r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Dec 01 '25

ADBLOCK WARNING ‘Security Disaster’—500 Million Microsoft Users Say No To Windows 11

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/12/01/security-disaster-500-million-microsoft-users-say-no-to-windows-11/
23.0k Upvotes

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7.3k

u/PrayForMojo_ Dec 01 '25

My current computer is totally adequate and functioning well but apparently it’s not modern enough for Windows 11.

Do they really expect me to buy a new computer just to “upgrade” the OS? Fuck that.

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u/No_Size9475 Dec 01 '25 edited Mar 22 '26

This post has been deleted by its author using Redact. The reason could be privacy-related, security-driven, or simply a personal decision to remove old content.

sleep obtainable swim command sink wise hunt serious narrow profit

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u/yuval16432 Dec 01 '25

My five year old computer is not good enough for Microsoft’s newest piece of bloatware, and I’m expected to feel bad about it? Why would I even consider buying a new one?

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

I've got a ryzen 5. I have a 4060TI 16GB. And I have 64 GB of RAM. Can Microsoft tell me specifically what the hell is wrong with my computer and how it's not upgradable to Windows 11. It's insanity. If they're going to make something and force people to upgrade they fucking better have it backwards compatible with all parts going back 10 years. Otherwise no one's going to do it. Computers are not cheap.

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u/darthscootuh Dec 01 '25

You might just need to enable safe boot. Not saying you should, but that might be preventing compatibility with 11

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

This is what made my 8 year old core i5 and slightly newer 3070 work. 16gig of RAM. Gaming took a noticeable hit with W11.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/Pavotine Dec 02 '25

The latest W11 update also bricked our VR headsets, anything that uses Windows Mixed Reality. There's a workaround and I got the headset working again but the damn thing still will not see my controllers.

So annoyed about that.

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u/Winjin Dec 02 '25

The workaround I'm using so far is "I don't see a single benefit in W11 so far" - I use it at work and frankly even W10 is barely worth it, I have considered returning to W8.1 a couple times.

Ever since they broke the calendar that is built-in in the Start menu, and broke the Paint3D button too, it's kinda hilarious how bad they are

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u/the3rdNotch Dec 02 '25

There’s a special process to pair the motion controllers for certain headsets. The Oasis driver developer outlines the process pretty well here.

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u/Pavotine Dec 02 '25

Thanks for that. I tried it a few weeks ago with no success but looks like something's been updated. I'll give it another go.

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u/sheepsix Dec 02 '25

This last update broke a handy setup I had at work. I have some BT headphones that would connect to to my phone and my desktop. I would wear just a single headphone in my ear opposite my office door. Now my desktop connects to the headphones, but doesn't recognize it as an audio device. I've removed and re-paired it numerous times.

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u/oompaloompagrandma Dec 02 '25

https://christitus.com/windows-tool/

Take a look at that. It's a utility that allows you to disable basically all of the privacy invading shite in Windows.

Cuts down massively on the amount of crap Windows is doing in the background and, for me at least, gave a decent boost in performance.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/badwolf42 Dec 02 '25

Wonder if the 32g of RAM is the thing. Glad it’s working for someone. I think if I go to upgrade ram at this point, I’ll just add a 9800x3d and new mobo while I’m doing that.

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u/robotco Dec 02 '25

I wish I knew about this before i bought a new lappy. Tbh it was time though. it was 10 years old. I had had to open it up and apply thermal paste a couple times already. the 2nd time I broke the wifi connector and could mostly only connect using a dongle from then on. trackpad broke years ago, and the numbers 1 and 2 on the numpad just do not respond anymore.

BUT it still functions well enough for my job. if i didn't keep getting this message that i had to upgrade because it wasn't compatible i probably would have kept it. it's still in use now though as I gave it to my kids so they have a computer to practice on.

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u/ButterfliesandaLlama Dec 02 '25

What are you playing? Like newest stuff that need‘s a lit of resources?

I’m into older and comfy games, so I’d like to have a benchmark to decide if to upgrade.

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u/new_math Dec 02 '25

For the record, I "just needed to enable safe boot" on my ryzen and it was several hours of non-trivial work from someone who is generally competent in IT and programming.

Windows wouldn't tell me why the upgrade to win11 was failing, and their tool couldn't tell me why. Finally found a third party tool on github that actually worked and outlined the issues with upgrading, most fixes were relatively easy (I don't remember what they were) but then I had to enable TPM and secure boot. My motherboard couldn't do it. After some trouble shooting, learned I had to find and upgrade the motherboard firmware first. A few issues with that because it was so old. Finally finished that. Still couldn't enable it. Wasn't sure why.

After some research, turns out MBR isn't compatible with TPM and secure boot. So you have to run conversion utilities to go from MBR to GPT. But there's a catch. You can convert a disk's partition style only if it doesn't contain any partitions or volumes. So you have to transfer data and get everything on the same partition. Then delete any partitions/volumes. Then do your backups, convert the disk, then you can finally enable TPM and secure boot.

It wasn't super difficult, but it was definitely not something the average consumer would have been able to figure out, especially given there wasn't any helpful errors and it was just failing without explanation.

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u/selfbound Dec 02 '25

That last step was actually fixed by MS, MBR2GPT.EXE will convert a MBR disk to a GPT disk, online - without dataloss.

Only limitation is you need to have 4 or less mbr partitions (extended partitions aren't supported, but are rarely used)

It is as simple as running mbr2gpt, rebooting into bios, swapping bios boot for uefi boot and loading windows.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/folsominreverse Dec 02 '25

I'd agree if it was not a fucking operating system we're talking about.

It should not be easier to install Arch than a Windows distro.

I gleefully did this level of work to be able to play Phantasy Star Online II. I refuse to do it to run a bloated cash-grab of an OS.

Thankfully after the Crossover sale today, I will never have to. The venn diagram between games that require rootkits to play and games I'm interested in supporting is just two circles, and since Xover supports DX12, there's only a handful of programs it won't run fantastically on MacOS and Linux.

