows users had the reassurance that they’d be able to upgrade their devices to a new version when the currently installed version ran out of support.

Windows 11 requires a fairly modern processor and a security chip, TPM. Bypasses are available to install Windows 11 on devices that don’t meet the requirements. It is an artificial limit, not one born out of necessity.

Windows 11 does run better on modern PCs, but that is true for nearly anything else. Most Windows users who run older hardware know about the limitations. Most may prefer to continue using a newer version of Windows over the other choices that they have right now.

Microsoft confirms end of Windows 10 Support

Microsoft published a new support page on November 16, 2023 that some see as confirmation that Microsoft won’t extend support of the operating system.

The most important sentence on the page is the following one:

The Windows 10 end of support date of October 14, 2025, is unchanged.

The statement confirms Microsoft’s decision to end support of Windows 10 in October 2025. While it is very likely that Microsoft will stay true to this, at least for consumers, it can also be read as confirmation of the current plan.

Microsoft will give Enterprise and business customers an extension. There is little doubt about that. The system, first launched for Windows 7 about three years ago, allows these customers to extend the life of the operating system.

Windows 7 got a three-year life extension this way. Companies had to buy the extensions, but it meant that they could continue using these devices for up to three years.

Windows 10 will likely get the same deal, at the very least. A three year extension would allow commercial customers to use Windows 10 devices until October 2028. By then, Windows 12 and even Windows 13 may be out already.

What you can do about this

If your Windows 10 device is incompatible with Windows 11, you may wonder what you can do about it.

Microsoft recommends buying a new Windows 11 PC. That is an option, but it will result in millions of devices being put in the trash.

Users have quite a few options, but not all are equal:

• Continue running Windows 10 at the expense of security and stability.
• Upgrade to Windows 11 by bypassing the system requirements.
• Migrating to Linux.

The first option may look like the worst of the three options. There are mitigations, however. First, third-party security patcher 0Patch will support Windows 10 with security patches for years after Microsoft ends its support. The company focuses on critical issues and it costs a couple of Dollar per year, but it is an option to continue using Windows 10 and feel a bit safer about it.

If Microsoft extends support for Enterprise and business customers, some clever folks will find ways to install these patches on user devices. The same happened when Windows 7 ran out of support, and it will happen again in two years time.

Installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware is another option. It makes a few things less comfortable and some, mostly minor, features may not work, but it ensures continued security updates for the device.

The one big downside to this is that feature updates include additional requirement checks. This means, in essence, that you need to run bypasses at least every two years to continue receiving updates.

Migration to Linux is the most daring option. It is an entirely different operating system and there is no direct migration path. Some apps and programs may not be available on Linux either.

Good news is that you will be able to use the device for a long time.

Remember Cortana? Most may not remember the personal assistant that Microsoft baked into Windows. Even though it was rather mediocre, Cortana actually provided better Windows functionality than Microsoft’s new lovechild Windows Copilot.

Included in Windows 10, Cortana was Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. It was a voice-activated tool designed to help users in various ways. Core functions included asking Cortana for directions, to add entries to a Calendar, open Windows apps or look up the weather forecast.

A tiny group of users liked Cortana. The vast majority ignored it and a small group of dedicated users tried various hacks to remove Cortana from their devices.

Microsoft announced the end of Cortana support this year. It was clear for a while that Cortana did not play a big role anymore in Microsoft’s plans and the deprecation of the app and service sealed its fate.

Now there is Windows Copilot and AI. Windows Copilot is not Cortana 2.0. At this time, it is mostly Bing Chat as a sidebar in Windows. Microsoft did highlight that Windows Copilot would support Windows-specific features, but it never published a full list and gave only a few basic examples.

Tip: you can disable Windows Copilot in Windows easily.

Cortana vs. Windows Copilot

Let’s start with Cortana. The personal assistant reacted to specific voice commands. Microsoft has an entire Help page on its website — still — that lists some of these.

Here is a selection of what you could use Cortana for:

• Open Windows applications and Settings.
• Look up Calendar information, including finding time to meet with someone.
• Looking up Meeting information, including booking meetings.
• Find out about people in an organization.
• Make lists and set reminders.
• Get definitions and answers to questions.
• Make calculations, including currency conversions.
• Get weather information.
• Look up the latest news.
• Control and play music.
• Get directions.

