Microsoft Is Abandoning Windows 10. Hackers Are Celebrating. [View all]

https://prospect.org/power/2025-10-02-microsoft-abandoning-windows-10-hackers-celebrating/



This month, Microsoft will ruin hundreds of millions of computers in the U.S. and create more than one billion pounds of electronic waste, for no reason other than to make money, consumer and environmental advocates warn. The tech goliath valued at $3.8 trillion is ending support on personal computers for Windows 10, the second-most popular version of the operating system worldwide. This means that owners of devices that are too old to handle the free Windows 11 upgrade must make a choice. Businesses can pay Microsoft to extend support for Windows 10 for $61 per device, a cost that doubles each consecutive year for three years total. Individuals can pay $30 for security upgrades that are only scheduled to last for one year. Or everyone can bin their computers and buy a new one.

For everyone who can’t afford those choices, they can run Windows 10 without support, making their devices easier to hack. The sheer scale of what will happen when support ends on October 14 is “alarming,” Nathan Proctor, senior director the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Right to Repair campaign, told the Prospect. He noted that when Microsoft ended support for Windows 8 in January 2016, less than 4 percent of users were still running it. But about 42 percent of Windows computers worldwide are still using Windows 10.

Along with right-to-repair groups, consumer advocates, and environmental organizations from around the planet, PIRG is calling on Microsoft to extend free, automatic support for Windows 10, as the company announced last week it would do for an additional year within the European Economic Area. Proctor characterized Microsoft’s decision to end support everywhere else as holding security hostage. He asked, “Will having a secure device be the privilege of the well-to-do now?”



Millions of computers becoming obsolete because they cannot upgrade to Windows 11 is coming at a particularly difficult time for many working people. The U.S. unemployment rate has hit a nearly four-year high of 4.3 percent, and August saw an inflation rate of 2.9 percent. It’s easier said than done to encourage Microsoft users to upgrade their devices to newer versions—doing so can be costly. The pricing for a new, lower-end Windows 11 laptop begins at around $300, and a more advanced machine can be more than $3,000. Although it is possible to purchase a used or refurbished computer, that too can be costly.

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