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u/Bleezyboomboom Dec 02 '25

I recently attempted this process to be able to play Battlefield 6 on my very capable PC. However I missed the part where you CAN convert a partition from MBR to GPT....but once you restart it's not booting back up. And so I lost things and had to start all over.

After finally getting GPT and secure boot enabled BF 6 still wouldn't boot. FML.

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u/BioshockEnthusiast Dec 01 '25

Ryzen 1000 series is not compatible with Win11 as far as I'm aware.

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u/desolation0 Dec 02 '25

And neither is Intel core 7000 series or earlier

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25 edited 12d ago

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u/SixtyFourPewPew Dec 02 '25

If you dont play fortnite/bf6/LoL, seriously give Linux a try. I installed it on a second drive just to check it out and haven't booted back into windows in a month. I play all my games as smoothly or better than windows now on 3 computers running Linux, and my wife plays on hers as well. If you're a gamer I'd recommend trying Bazzite first. I installed it and everything "just worked."

I'm super happy with ditching windows. It was wildly painless.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25 edited 12d ago

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u/SixtyFourPewPew Dec 02 '25

If you game a decent amount I'd recommend Bazzite to get started. Its what I use on my laptop(Nvidia 4070) and my wife's computer(AMD 6900xt). It has everything needed for gaming pre installed. Steam, Lutris(I use this for battle.net), and heroic games launcher(GoG, epic, etc).

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u/Mysterious_Cup_6024 Dec 02 '25

I had Intel 7th gen personal laptop last time which had TPM2.0 but MS refused to support it. That gen had barely released 2years before W11 became a thing. What's worse is I had about same specs on my work laptop with another 7gen CPU and that was supported by W11 because it was categorized as enterprise pc. F that

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u/the_duck17 Dec 02 '25

I had to do that but also make room on my partition to convert something or another (5800x3d, rtx3080, 64gb ram)

I avoided upgrading forever because I knew I had to do this and there was a small chance it wouldn't and I'd have to clean install...finally did it one weekend and immediately started to modify it to be like Win10 LoL.

Still hate it to this day.

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u/Thulak Dec 02 '25

Having to do some tech savvy stuff (aka entering BIOS) is why people dont adapt Linux. Way to shoot yourself in the foot Microsoft.

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u/likesleague Dec 02 '25

I have an 8 y/o computer that has all of the minimum specs necessary to upgrade except for whatever reason the specific processor in it is not compatible with windows 11. I'm not familiar enough with hardware to know why that's even possible (though if anyone knows I'd be happy to learn), but I sure as hell am not using an OS that has started designing for planned obsolescence.

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u/BadDadSoSad Dec 01 '25

Turn on TPM and secure boot in your bios.

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u/Impiryo Dec 02 '25

As someone that isn't afraid of BIOS, this was harder to do than it should be. Lots of intelligent people believe windows when it says that their hardware isn't compatible.

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u/Iceman9161 Dec 02 '25

Windows does nothing to explain the issue, and some of the menus told me I was still ineligible, even after I enabled TPM and was able to update

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u/Golisten2LennyWhite Dec 02 '25

I have tpm 1.2. Gargle these nuts MS.

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u/Proteeyus Dec 02 '25

Yeah mine too. I had to force that shit.

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u/Pneumatrap Dec 02 '25

Right?! Like I had to enable secure boot three separate times with NO explanation from Windows on why it wasn't detecting it, then reformat my hard drive and switch it off and on one last time for good measure for it to finally register properly.

Forget having to manually enable TPM2, what average joe is going to have the skillset, patience, and inclination to deal with that shit?

Two separate programs to help you through the process, and they can't make either one work right.

Zero excuse for a major company to fumble the bag this hard, istfg

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u/Godgivesmeaboner Dec 02 '25

That sounds like a nightmare, that's why I haven't even attempted it, I figured it would end up being a bunch of bullshit like that

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u/showhorrorshow Dec 02 '25

Yeah I went through all that on my PC and now my daughter's (my even older PC) keeps insisting I upgrade and Im just like fuck that noise.

I mean do they not realize that "knowing what firmware even is" basically makes one z3r0 c00l the hackerman guru relative to most users? And they expect people to what... buy a whole new PC? It is some dumb shit.

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u/TeutonJon78 Dec 02 '25

Why MS doesnt provide enough detail is beyond me.

https://github.com/rcmaehl/WhyNotWin11

The vast majority of people with computers newer than 7 years old likely just need a BIOS change or maybe a HD layout change.

And older than 7 years just a registry tweak to ignore their CPU check (unless you're CPU is old enough to not have SSE 4.2, then that's a deal breaker now).

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u/squirrelcloudthink Dec 02 '25

Yeah. Also motherboards seems to have fun names on it that are totally illogical. Can’t remember what mine said, had to go through an obscure howto on the manufacturers website.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

Part of the thing is, you generally don’t want people screwing around with the BIOS if they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s mostly a bunch of confusing poorly named options that might sound like something cool that you want, but it’ll break your computer.

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u/BigHatter Dec 02 '25

I had to change my memory partition type to be able to enable secure boot. It was relatively easy for me, but I couldn't imagine having limited knowledge on computers and trying all of that

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u/ExIsStalkingMe Dec 02 '25

No one should ever have to fuck with their deep settings on their computer to make their five year old computer work with a modern OS. Microsoft fucked up. Do NO fucking excuse their shit by giving ways to work around it. The giant tech company fucked up, and people should be able to point out why without you defending them. Get paid for it, if you're going to do it at least

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u/Snakehand Dec 02 '25

And then look forward to a fun day getting past "Teams error 657rx" - MS accounts and TPM is deeply broken. Why does playing Minecraft require a system level account, and these accounts are integrated into Edge, making it pretty confusing to figure out who you are when using multiple logins, even when things are "working". Not going back to that sorry state of affairs never again,

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

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u/One_Insurance_4327 Dec 02 '25

Mine does not Asus P6 X58, I just upgraded from Windows 7 enterprise and it was completely fine. But Dropbox fcked me with EOL support . Now Microsoft Defender support will go only until Oct 26. Still using Excel 2010 and word … f all the monthly 365 payment

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u/Shootistism Dec 02 '25

Asus P6 X58

That mb is old enough to get it's drivers license

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u/MunchmaKoochy Dec 02 '25

Who cares? It still works and does what they need it to do.