Windows Copilot supports just a few of these options and some new ones. Microsoft describes Copilot’s Windows-specific functionality in the following way:

Need to enable Bluetooth or connect a new pair of headphones? Copilot can help. Not sure of the best way to capture a screenshot? Ask Copilot to do it for you. Copilot in Windows can change the way you use your PC and inspire you to try new things that you may not have thought of before. It is where productivity and creativity meet.

Microsoft improved Copilot to add at least some of the promised features. You may now ask Copilot to launch a Windows app and it will do so.

The process is somewhat complicated though. Write “open firefox” and press Enter to send the command to the AI. It will then process it in the cloud, which may take a couple of seconds, to return a “dialog box” in the end. You need to activate this box to start the program.

You can also open Start, type firefox and press Enter to launch the application this way. This is faster and does not require an Internet connection.

Similarly, Windows Copilot may open the Settings app or control, very specific, devices, such as Bluetooth. When asked to open the wireless Settings, Copilot returned a button to open the Settings and another to turn on Bluetooth. Not exactly what the command wanted.

Windows Copilot supports some of the other features that Cortana supported. You can get the weather forecast, get directions, or to make calculations.

The AI produces strange answers sometimes. When asked about next week’s appointments, it returned information about typical pregnancies.

News is another weakness of Copilot, as it has no real-time access at the time. When you ask the AI about recent events, e.g., latest Football or Soccer scores, you will inadvertently end up with old information. The weather report is accurate, however.

Copilot’s weaknesses and flaws

Windows Copilot has certain weaknesses and flaws that make it less of an ideal assistant or partner on Windows.

Two of the main issues are that it requires an Internet connection for all of its functionality and that it lacks access to (most) real-time information.

The Internet requirement delays certain commands, including the opening of programs on the system. In fact, users still need to click on a button to launch a program, provided that Windows Copilot identified it correctly.

A better approach would be to process certain commands locally. It makes no sense to send the “open app” command to the Internet to return a button that the user needs to click to launch it.

Another issue is hallucinations. The AI may sometimes return information that is not accurate or unrelated to the user’s request.

Closing Words

Microsoft’s work on Windows Copilot continues; this is a good thing, as it needs work to become a useful tool for some users. Right now, it loses out against the deprecated Cortana in many regards.

The fact that most Windows users ignored Cortana or did not like it does not help make a case for Windows Copilot either.

Only time will tell whether Windows Copilot will become a useful tool for Windows users and administrators, or if it will land on Microsoft’s growing pile of deprecated services in the next couple of years (only to be replaced with the next big thing).

Now You: do you use digital assistants or AI tools?

Microsoft introduced the Settings app in 2015 as a replacement for the Control Panel. The Control Panel is still available, but Microsoft moved some of its features to Settings in the years that followed.

A recent addition is the Settings Home page. It is the new start page of the Settings app and lists a number of custom information and options to the user.

Apart from the name of the device and the Internet connection status, it also lists Windows Update information, recommended settings, personalization options and options linked to a Microsoft account.

Not all users need the homepage. Those who prefer to use the Settings app without it can hide in using two different methods. This restores the classic Windows 11 Settings startpage, which is System.

The first makes the change in the Group Policy Editor. Please note that this tool is only available in Pro, Education, Enterprise and Workstation editions of Windows 11. In other words, in all Windows 11 editions except for Windows 11 Home.

Microsoft launched Windows 11 version 23H2 and the Moment 4 update for Windows 11 recently.

Hide the Settings Home page in Windows 11 using the Group Policy Editor

The Group Policy Editor is a widely used tool to configure the operating system for specific or all users. It includes a policy to hide pages in Settings.

Note: it is recommended to back up the PC before you edit the Registry. You should not run into any issues if you follow the guide exactly, but backups are a good precaution nevertheless.

Here is a step-by-step guide to hide the homepage in Settings:

1. Open the Start Menu, type gpedit.msc and select Edit Group Policy from the search results. This opens the Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel.
3. Double-click on Settings Page Visibility to display the configuration window for that policy.
4. Set the status to Enabled.
5. Type hide:home in the Settings Page Visibility box.
6. Select OK to apply the change.
7. Restart the PC.

