Tag: windows 10

Microsoft’s newest — if you consider four years new – has finally done it. It has passed Windows 10 as the most popular desktop operating system last month.

The consumer versions of Windows 10 have less than three months of support left. While you can extend that by a year, the end is inevitable at this point.

Statcounter reports that Windows 11 made a big jump to more than 53 percent usage share while Windows 10 dropped to a still respectable 43 percent share.

It appears that users are finally moving from Windows 10 to 11, either by upgrading compatible devices to the new version of Windows or by buying new PCs with Windows 11. There is also a third possibility. Since Statcounter does not reveal totals, Windows 10 devices could just have been taken offline by their respective owners or users.

Is the change in leadership the big win that Microsoft hoped Windows 11 would become? Or just born out of necessity, considering that Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 in a short while?

It seems likely that the trend will continue in the following months. Windows 10 will drop, Windows 11 will rise as a consequence.

It is interesting to note that Windows 10 managed to keep the lead until last month. Almost half of all desktop devices ran the operating system and users have started to migrate mere weeks before the official end of support.

In related news, Windows 7 still holds about 2 percent of the desktop market, more than two years after Microsoft ended the ESU program and more than five years since support ended officially.

Windows 8 and 8.1 are also listed, with a combined share of about 1 percent of the desktop market. May not sound like much, but if you assume more than 1 billion desktop PCs, you end up with 10 million Windows 8 and 8.1 devices still in use.

As far as desktop operating systems are concerned, Windows continues to have a commanding lead of more than 71 percent of the market. Unknown, meaning device with unidentifiable operating systems, macOS and Linux follow behind, each with less than 10 percent of the usage share.

Now You: do you run Windows on your devices or another operating system? Let me know in the comments below.

What is with Windows operating systems and issues with the default encryption software Bitlocker? Last year, Windows 11 users suffered from the issue after installation of certain updates for their systems.

Now, Microsoft is confirming a similar issue for users of the Windows 10 operating system.

The details:

• The update in question is KB5058379, the May 2025 cumulative update for Windows 10, version 22H2.
• It affects Windows 10 systems with Intel 10th generation or later vPro processors that use Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT)
• An automatic repair is triggered on affected systems after installation of the update. This may require the entering of the BitLocker recovery key to proceed with the automatic repair.

Microsoft confirmed the issue on the official Windows 10, version 22H2 health dashboard. There, the company writes:

We are aware of a known issue on devices with Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) enabled on 10th generation or later Intel vPro processors. On these systems, installing the May 13, 2025, Windows security update (KB5058379) might cause lsass.exe to terminate unexpectedly, triggering an Automatic Repair. On devices with BitLocker enabled, BitLocker requires the input of your BitLocker recovery key to initiate the Automatic Repair.

Affected devices may enter one of two states according to Microsoft:

• They may try to install the update for Windows 10 several times before Startup Repair rolls back to the previous version of Windows 10.
• Startup Repair may run into an error on some devices, which ultimately will trigger the Bitlocker recovery screen.

The first state should not require extensive troubleshooting or frantic searching for the Bitlocker recovery key. You can consult this Microsoft support page that lists all options to look up the recovery key.

System administrators may notice the following additional symptoms on affected devices:

• ​Event ID 20 might appear in the Windows Event Viewer in the System event log, with the following text: “Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x800F0845: 2025-05 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5058379).”
• ​Event ID 1074 might appear in the System event log, with the text: “The system process ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe’ terminated unexpectedly with status code -1073740791.”

Microsoft is working on a resolution for the issue and plans to release an out-of-band update once that administrators may install on affected devices. The company says that it plans to release the update in the coming days on the Microsoft Update Catalog website.

Users and administrators should monitor the issue on the Microsoft Health dashboard website for updates.

Microsoft plans to end support for several editions of Windows 10 this October. While customers may subscribe to extended security updates to extend support by one (home) or up to three (business / Enterprise) years, it was unclear how Microsoft would handle support for some of its other products and services running on Windows 10, including Microsoft 365.

Do Windows 10 customers, who run apps like Word or Excel after October 14th, 2025, get support when they run into issues? What about software updates? These customers pay Microsoft for access after all.

A new blog post by Microsoft provides answers to these questions and others that customers may have.