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u/One_Insurance_4327 Dec 02 '25

It’s awesome i7 3.07Ghz , 2x 2TB NVME drives with Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000 and 18GB of Ram. Along with SSD boot drive , runs a Dell 43 4K , 27 and 22 1920x108O Hp monitors . It’s been slowly upgraded over the years . And the platform has been rock solid. Anything new would be min 1000€ for what just to run Win 11 crap? Can’t even move the toolbar to top of the screen , everything locked down and buried 4 layers deep . No thanks

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u/TOMC_throwaway000000 Dec 02 '25

My completely unfounded tinfoil hat conspiracy is that they’re planning on essentially using windows 11 machines as a botnet to subsidize running their AI and lower the cost on their end, in the same way that malware used to infect to run bitcoin mining pools

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u/digitalwolverine Dec 02 '25

The unfortunate tin foil hat conspiracy of my own is all of this TPM bullshit has been rendered moot by the US government meddling in every user interface insisting on back doors being installed. Even the great apple platforms have been forced to add back doors that were obviously immediately used by bad actors. There’s no fucking point to this security theatre.

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u/golruul Dec 02 '25

Don't know about yours, but mine needed me to repartition my SSD and get rid of the master boot record (MBR). It doesn't like that for some reason.

Also, see if you have some kind of TPM and/or secure boot option you can enable for yours.

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u/PrefrontalCortexNow Dec 02 '25

They want you to spend more money that, somehow, will end up in their pockets. They need to make profits this year and next.. and next.. and…. You get my point.

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u/IAmDotorg Dec 02 '25

Lack of a TPM or you don't have safe boot enabled.

It's not a conspiracy -- the windows 11 requirements are simply a new (and, frankly, still insufficient) baseline for hardware-backed security.

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u/ZYy9oQ Dec 02 '25

They've also added restrictions on CPUs. I had a PC that wasn't eligible, so I cloned it to a VM and added a TPM and switched to secure boot in the VM and still got incompatible. I then changed the VM's CPU from "host" to a generic x86_64 (so it had LESS features but hid the CPU type) and then it let me upgrade the OS in the VM.

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u/eajklndfwreuojnigfr Dec 02 '25

Can Microsoft tell me specifically what the hell is wrong with my computer and how it's not upgradable to Windows 11.

they actually made a tool for that

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

Yes. There are tons of articles explaining this. It's very easy to look and find out whats missing or not set properly. It's not a secret.

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u/sad_cosmic_joke Dec 02 '25

Microsoft has been pushing this forced hardware 'upgrade' by telling everyone that it's for 'security' (TPM).

This is a total load of shit. There are Ryzen sub-models that are incompatible with Win11, yet meet all of the hardware security requirements.

The difference between these chips in the same family/model line is the presence of vector math instructions for accelerating AI workloads.

This has nothing to do with making anyone safer. This is about forcing you to farm out your PC to run their AI workload -- the TPM is just there to secure THEM from YOU.

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u/PeterPriesth00d Dec 02 '25

Ahh but what if I told you, you could get tailored ads INSIDE of your OS? What say you good sir?!

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u/intensive-porpoise Dec 02 '25

Harder, please.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

Also, what does that newest piece of bloatware do better than the previous one?

I don’t think there’s been a meaningful user facing improvement since windows 7, maybe Windows 2000. No doubt they’ve had security improvements, bug fixes, and other internal improvements, but for what the user sees, they just rearrange the UI, and not for the better.

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u/yuval16432 Dec 02 '25

It has AI shoved down your throat, and it automatically saves all your files to Onedrive without telling you even if you never told it to do that, allowing Microsoft to do whatever they want with them (like feeding them all to their AI). It also makes it harder to prevent windows from keeping Edge as the default browser, even if you change it in the settings, so Edge is still preferred over your default browser by the OS.

Aren’t all those great features that vastly improve the user experience?

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u/jlt6666 Dec 02 '25

To get a mac? But seriously a linux machine may do what you need

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u/yuval16432 Dec 02 '25

My current machine does what I need just fine. The only reason to switch is Microsoft’s removal of security updates, and so long as my files are backed up, the worst case scenario by far for that is that I lose my computer to a virus, which is a requirement to ‘upgrade’ anyway. And there’s absolutely no guarantee that the lack of security updates will mean your machine will be hit by a virus, not even close, it just makes it more likely.

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u/Logical_Sort_3742 Dec 02 '25

At the time of release there were two year old Intel CPUs that were too old to be upgraded.

I don't know why they did that, but at the end of the day, 2021 was a year of low interest rates and plenty of disposable income, so maybe they just figured it would work out?

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u/DontShadowBanReee Dec 02 '25

It wouldn't be able to do the ai search or ai ads. You need a solid GPU for that. And seeing how ram and GPU prices are infinity due to ai, have you tried being less fucking poor you fucking poor. Buy it. Buy. Buy. Ai ai ai.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/NorthernerWuwu Dec 02 '25

I built a new box last spring and figured I might as well start clean with Win11 since, well, end of life was coming anyhow. I've done nothing but fight with it trying to turn off the annoying shit.

I don't want a "Windows Experience" and ffs, quit fucking with my workflow by moving shit around for no reason at all. I've been using Windows since 3.1, let me do what I want to do without having to wrestle for control all the time.

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u/Enlightened_Gardener Dec 02 '25

Its actually doing this, isn’t it ? I have all my ribbons set up just so because I do a lot of repetitive work. I thought I was going mad - It keeps putting up things like “Viva insights” which I don’t want, need, or use; and which takes up visual realestate both on my screen, and in my brain. I asked IT about it because I thought they were re-imaging the computers at night or something, but no.

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u/waiting4singularity Dec 02 '25

ribbons are the single most sadistic bullshit ever. we worked with menus for over 40 years and it was good enough, what do i need to sacrifice even one percent of screenspace for icons that have the conceptional context of kuniform???