The home link is no longer visible in Settings after the restart. Windows 11 opens the System page in Settings from now on.

Remove the Home page in Settings using the Registry

Every Group Policy setting is matched in the Registry. Home administrators may make the same configuration change in the Registry to hide the Settings home page.

1. Open the Start Menu, type Regedit and select the Registry Editor result.
2. Confirm the UAC security prompt.
3. Paste the following URL into the address field in Registry Editor: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
4. Right-click on Explorer (left sidebar) and select New > String Value.
5. Name it SettingsPageVisibility.
6. Double-click on the new entry and type hide:home.
7. Select OK to apply the change.
8. Close the Registry Editor and restart the PC.

Closing Words

Windows 11 users who prefer the classic experience may use the instructions above to restore it. Those who don’t mind or prefer the new Settings home don’t have to do anything, as this is the new default experience.

Now You: home or not, what is your take on the new homepage?

Optional Windows Updates fly under the radar on many Home systems. They come as different types. The most common is the monthly non-security preview update for Windows 10 and Windows 11.

There are other optional updates, e.g., bug fixes, other non-security updates and also improvements.

Up until recently, administrators had to search for optional updates manually on Windows to install them. This changed with the introduction of a new setting in Windows Updates.

Administrators who open Settings > Windows Update on Windows 11 see the “Get updates as soon as they’re available” option there. The same option is also available on Windows 10.

Microsoft explains on this Help page that the setting allows users to get “the latest non-security and feature updates as soon as they become available”. The caveat; Microsoft says that this only applies if the update becomes available for the device.

In other words: while it ensures that the update is installed when it becomes available, it still leaves it to Microsoft when that happens.

The following happens when the functionality is enabled in Settings. The device “will be among the first to get the latest non-security updates, fixes, improvements, and enhancements” says Microsoft. The setting does not affect security updates, which will still be pushed to devices, even if set to Off.

The “check for updates” button of Windows Updates also downloads and installs the most recent updates for the device.

The Group Policy gives administrators more control over the functionality.

Optional Windows Updates Group Policy configuration

Administrators may use the Enable Optional Updates policy to control the installation of these updates on managed devices.

1. Open the Start Menu, type gpedit.msc and select the Edit Group Policy from the results. This launches the program.
2. Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates >B Windows Components > Windows Update > Manage updates offered from Windows Update > Enable optional updates.
3. Set the policy to Enabled to configure the delivery of optional options. Set it to Disabled to turn off the optional updates delivery on the device.

A menu lists the three configuration options when Enabled is selected.

• Automatically receive optional updates (including CFRs) — This installs the latest optional updates on the device. It includes Controlled Feature Rollouts and optional cumulative updates.
• Automatically receive optional updates — Same as above, but without Controlled Feature Rollouts.
• User scan select which optional updates to receive — The user is in control via Windows Updates in Settings.

Notes on optional updates and their delivery

At least some optional updates need to be considered beta. This is true for the optional non-security updates that Microsoft releases about two weeks before their inclusion in the regular cumulative updates for the operating system.

Most Windows users may want to skip the installation of optional updates, especially on production machines.

It is also a good idea to create backups regularly, not Windows Backup though, as it doesn’t include all data. Windows includes some restoration functionality, but it has failed for some users in the past.

Closing Words

Administrators may want to disable Optional Windows Updates on most managed devices to limit potential issues that could arise from the installation. Home users may also want to block these for the most part. There is still the option to activate the “check for updates” button, if you read about a new update that you want to install.

Now You: how do you handle optional updates?

Microsoft released security updates for all supported client versions of Windows yesterday. Only three non-Enterprise versions are supported right now: Windows 10 version 22H2, Windows 11 version 22H2 and the new Windows 11 version 23H2.

A quick check of KB5032190, the update for both Windows 11 versions, reveals, that it includes the Moment 4 features. Microsoft lists Copilot, Windows Spotlight, security and graphics changes on the support page.

If you follow releases of Microsoft updates, you may wonder why Microsoft highlights the update again here. Did not Microsoft release the Moment 4 update already in October 2023?

The chronology of the Moment 4 update for Windows 11

Microsoft announced in September 2023 that it would launch the Moment 4 update for Windows 11 on September 26, 2023. This was the first release of the update for the operating system.