Will Microsoft 365 continue to work after Windows 10’s end of support date? Microsoft says yes. Apps like Word or Excel will continue to work. The company notes, however, that running the apps on an unsupported operating system may lead to performance and reliability issues. Microsoft recommends to switch to Windows 11 to avoid these.

For how long will Microsoft support Microsoft 365 on Windows 10? Microsoft plans to release security updates for Microsoft 365 apps under Windows 10 for three years starting the day support ends officially. This seems to imply that the applications won’t receive feature updates anymore. Whether that is indeed the case remains to be seen. Support will end on October 10th, 2028 either way.

Support is limited on Windows 10. While Microsoft promises to support Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 for another three years with security updates, it is limiting support in other areas. When customers encounter bugs that affect the Windows 10 version only, Microsoft support will ask the customer to make the switch to Windows 11.

Microsoft limited Office support in the past on Windows systems that ran out of support.

In closing, Microsoft 365 customers may continue to use apps like Word or Excel after support ends. Microsoft will provide security updates for three years, but does not guarantee much besides that.

Now You: do you use Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365? Are you affected by the end of support for Windows 10?

For years, Microsoft has warned Windows 10 customers that the operating system is reaching its end of support in October 2025. Did you know that this is only the cause for specific editions of Windows 10 and that there are numerous other editions that Microsoft will continue to support for years after 2025?

Depending on the Windows 10 edition, support may end in 2026, 2027, 2029, or 2032. That’s right, there is one edition that will receive updates for another 7 years.

The good folks over at Deskmodder have created a list of the different Windows 10 editions and their end of support. Here it is, translated into English:

October 14th, 2025:

• Windows 10 (22H2) Home/Pro
• Windows 10 (22H2) Enterprise and Education
• Windows 10 2015 LTSB (First Windows 10 version)
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise (First Windows 10 version)
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2015 (First Windows 10 version)

October 13th, 2026:

• Windows 10 2016 LTSB
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016

January 12th, 2027

• Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021

January 9th, 2029

• Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2019

January 13th, 2032

• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021

All listed Enterprise editions will continue to receive support until they reach their end of support date. This means that they do not need ESU, extended security updates, for that.

ESU is only for Windows 10 Home and Pro customers who want to extend support by a year, and for Windows 10 Enterprise or Education customers, who may extend support by up to three years.

Hacks circulated in the past that allowed users of out-of-support operating systems to install updates designed for still-supported versions and editions of the same operating system. It seems likely that hacks will be discovered to allow the same on Windows 10 machines.

Now You: Are you affected by the end of support for Windows 10? If so, what do you plan to do? If not, which operating system do you run on your devices?

Windows 10’s support is going to end in a few months. That is a message that Windows 10 users will see in an ever increasing frequency in the coming months. Note that Microsoft plans to end support for Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 on the same day.

Just a few days ago, Microsoft added the information to the official Windows 10 known issues and notifications page.

There, Microsoft writes:

On October 14, 2025, Windows 10 will reach end of support*. After this date, devices running Windows 10 will no longer receive fixes for known issues, time zone updates, technical support, or monthly security and preview updates containing protection from the latest security threats. 

While the information is not new, anyone who follows this blog or any other tech blog must have read about it a dozen times already, it marks the beginning of the final phase in Windows 10’s support lifecycle.

Up until now, Microsoft suggested two courses of action:

• Upgrade the Windows 10 PC to Windows 11, if the upgrade is supported officially.
• Buy a new Windows 11 PC, preferably a Windows 11 Copilot+ PC.

But with this new warning, Microsoft finally added the third official option to the list of recommendations: Extended Security Updates (ESU).

Businesses and end users may purchase a support extension. While end users are limited to a single year, businesses may extend support by up to three years.

Microsoft plans to chargeg $30 for the one-year extension from end users. This may be enough for some, for instance to continue using the Windows 10 PC for just another year before buying a new one or switching to Linux.

Unofficial options are available as well. 0Patch will support Windows 10 with security patches until at least 2030. This costs $30 per year as well and is limited to critical or exploited issues, but it improves security significantly for users who can’t or don’t want to switch to Windows 11 or Linux.

The second option applies a patch so that ESU-updates are installed, even if no ESU subscription is active on the device. If the Windows 7 ESU hack is anything to go by, it will extend support for Windows 10 for many years to come.