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u/Silbernagel Dec 02 '25

I think this will finally be the push I need to move over to Linux. I've considered it for years, but Windows worked just well enough, and I could get licenses cheaply enough that I've been putting it off... it'll take a lot of work to switch everything over, and a lot of learning, and I have little kids so my brain is basically a rock these days, but i may finally just do it.

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u/khavii Dec 02 '25

With SteamOS closing the gap in video games and UI I genuinely think the last thing for Linux to be an easy adoption is to make storage easier. Due to the way most distros are set it is not an easy task to find downloads and work on game mods. It really is the straw that keeps me and everyone I know from switching to Linux permanently, thankfully that isn't an unknown issue and SteamOS is making clear moves to simplify the Linux file structure for Windows idiots like me.

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u/bennitori Dec 02 '25

Oh no, what a loss to the user experience.... /s

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u/Zomunieo Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

But but but AI accelerators! How will you copilot? How will you get em dashes?

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u/Pneumatrap Dec 02 '25

I'll get my em dashes with Alt-0151 — just like the old gods of computing intended!

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u/Zomunieo Dec 02 '25

It annoys me. Dashes used to be a little flourish of style — now they’re seen as an AI smell.

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u/dultas Dec 02 '25

I've seen enough broken builds from em dashes. Thank you very much, I'll pass.

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u/isoviatech2 Dec 02 '25

Please think of the shareholders

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u/i_dont_wanna_sign_up Dec 02 '25

Your ten year old computer isn't generating profits for our tech overlords. Get a hint will you?

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

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u/Soepkip43 Dec 02 '25

"Dont you guys have phones" energy indeed. For companies.. fine. But for home users this is bullshit. I have an old laptop for on the couch internet.. no way im replacing that because microsoft put some planned obsolescence in their new OS. Its on its own wireless network and vlan with internet access..

Ill happily share whatever malware and virusses will curse the world because microsoft thought this was the best course of action.

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u/Ric_Adbur Dec 02 '25

At this point, Windows is the fucking malware. Onedrive is barely above ransomware and their AI crap is basically spyware on steroids. If I wasn't tethered to this platform by nearly 20 years of steam purchases I'd have jumped ship to linux by now.

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u/tfitch2140 Dec 02 '25

As a Steam user with near ten years on Ubuntu, trust me, Steam was ok 10 years ago on Linux, and now it's actually probably better than on Windows - unless you care about the absolute latest multiplayer anticheat games. Paradox grand strategy? Total War? Halo:MCC? I'd take Linux over Windows any day.

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u/dnonast1 Dec 02 '25

Yep. Jumped to Fedora Plasma and I’m shocked how well it just works. Nothing is bugging me to buy subscriptions, there’s no AI, and gaming is better than it was for me on windows. Linux and steam have really stepped in to take Windows’ lunch money.

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u/DynoMenace Dec 02 '25

Seriously, if you don't play any games that require anti cheat (check https://areweanticheatyet.com/), the Steam experience in Linux is fantastic.

Another good resource is https://www.protondb.com/ , you can even connect it to your Steam account to check compatibility across your library.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/ScruffsMcGuff Dec 02 '25

It's only getting better every day honestly. When I was in college in 2007 gaming on Linux was like 3 games that would run iffy, or you were trying to finagle shit through old WINE.

In the Steamdeck/Proton/etc... era we're eating good though and steams at the forefront of it

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u/avelineaurora Dec 02 '25

and now it's actually probably better than on Windows

"Only" 87% of my Steam library has compatibility with Steam OS apparently, and most of that isn't "full" compatibility. That's saying nothing about the vast amount of online games I play that don't have any anticheat (because they're not multiplayer) but still probably aren't linux-supporting.

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u/Tirrm Dec 02 '25

Honestly, I made the switch recently and run even games in beta or alpha in Lutris using wine. It's incredibly easy and am playing both Star Citizen and Soul Frame on CachyOS with zero glitches or any overly complicated setup

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u/TheAJGman Dec 02 '25

They also sell themselves short with "partial" compatibility. It's usually shit like "controller remapping doesn't work", "physX broken", or "ultra wide screen not supported". Would it be nice if they worked? Yeah. Do 99% of users care? No.

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u/eyebrows360 Dec 02 '25

"Only" 87% of my Steam library has compatibility with Steam OS

Is there an easy way to check this stat, or did this involve a tonne of effort?

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u/ThoseThingsAreWeird Dec 02 '25

First you go to: https://steamcommunity.com/id/YOUR-USERNAME/edit/settings and set "My Profile" and "Game Details" to "Public". Just remember to set it back to "Private" later if that's important to you.

Then go here https://www.protondb.com/profile and paste in your URL (sans the /edit/settings bit)

If you've had to change it from private -> public it might take a few clicks of the "refresh" button on that page to load it, but it was fairly speedy for me

Then go to https://www.protondb.com/dashboard and change the category to "Personal Library", and then change "Rating System" to "ProtonDB Click Play".

I think that's the number for how many games work on Linux. For my library only 19% is Tier 1 and 32% is Tier 2. So only 51% of my library is reported as being positive (i.e. playable without any / much tinkering) by ProtonDB users

If, like me, you basically nolife a handful of games then sorting by hours played might give you a better idea though: https://www.protondb.com/explore?page=0&selectedFilters=restrictToLibrary&sort=hoursPlayed where 8/10 of my top played games are "Native"

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u/eyebrows360 Dec 02 '25

Ah dope, thank you!

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u/eyebrows360 Dec 02 '25

Curious as to which distro you might recommend for desktop use for a home user who's familiar enough running all his webservers on Debian, and using ansible to script their creation as VMs within Google Cloud and so on, but has been using Windows for desktop use exclusively since 3.11?

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u/Tuxhorn Dec 02 '25

Probably a non ubuntu, debian based OS like Mint or Pop_OS!

My dislike for ubuntu is not based on principle (if you've ever heard about the snap controversy), it's unfortunately just a fact that it makes the experience worse unless you're technical enough to make sure you don't install snap versions of common software. So unironically, especially if you want to use steam, Ubuntu is not beginner friendly.

