Perhaps there is info on this someplace else, but I thought I'd ask here for people's thoughts. Windows 10 is one year old now. Microsoft has said Windows 10 will be the last Windows. Microsoft has also said support for Windows 10 will end on October 13 2020. Does this mean Microsoft is getting out of the OS business, or OS support side? Will they launch something new like they did with IE to Edge? Will they copy Apples OSX and just have names for supported updates (Or whatever Apple does)? Here are some things I have read that make me think Microsoft is working on something bigger. (the key word being "something" and that could be "anything") These are just rumors I have not confirmed : Microsoft is making new installs of updated Windows 10 on computers using older CPUs not possible. Apparently when the OS is installing it will check the CPUs (aka silicon) manufacture date, if it's "too old" the OS will not install, or at the very least Microsoft will not offer support for it. Apple has hinted that it may move away from using Intel CPUs. So what, right? Well before OSX Mac's used Motorola RISC based CPUs. when Apple moved to OSX (Unix based OS) they also moved to Intel's x86 Based CPUs. If Apple is thinking about creating a new processor, so might Intel. Let face the fact that x86 processors are about 40 years old. Something 'new' from Intel would surely mean all new software, and OSs. Think about it, Windows 10 is using the NT kernal, and the NT kernal is based on the OS/2 kernal, and OS/2 is old. If Microsoft calls a Windows replacement OS/3 I will laugh harder then when Intel named the new Pentium processor the Pentium II. There are other things I've read, but they currently slip my mind. Perhaps Microsoft will simply stop selling Windows directly to consumers, meaning no more DYI with Windows?
@Saokei: That's an interesting thought, and entirely possible. I hope we all live long enough to see it. Welcome to MDL, btw.
Hello @ Saokei and welcome to the MDL forums. Personally, I think you're giving Microsoft far too much credit when it comes to business foresight. If you look at some of their recent product developments and marketing strategies, they've made some very poor business decisions. The MS Surface series was developed as a competitor to Apple's iPads and other tablets, and it ended up creating a $2 billion dollar black hole in losses for Microsoft. Back in 2013, Apple was making almost 3 times more money in a single quarter selling iPads than Microsoft made for the entire year selling Surface products. The sales numbers for Surface products might have improved since then, but I doubt Microsoft will ever reach parity with Apple and become truly competitive in that area. If you look at the Windows Phone, it's a complete joke. The Windows Phone was basically dead on arrival. While Microsoft was patting itself on the back for finally reaching 110 million units sold, the number of iOS and Android-based products had already reached 4.5 billion units sold. I still don't understand why they even considered trying to get into the smart phone market after so many other companies had such a huge head start on them. And meanwhile the sales numbers for desktops and laptops continue the slow and steady decline in sales numbers that began around 2009-2010. Some experts claim they're now reached the bottom and will begin trending slowly upwards until 2020 or so, but that remains to be seen. A lot will depend on how well the world economy is doing during the same period. So where does that leave Microsoft? If Microsoft is planning anything at all, they better come up with a product that has people standing on line for a week waiting to buy it. Otherwise, they better start planning on more and more layoffs, followed by how to deal with Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
Windows 10 as the last Windows is a bit of a misrepresentation. Instead of having a major release cycle as in from XP to Vista, 7, and 8, they are going to a continually updating OS. This is a good thing, no more hundred of updates and hotfixes as each month is cumulative, and then there are milestone releases like TH2, RS1 etc. In effect, if using the old system, TH2 could be considered Windows 10 SP1, and RS1 just about to come out as Windows 10.1. There were meant to be more changes but these will now be in RS2 (which would be 10.1 SP1, and RS3 as 10.1 SP2). In effect, the TH, RS, etc is the .1 revision, and the '1', '2' etc the service pack releast equivalent with 1 representing RTM, and 2 as service pack 1. This distinction is why it is Redstone 1 and not TH3, TH4 etc. Basically after 2020 there will still be Windows 10 (they may call it something else), but they'll probably drop support for a lot of old stuff like 32-bit version (still have 32-bit compatibility), and have a requirement for more modern instruction sets like AVX2 etc. That is, drop a lot of code still in place for supporting legacy devices. The use of anything older than AVX would only be in instances where the performance of the AVX equivalent wouldn't be better. By dropping the older instruction sets the code can be streamlined, and more focus can be given on other areas of code development. There would also likely be a host of other legacy features dropped as well. These could still possibly be supported through third party drivers if it relates to physical hardware (like USB 1.1). Basically the end result will be a Windows that still is fully featured on modern hardware, but have a smaller footprint, be faster, and be easier to work on for future development. Instead of instigating this change immediately they are introducting it over a number of years for people to adjust and for their hardware to naturally change to newer stuff as a result of upgrades etc. I think in 2020 if you are still using computers not supporting the newer instruction sets, the insistance of using the then newer Windows is a moot argument.
Well, if they stop support of Windows 10 in 2020, that will only be a year later than the ever-lasting XP, whose support (for the embedded version) ends in 2019. And considering that XP was released in 2001 whereas W10 in 2015, that makes their respective lives 18 years for XP and 5 for W10. This probably also reflects the difference in relative quality of the two systems at time of release. And may also explain why, when all is said and done, I still prefer XP.
I find it confusing when Microsoft promoted W10 as the last one, but according to this link from Microsoft support microsoft com en-us help 13853 windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet (sorry, can't post complete link due to new member limit) it seems like a limited lifetime for W10 End of mainstream support: October 13, 2020 End of extended support: October 14, 2025 For comparison, Windows XP SP3 End of mainstream support: April 14, 2009 End of extended support: April 8, 2014
You can still get support for XP with a simple registry hack. I was getting it without problems, until my computer hardware broke down.
Yes indeed, the Windows Embedded Industry (formerly known as Windows Embedded POSReady) registry hack, I think it was this post that got widespread in the media on how to continue update XP 32 & 64 bit. h***s://w**_sebijk_c*m/community/index.php?thread/2985-getting-xp-updates/ EDIT: I forgot this link if it may interest anyone, it is the megathread on how to make XP becomming "SP4" and all the tweaks. h*p://w*_ryanvm_n*t/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10321 In the near future I will put together a "new" pc from scrapped parts and make a clean XP install, but next time I would be interested to get the updates installed off-line, I am wondering if W.U.Minitool will work. In a similar way to the XP embedded registry trick, I remember when still using XP SP2, it was possible to make a small hack so it looks like SP3 in order to get some programs installed that didn't "support" SP2 and it really worked.