There you have it. Expect to see plenty of warnings and announcements in the coming months regarding Windows 10’s end. It is good that Microsoft is finally revealing the ESU option to Windows 10 customers, as it was abesent in previous warnings.

Now You: Do you still run Windows 10 on your devices? If so, what is your plan going forward? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Crapfixer is the latest open source Windows tweaker by serial developer Belim. He calls it “the tool Microsoft would build, if they hated bloatware as much as we do”. I have reviewed several of his tools in the past, including the tweaker TidyOS, the app remover NoBloatBox and the tweaker ThisIsNot11.

The main idea behind Crapfixer is to create a simple tool that gives users control over popular tweaks. These tweaks improve privacy, remove features, or even applications that come preinstalled with the operating system.

With Crapfixer, it is as easy as it gets. Run the program with elevated rights after you have downloaded its 150 kilobyte executable. Windows may throw a SmartScreen warning, which is displayed because the app is new and relatively unknown, not because it is malicious.

The app displays all available tweaks in a sidebar on the left. Hit the analyze button to check if tweaks are already applied. You can uncheck some of the tweaks so that they are not checked by the tool.

Recommended tweaks are marked in red and you may apply them all at once with a click on the CFixer button. It is recommended that you check them first to avoid that a feature is changed or removed that you require.

As far as tweaks are concerned, you find the usual assortment of tweaks supported by the application. From disabling the “First run experience” over “showing full context menus in Windows 11” to disabling Power Throttling and Game DVR.

While the tweaker does not support as many tweaks as WinAero Tweaker, which many consider the richest when it comes to tweaking Windows, it does support major tweaks that you come to expect from an app of its kind. Even new AI tweaks, such as turning off Recall in Windows 11, are supported.

The application is easy to use and the description displayed for each tweak is sufficient in most cases. You can press F1 after selecting a tweak, or right-click and select Help, to display more information. This is usually just a sentence though and may not be enough sometimes to determine its use or usefulness.

CrapFixer features a restore button, which restores functionality. All in all, it is a good tweaker for Windows, but not that special when compared to Belim’s other tools or popular tweakers by other developers. If you have not used a tweaker yet, this could be it. Anyone else may not find much use anymore in that tool.

Microsoft has released out-of-band updates for Windows shortly after it released the cumulative security updates for Windows earlier this week.

These new updates are available for Windows 11, version 23H2 and 22H2, as well as several Enterprise and server versions of Windows.

Good to know: out-of-band updates are usually released to fix pressing issues. Most need to be downloaded and installed manually, as the issue may not affect all installations.

The updates affect a logon auditing issue in Windows. Since logon auditing is usually not configured on home systems or unmanaged systems, it is an issue that affects Enterprise devices mostly.

Here is Microsoft’s description of the issue:

It addresses a known issue where Audit Logon/Logoff events in the local policy of the Active Directory Group Policy might not show as enabled on the device even if they are enabled and working as expected. This can be observed in the Local Group Policy Editor or Local Security Policy, where local audit policies show the “Audit logon events” policy with Security Setting of “No auditing”.

To sum it up: this is a reporting issue only that does not impact functionality.

The patch can be installed on affected systems to resolve the issue. The vast majority of home users does not need the patch.

Here are the links to the support articles:

• Windows 10, version 23H2 and 22H2: KB5058919
• Windows Server 2022: KB5058920
• Windows 10, version 20H2, and Windows Server, version 20H2: KB505892
• Windows 10, version 1809 and Windows Server, version 1909: KB5058922

Click on the link to the Microsoft Update Catalog website on the linked support websites to download the patch. It needs to be installed manually after download. This is usually done by double-clicking on the downloaded patch file and following the instructions that appear on screen.

While it is generally recommended to install Windows security updates, there are situations that make you want to postpone the installation. Maybe it is because of another faulty update that Microsoft released, a bug that you already experienced after an update was installed on your system, or just the desire to keep the PC running for a long period without forced update reboots.

Quite a few solutions exist that let you toggle the functionality using applications or scripts. Sordum’s Windows Update Blocker is just one program that you may use for the purpose.

And now there is also Pause Windows Updates. It is a tiny open source script that you may run on your Windows PC to pause updates.