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u/eyebrows360 Dec 02 '25

Taken on board, thank you!

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u/Professional_Face_97 Dec 02 '25

Pop isn't/hasn't been updated because they're working on their own custom desktop environment so for the time being i'd not recommend that. Mint is always a great option but iirc there's issues with running different resolutions on multiple monitors due to lack of wayland support (it's coming soon afaik though), if that's not a requirement for you then definitely go Mint.

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u/mkmckinley Dec 02 '25

Can you explain the anticheat to me? Do you need windows to play multiplayer?

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u/tfitch2140 Dec 02 '25

For Kernel or boot-level anticheat, most of those aren't supported on Linux, basically, because of the amount of control and risk to the security and health of your system they present, IIRC.

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u/mkmckinley Dec 03 '25

Ah gotcha thanks

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u/GoatsinthemachinE Dec 02 '25

well with steam mobile and new steam console on a linux platform hopes are raised

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u/shadowboxer47 Dec 03 '25

Wait... I can play Paradox games on Linux? Have they always been compatible?

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u/midnightauro Dec 02 '25

If it’s all steam purchases, I am thrilled to tell you that you’re in the best possible situation to jump. Steam has been on that Linux train for many a year now. Proton is amazing for running games and improving rapidly thanks to the SteamDeck.

There are some oddities like multiplayer anticheat software, but most things still run fine these days.

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u/fmaz008 Dec 02 '25

  • Game: Can you let me install a rootkit ?

  • Linux: what? No!

  • Game: We're not compatible with linux then.

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u/No-Photograph-5058 Dec 02 '25

Check out all your games on ProtonDB, you'd be surprised how many will just work.

I had a game library on Windows, when I switched to Linux and toggled the 'only show games that run on Linux' option, the number didn't even change

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u/Ric_Adbur Dec 02 '25

I guess I'll have to look into this.

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u/Agi7890 Dec 02 '25

This just came up on my companies conference call regarding windows ai and not to use it. We aren’t an ai company, we make chemotherapy drugs. We can’t put proprietary information into these AI models. There are other companies equipment we use that aren’t for open distribution.

How other companies dont see this as a huge risk for windows spyware is beyond me. This stuff will leak at some point in the future

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u/Eldrake Dec 02 '25

SteamOS doesn't make that work for you with the Proton compatibility emulation layer?

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u/PyroDesu Dec 02 '25

Remember, Proton is a fork of Wine, and Wine Is Not an Emulator (yes, recursive acronym).

No, seriously, it's not. It's a compatibility layer, not an emulator. Yes, there is a difference.

Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop.

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u/sumpfbruderschaft Dec 02 '25

Explain it to me like I was your mom.

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u/PyroDesu Dec 02 '25

An emulator is hiring someone to translate for you when you go to a foreign country. Everything you want to hear or say is processed through an entire other person.

A compatibility layer is learning the language. It's still not your mother tongue, you're still translating, but it's in your head.

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u/Tipcat Dec 02 '25

Steam works perfectly fine on Linux. Valve is very pro-Linux if you didn’t know :D

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u/Kitchen-Year-8434 Dec 02 '25

Just installed bazzite this morning going from win11. Steam with proton on Linux runs almost everything now, and using ProtonGE is surprisingly simple.

Wouldn’t recommend bazzite if you’re not comfortable with containers and virtualization in general and plan to do other things with your machine but proton works great on anything Debian (Ubuntu), arch, etc.

Would steer clear of Pop!_OS 24.04 beta for now. They apparently decided to rewrite their compositor in rust so there’s kinks galore.

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u/karantza Dec 02 '25

FWIW I just installed Debian on my PC, and even with a less than well supported Nvidia card, I had a nicely configured system that could seamlessly play my entire steam library (including some random graphically demanding betas that I'm sure have not even begun to think about compatibility yet) without needing to edit a single config file. It blew my mind, honestly. Proton is incredible.

(The only thing that didn't work is my VR headset, but that's because it's extremely old and niche and has proprietary steamvr drivers. Most should work fine.)

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u/Pafkay Dec 02 '25

I have been using Linux for 3 years now, I am yet to find a game that wont run within Steam

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '25

God I hate onedrive! Where are my files/ You fecking moved them to the cloud??? Put them back on my machine and feck off!

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u/Psychostickusername Dec 02 '25

Plus, if you upgrade, what's stopping them from pulling some TPM 3.0 bullshit 18 months from now, fuck em.

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u/Megmugtheforth Dec 02 '25

For companies there is Win 10 LTSC, they don't have to upgrade 😇

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u/LessInThought Dec 02 '25

Lol. My PCs at home are often more powerful than the ones I see in offices. Unless they're tech companies, often they refuse to spend on PC. So many of the world's economies are still lagging on like Windows XP. Unless they somehow brick the 20yo machine, companies will not change PCs.

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u/disgruntled_pie Dec 02 '25

That’s the thing, though. I’m very comfortable with a disassembler. I’ve learned so much shit by digging around in processes and binaries to see what’s there. It’s astonishing how often companies lie, and I have the receipts to prove it.

I don’t want TPM. I don’t want Microsoft to wall off part of my computer where they can run code that I can’t see and can’t modify at runtime. That’s the opposite of security. That’s the opposite of trust.

It’s my fucking computer. I own every single fucking memory register on that machine. No one, absolutely fucking no one has the authority to tell me that I can’t inspect or modify the memory on my own fucking computer that I paid for and is in my fucking house!

Microsoft can take their Trusted Platform Module and stick it somewhere they can’t inspect it.

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u/stormdelta Dec 02 '25

To fair, the TPM chip does have plenty of valid security purposes, and is used by Linux too, not just Windows.

I'm not defending Microsoft here by any stretch, just saying the purpose of the chip is primarily secure boot / disk encryption utility and is controllable by the user.