At the time, it was part of the September 2023 preview update for Windows 11. Only users who installed the update manually or configured their devices to install optional updates automatically received it at the time.

Then came the October 2023 Patch Day update. Microsoft used the cumulative update for Windows 11 to deliver the Moment 4 update to Windows 11 devices.

The release of the preview update of the November 2023 security update included the Moment 4 update again.

Yesterday’s release of the November 2023 update for Windows 11 listed the features of the Moment 4 update again on the release notes page.

One has to wonder why the update is highlighted this often by Microsoft.

An explanation attempt

Microsoft did not post a news article or comment on this specifically. Clearly, most would have expected two announcements about the Moment 4 update integration in Windows 11.

First about the integration of the update in the preview update for the operating system, and second about the full integration for all users.

The repeat performance is puzzling. Martin Geuß over at the German site Dr. Windows suggests that it has something to do with Microsoft’s staged rollout approach to updates.

Many features are not enabled for all users at the same time. Microsoft controls features on the server side. It is an explanation that makes sense. Microsoft did not enable Moment 4 on all devices when it released the update in October 2023.

We don’t even know if the November 2023 announcement is the final one for the update.

This topic may not be of interest to average users of Windows. They don’t follow Microsoft announcements or have an interest in updates most of the time, unless they go wrong.

Users and admins interested in new features and when these features are introduced on their devices are, however. Many want to play around with features early or know exactly when something becomes available.

Microsoft’s recent approach to staged rollouts of features makes this nearly impossible.

Now You: what is your take on this development?

Microsoft added support for creating and extracting ZIP archives into its Windows operating system. The Moment 4 update and the Windows 11 version 23H2 update introduced support for extracting additional formats, including RAR, TAR and 7Z.

The archive functionality is certainly a useful feature. Right-click on an archive and select the extract option to decompress it right away. Third-party tools are no longer required.

You may also right-click on files to create ZIP archives out of the selection. It is a handy feature, especially for users who encounter ZIP only occasionally.

Experienced users may have noticed that the implementation is basic. It lacks support for advanced features, especially on the creation side. You can’t create password protected archives, change the compression level or add comments to archives. All of this continues to require dedicated archive apps such as WinRAR, 7-Zip or PeaZip.

A comparison of the time that it takes to extract archives shows, furthermore, that the built-in feature is slower in most cases.

Windows 11: native archive extraction tests

I ran several benchmarking tests to find out if Windows 11’s native archive extraction feature is slower than that of third-party apps.

I ran all extraction jobs 5 times and used the average for the comparison. The first file was an 18.6 gigabyte ZIP archive with 1205 files.

It took Windows 11’s native feature an average of 6.28 minutes to extract the contents of the file on a 2019 idle PC.

WinRAR, which focuses primarily on its own format RAR, extracted the archive on average in 3.51 minutes, which is is more than a third faster.

The open source tool 7-Zip extracted the archive’s content on average in 3.15 minutes, which is almost half the time it took Windows 11’s native implementation to extract the archive.

What about the extraction of RAR archives? I used WinRAR to create a RAR archive out of the extracted ZIP archive and ran the same test again to see how the performance is. The RAR archive had a size of 18.8 GB and the same number of included files.

It took Windows 11’s native RAR extraction feature an average of 5.39 minutes to extract the archive to the system.

WinRAR extracted the same RAR archive in 2.54 minutes on average. 7-Zip was just a few seconds slower, as it took an average of 3.05 minutes to decompress the RAR archive.

Windows 11: compressing ZIP archives comparison

Current stable versions of Windows 11 support the creation of ZIP archives only. This changes in the future.

This time, I picked a a folder with 5307 files and a total size of 2.41 gigabytes . The native ZIP creation feature of Windows 11 created the ZIP archive in 2.29 minutes on average. WinRAR managed to create the archive in 1.28 minutes. 7-Zip flew through the creation of the archive. It took an average of 45 seconds to create it. Both apps have a different native format.

Closing Words

The native integration of support for extracting archive formats and creating some archives is a useful addition to Windows. While that is the case, it is clear that the implementation is not up-to-par with dedicated software.

Users who extract or create archives regularly may want to use third-party solutions for that. It is likely that most of them are faster than the native implementation.

Now You: do you use third-party software to create and extract archives?