Here is how it works: run the script after you have downloaded it and accept the security prompt to get a simple interface. There you may press keys on the keyboard to run corresponding actions. There are:

• (1) Disable Updates
• (2) Enable Updates
• (3) Disable Microsoft Telemetry
• (4) Remove Update Files
• (5) Manage Update Service

Press the h-key to get information about each of the actions. When you select the disable option, all update downloading and installing is halted. This includes updates that are in the process of being downloaded to the system.

Any update that has not been installed fully at this point needs to be downloaded in its entirety again once you enable updates on the system.

Since it is a script, you may review it before you run it on your system. Just load it in a plain text editor like Notepad to do so.

Closing Words

Pause Windows Update is an easy to use option to block updates on Windows machines temporarily. Most users probably won’t need the script or similar apps ever, but there are situations where it may come in handy.

Now You: how do you handle updates on your Windows PCs? Do you let them install automatically or prefer manual control over updates? Any tools you use? Feel free to leave a comment down below. (via Deskmodder)

Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system has its fair share of annoyances. From mediocre apps, Telemetry and ads to other design decisions that seem to serve Microsoft more than the users of the operating system.

Windows Update and the requirement to restart the PC to install updates is certainly on the list of some users. Especially the operating system’s habit of restarting the PC when it perceives it as idle needs to be mentioned. You find plenty of horror stories online about users losing work because of automatic restarts of their PCs.

Hotpatching

Microsoft created a solution for that some time ago. Hotpatching was introduced in 2022 for Windows Server. This allows updates to be installed without a reboot of the system. Unfortunately, this feature has been limited to Windows Server products up until now.

Good news is that Microsoft has finally ported the Hotpatch functionality to Windows clients, more specifically, Windows 11, version 24H2. Bad news is that this is limited to Enterprise clients at the time of writing.

Microsoft employee David Callaghan revealed the news on the company’s Windows IT Pro Blog. Hotpatching, according to Microsoft, offers several benefits over the traditional method of installing security updates.

• Updates are applied immediately and not after the next reboot.
• Security is always up to date.
• Disruptions for users are minimized, as systems do not need to be rebooted anymore to install updates.

Note that some updates, feature updates or firmware updates for example, still require reboots. This is also true for what Microsoft calls cumulative baseline updates. These are released in January, April, July, and October of each year. They continue to require restarts.

The updates inbetween are hotpatch updates, which means that they do not require restarts.

In other words, four updates per year continue to require restarts, while the other eight cumulative updates of the year do not.

The big downside to the improvement is that home users and many small and medium-sized businesses do not gain access to the functionality. It is reserved for Enterprise customers (Windows 11 Enterprise E3, E5, or F3, Windows 11 Education A3 or A5, or a Windows 365 Enterprise subscription).

Another restriction is that the ARM version is still in public preview. It requires additional prerequisites, specifically a Registry Key needs to be set as outlined by Microsoft.

Closing Words

Windows is not the only operating system that requires reboots when updates get installed. It is still a major nuisance, especially if the system reboots automatically suddenly, which may lead to lost work.

When Microsoft launched its Edge web browser, it used Windows to quickly push the usage share of the browser. One of Microsoft’s ways of doing so was to create artificial protocols in Windows that would open only in Edge.

Clicks on web searches in Start or news would always open in Edge, even if the browser was not the default browser on Windows.

The small tool MSEdgeRedirect was created to address this. The main idea was to redirect requests that Windows would push towards Edge to another browser.

There have not been any updates for over a year, but a new update just hit. Good news for users of the project, as it is improving the redirector in several ways.

Note: The open source program is still a beta officially. While it works well, you may run into bugs or issues using it. Also, Microsoft may change things and that may break functionality.

So, here is what is new in MSEdgeRedirect 0.8.0.0:

• The minimum supported system is now Windows 10. Windows 8 is no longer supported.
• Fixed Windows Spotlight, PDF file handling, some UWP apps no longer working in Service Mode.
• New AI-less Google Search results option.
• Improved news handler.
• Adds support for –from-ie-to-edge and bing.com/WS/redirect.
• Adds passthroughs for –user-data-dir and –win-session-start.

The update is a bug fix update for the most part that fixes some existing issues. If you use the tool already, you should upgrade to the latest version. That is, unless you still run Windows 8.1, as this is no longer supported. Oh, and Europe mode is still a thing, why not give it a try.

All in all, it is good to see that the project has not been discontinued.

Now You: do you use MSEdgeRedirect or have used the app in the past?