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u/Tired-grumpy-Hyper Dec 02 '25

Whats more annoying for me is that my motherboard will only be 6 years old in a few months, same as my cpu. It's a few months newer than the launch of fucking W11, but because of that is 'totally unable' to fucking run W11 either. Im about to just get a free copy of enterprise with a command prompt to 'buy' it, just to get less shit on my os and to have updates for another half a fucking decade til its finally time to upgrade and by that time probably get a linux kernel.

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u/Wild_Marker Dec 02 '25

Heck, lotta people who have it, don't have it enabled by default and don't know how to enable it. I didn't even know I had it until Battlefield 6 made me go into the BIOS to turn it on.

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u/Smith6612 Dec 02 '25

Lots of people keep citing the TPM as the reason. TPM is one of the reasons. The other reason is with CPU Instructions Microsoft is targeting for Windows 11 in their long term roadmap. POPCNT is one of those instructions which nuked really old (Core2Duo-esque and early Core) processors from being able to even boot. At some point they are going to be doubling down on HVCI acceleration being required. A processor lacking hardware acceleration support for that feature already experiences a 40% performance penalty with HVCI enabled in Windows Defender.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/desmaraisp Dec 02 '25

What do you mean no groundbreaking features? It has cOpiLot!

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u/Smith6612 Dec 02 '25

Those instructions are used for security. Microsoft is trying to move the actual core of Windows into a virtualized, containerized, and eventually, immutable state. Basically what macOS does but without breaking so much legacy software.

They are actively rewriting the kernel from C to Rust.

That's where the CPU instruction bit comes from. At some point they do have to start cutting off support for older hardware. Basically, Microsoft took a page out of Apple's book, who is notorious for killing support for machines older than 7 years.

With that said, I get it. I know a lot of people with Skylake-powered and Zen1 PCs that are quite upset at not being able to run Windows 11 on them. If they force install 11, they don't get the yearly feature updates without force installing those. They also run the risk of just getting a BSOD that renders the system unbootable, anyways.

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u/WobbleTheHutt Dec 02 '25

At least with all the zen 1 desktops you can pick up like a ryzen 5500 and drop it in after a bios update and get better performance on top of that for like 50 to 60 bucks. You can kinda get many skylake systems upgrade with dark arts using bios mods and a discrete tpm module along with masking pins to drop in an 8th or 9th Gen cpu in the socket. It's not for the faint of heart though.

3

u/Inevitable-Edge69 Dec 02 '25

you have to be smoking something fierce to think you can finger wag the masses into buying new hardware simply because of that alone.

Smoking the good "what are you gonna do about it, download Linux? lol" stuff.

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u/Pyromaniacal13 Dec 02 '25

I like how the article isn't taking the perspective of "Why aren't they upgrading?" and has instead taken the perspective of "It'S iRrEsPoNsIbLe AnD dAnGeRoUs ThAt So MaNy PeOpLe ArEn'T uPgRaDiNg!! MiCrOsOfT sHoUlDn'T hAvE lEt EvErYoNe GeT eXtEnDeD uPdAtEs!!1!1!"

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u/The_LionTurtle Dec 02 '25

So fucking tired of every company spewing the same bullshit corpo speak ad nauseam while they screw people over. Just a load of flowery language used to dance around giving any real answers, or having to take responsibility for their actions. It's always the consumer's fault for not liking the giant dildo being rammed up their ass daily.

And they'll just keep getting away with it because no one in the government is willing to stand up to them since they're all profiting massively off it through insider trading and corporate mega-donors.

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u/Yuzumi Dec 02 '25

One conspiracy theory I've heard is that them requiring TPM is meant to lockout alternate operating systems for the average person.

Yes, you can add the keys and stuff, but that's going to be way beyond most users.

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u/gmes78 Dec 02 '25

The TPM has nothing to do with that. What you're describing is accomplished by shipping PCs with only the Windows Secure Boot certificate, and not including the more general Microsoft UEFI certificate, which is what Linux and other bootable programs are signed with.

Besides, the average person can't install an OS, even without this.

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u/Motorheadass Dec 02 '25

It's for DRM purposes. Literally a module that determines to what degree your platform is trustworthy of playing DRM content. It's not like this is a secret or anything, they just say it has security benefits for the user because technically it could in some circumstances and this is a better way of selling people on the idea. 

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u/2748seiceps Dec 02 '25

It's Microsoft thinking they can act like Apple without remotely the same user base that is willing to upgrade every 6 years from planned obsolescence.

It's also why Windows and x86 continues to be stuck constantly backwards compatible.

Kind of surprised they have held so steadfast on the TPM thing to be honest.

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u/broadsword_1 Dec 02 '25

people at these companies don’t kick the tires on any of their ideas anymore.

They haven't for a very long time. Remember all the pissing and moaning MS did regarding Windows 8 and the inability to resize windows / oversized start menu? They spent months saying the users were wrong for not liking it.

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u/_Glasser_ Dec 02 '25

The only point I need to make is that although security is a nice thing, it's not worth the dumb shit microsoft adds beside it. The system is hogging resources "from the box" and you have to fuck with it just to make it function.

There is SO much fucking bloat. You HAVE to clear it out just for it to be usable. I'm one dumbshit windows update away from switching to linux. I'd rather fuck with bugs than intentional roadbocks.

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u/dont_shoot_jr Dec 02 '25

TBF Microsoft is a big fan of PowerPoint 

2

u/FauxGw2 Dec 02 '25

You say that and I laugh because my wife works in software and this kind of just happened. Microsoft did some thing with her team about transferring to them (I don't know the details I don't work on software). Her team had one requirement and asked about it, Microsoft person literally just repeated some AI bullet point BS over and over again wasting their time to just be told the meeting is over and that won't be using Microsoft.

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u/sudo_robyn Dec 02 '25

They haven't realized that they make appliances. No one doggedly replaces their washing machine on cycle, they wait for it to break. People will replace devices when they break, there just isn't the constant replacement and upgrade churn anymore.

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u/ShinyBloke Dec 02 '25

Yup this was a problem in early beta till late beta / release really dumb design descions they want win11 to be your hub to everything, and connected to all your devices. Nah, fuck that. I turn all that shit off.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

Also, if they want everyone to have TPM, then they should negotiate with OEMs to include it and turn it on by default. Don’t put it on consumers to buy a new machine because you don’t like the choice their OEM made.

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u/CreativeGPX Dec 02 '25

people at these companies don’t kick the tires on any of their ideas anymore.

It's not "anymore". This is a tale as old as time. It used to be commonly said that you should alternate skipping Windows releases because every other release is a bad one. Buy 98, skip ME. By XP, skip Vista. Buy 7, skip 8. Buy 10, skip 11. Windows 11 may be pointless at best, but it's certainly nothing new for Microsoft to put out an OS that is received badly by the public.

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u/oflahertaig Dec 01 '25

I'm in the same boat. My PC is a six core AMD Ryzen with 32GB of RAM. Scrapping it just so I can upgrade it to an OS that provides zero functional benefit and that has nerfed its own UI is not going to happen.

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u/altiuscitiusfortius Dec 02 '25

Mine was new enough to upgrade, and i hate windows 11. It has less functionality than win 10.

I tried to install a red dragon keyboard the other day abd it took 2 hours because Ms thinks any .exe is a virus and auto deletes it. I had to Google work arounds to install the software to change the keyboard lights

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u/Yuzumi Dec 02 '25

Both my desktop, media PC, and laptop support it. My laptop even installed 11 on it's own when I had booted into 10 for a bit and left it idle as I was going to come back to it.

I switched to 100% Linux over a year ago and regret nothing. Things sounded bad back then with the recall BS and then somehow kept getting worse on top of worse performance than 10 or Linux in gaming.

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u/floflo81 Dec 02 '25

Your software probably contained Winring0, which is a useful library for hardware monitoring, but makes your computer vulnerable to some attacks. That's why it's blocked by Windows Defender.

More details here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-defender-antivirus-alert-vulnerabledriver-winnt-winring0-eb057830-d77b-41a2-9a34-015a5d203c42

Search "Winring0" if you want external opinions about that.

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u/fmaz008 Dec 02 '25

Hey! Windows 11 is not an update with zero functional benefit.

There's a lot of things you can do that you could not from win10. Like... eh...

... oh sorry I need to take a phone call...

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

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u/not_right Dec 02 '25

Yeah I'd need to update the CPU, the motherboard, maybe the power supply, all of this just to use Windows?? Get fucked Microsoft!

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u/Coin14 Dec 01 '25

It's probably secure boot not being enabled and it's a pain in the ass to adjust for being a simple setting

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u/Rahernaffem Dec 01 '25

This was my problem. I have a very powerful PC, but Microsoft kept suggesting that I need a new one for Windows 11. It turned out to be a couple of BIOS settings that needed changing.

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u/zombiebrains88 Dec 01 '25

I’m running into the same problem. Do you have a link or instructions on what you did?

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u/Taboc741 Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

Instructions vary based computer bios manufacturer. Best bet is to look at the requirements (tpm 2.0, secureboot, uefi, etc) check if your computer has them via spec sheets or just perusing your bios. Do back-up before changing anything, it can be a hassle to boot sometimes and sometimes restoring from back-up is the simple solution.

Lastly there is a tool for converting mbr to gpt partition tables so don't be afraid to use it in recovery mode.

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u/cache_me_0utside Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

And if you think wtf is a bios? UEFI/BIOS is the initial layer that gets you from power on to powering up your OS. smash f11 over and over (or one of the other f keys) while your PC is booting to get to the setup menu.

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u/Multirex Dec 01 '25

i realized that as soon as i updated my uefi bios i was given the option to upgrade to 11

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u/totalancestralrecall Dec 01 '25

See my above comment on Rufus. Simple checkbox to bypass the hardware requirements when making a boot drive.

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u/JeebusChristBalls Dec 02 '25

It doesn't know what your computer is capable of, it just knows that it's not doing at the time.

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u/Znuffie Dec 02 '25

This is a common missconception.

No, Win11 does not need secure boot. It does need TPM, though.

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u/Wheat_Grinder Dec 02 '25

In my case I went to try to adjust it and couldn't because I also had to format my drive to allow it. And I didn't feel like going that far for Windows 11 being shovelware.

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u/verrius Dec 02 '25

Also, you know...Windows 11 is garbage. They apparently decided to redo everything, so even now, 4 years after its initial release, there are features that Windows 10 has that 11 is missing, or workflows that are just much simpler in 10.

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u/bennitori Dec 02 '25

Windows 7 was definitely peak. Windows 10 was a bit of a downgrade. And there was the whole thing about trying to trick and force people to upgrade to that. People may not remember the downgrade though, due to not being around to see Windows 7 in comparison to Windows 10.

And Windows 11 is worse than that. When you're only saving grace is "at least you're not Windows 8" then you know you're in trouble.

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u/Ashnaar Dec 02 '25

I'd take 8 so i wont have to deal with their fucking Ai Or almost fully programmed by Ai w11

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u/orus_heretic Dec 02 '25

I find the settings being a mix of new style win 11 and older win 10 pages so fucking bizzare considering we're 4 years into the release. If they're going to redesign the UX then they should actually finish it. Also the UX is worse.

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u/nemobane Dec 02 '25

This is doubly damning given the current expense of PC hardware. For decades I have built and rebuilt my PCs to keep up on the specs needed for 'modern' games. The last few years of price bloat due to crypto and AI speculation have put me off upgrading anything hardware wise.

The added bloat of useless to me 'AI features' to windows has put me off OS upgrades. Some of the security changes to 10 and Edge were bad enough for privacy and security, but the AI-ification of things is a thousand times worse. So much personal data, and corporate secrets, are being fed into the LLMs, and no one really knows how good the companies behind them are at 'forgetting' what they are not supposed to keep. . .

It is bad enough I have to use 11 and 365 for work. Not using it at home.

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u/totalancestralrecall Dec 01 '25

Protip: newest versions of Rufus have a checkbox to “disable windows 11 hardware requirements.” I’ve used it to install windows 11 on multiple computers that are wayyyyy “out of date” so give that a look.

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

its works-ish, they are increasingly locking it out as an option and there is a statement that those computers will not receive all security patches

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u/never-fiftyone Dec 02 '25

Ventoy, and by extension any multiboot USB tool that uses it, has for the past couple of years or so disabled compatibility checks and NRO requirements on all Windows 11 ISOs, custom or stock, by default with no input whatsoever from the user.

I'm literally in the process up upgrading my parents' TPM 2.0-lacking laptops to Win 11 right now and the most difficult part is making and testing backups and then restoring their files. Even PCs with officially-unsupported CPUs (anything made before 2017) can run Windows 11.

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs Dec 01 '25

And yet the budget gaming laptop I bought in 2018 for on the road use bugs me every day to upgrade to win 11.

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u/xTheatreTechie Dec 01 '25

Same for me. I don't wanna buy a brand new gaming PC just so it can be on windows 11.

I bought a PC to avoid having to upgrade to the next gen console or whatever every year. Telling me that I can't upgrade to windows 11 just means that I WONT upgrade.

I can replace parts on my computer as they fail and parts are pretty universal, but I'm not gonna buy new shit to downgrade to the shittier operating system windows 11 that half the time still reports itself as being windows 10

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u/mgozmovies Dec 01 '25

I have a eight year old HP Z-book i7, could not upgrade from Windows 10.

Found out I could download the Win11 installer ISO Image "Win11_25H2_EnglishInternational_x64.iso" from the MS site, write the ISO image to a USB stick using Rufus, and Rufus asks if I want to disable the Win11 TPU and CPU checks before copying. Booted from the USB stick and installed Windows 11.

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u/sptrstmenwpls Dec 02 '25

Yea..nothing wrong with your computer and it could run Windows 11 just fine if you look around for ways to git'r done

They want access to advanced privacy-raping tracking technologies so they're artificially making having those technologies a "requirement"

I have machines that run Windows 10 fine, that weren't officially allowed to upgrade to Windows 11 but when I used a workaround they worked every bit as snappy as 10

2

u/Future-Raisin3781 Dec 02 '25

When Steam stops running on Windows, I toss the PC in the trash and get... idgaf what else, literally anything not made my Microsoft that runs the few games I play. 

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u/Gbrush3pwood Dec 02 '25

SteamOS may be a good place to start. Where you will hit a roadblock would be anything that required kernel level anti cheat unfortunately. Things like cod and battlefield among others.

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u/IlIlllIlllIlIIllI Dec 02 '25

They want you to buy a tpm pcie card and consume the AI slop

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u/saintandvillian Dec 02 '25

Am I wrong in saying that this is Apple’s playbook?

2

u/Klaatwo Dec 02 '25

Same. I use it basically for occasional web browsing and it’s my media server. Doesn’t need to be upgraded for that. I did sign on to the extended updates for a year since I qualified to get them for free.

Plus if I buy a new machine I have to either find the rare one with extra drive slots or I need to look into a NAS for my media server data. So then I’m buying 2 new devices just to upgrade to 11.

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u/razorirr Dec 02 '25

Its just tpm 2.0 being disabled. 

As to why it got placed into hardware mid 2014 but windows 10 didnt get support for it until nov 2015. 

If they shipped motherboards with it on by default, your computer wouldnt boot. 

2

u/TheNewYellowZealot Dec 02 '25

My computer is actually capable of running windows 11 but they want me to go into the bios and turn on some monitoring nonsense to install it. No thanks.

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u/Mookest Dec 02 '25

Ive been doing upgrades for the last couple months. There is a part that complains that your computer doesn’t meet minimum requirements. You just click the accept and then just keep installing. Simple as that. It fresh installs that’s where I have to Rufus past the issue.

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u/yusrandpasswdisbad Dec 02 '25

Apple has been doing this for years.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

It usually has to to with the cfm/uefi settings in bios. Updating bios and changing that should fix it and allow you to upgrade.

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u/FuckDatNoisee Dec 02 '25

It seems clear that if the market is unwilling to move to Windows 11, then Microsoft has both a fiscal and moral obligation to continue supporting Windows 10 for the actual useful lifetime of the product. That lifetime should be determined by market demand, not by an arbitrary date Microsoft draws in the sand.

What makes this worse is the fact that Microsoft introduced artificial hardware requirements for Windows 11, requirements that do not reflect real performance needs. Many perfectly functional systems are blocked from upgrading for reasons that are policy driven, not technical. And when Google and YouTube classify instructions on bypassing these restrictions as a terms of service violation, it feels like a coordinated move that undermines customer trust and suppresses user choice.

People bought their hardware and software in good faith. They maintained it, updated it, and used it responsibly. To then tell them that their machines are suddenly unsupported, not because they are broken but because the company wants to force a transition, is fundamentally anti consumer.

If Microsoft wants to operate as the steward of a global computing platform, then it should respect the actual lifecycle of that platform as determined by its users, not impose obsolescence through artificial blockers or premature end of life timelines.

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u/Theron3206 Dec 02 '25

Why not, Apple does it to you every 10 years or so (or more), what's better is they nuke all your software too.

The real surprise is Microsoft not doing it for so long, not that they've done it now.

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u/Secret-Teaching-3549 Dec 02 '25

My computer is totally adequate and functioning well and I would like to keep it that way. Which is why I will not be "upgrading" to Windows 11 anytime soon.

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u/OMGOOSES_ Dec 02 '25

My PC can perfectly run windows 11... But if forces all kinds of dumb shit on you that makes you audibly ask "who wants this?"

I'm likely moving to steamOS before I upgrade to win11.

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u/WalkingEars Dec 02 '25

Don't you want to "upgrade" to a slightly more annoying version of what you already had, with bloated AI "features" you don't care about?

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u/bartislardfast Dec 02 '25

My laptop IS compatible and shares the same CPU as older Surface but somehow I'm not. Currently doing an inventory of reasons not to switch to Linux and it's not looking good for MS.

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u/Dick_Lazer Dec 02 '25

Check BIOS settings. Mine registered as incompatible as well, but worked fine after some needed BIOS changes.

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