by Charles Miller

Last week, October 14 came and went with little fanfare. It was "International E-Waste Day," so declared by the WEEE Forum, an international association urging responsible and effective electronic waste management policy. Ironically October 14 was also the day that Microsoft stopped providing free software updates for Windows 10 thus putting in motion the process that will inevitably lead to prematurely sending hundreds of millions of functioning and still-serviceable computers to the planet's landfills.

Computers running Windows 10 will continue working and will not immediately be at risk, but as time goes by they will start to fall behind. Responding to the column I wrote here two weeks back, a handful of readers were critical of my stated position that continuing to use Windows 10 after its end of support date was okay in the short term.

So far in this year of 2025 Microsoft has released a total of 1,021 bug fixes and security patches for its Windows operating systems. While that sounds like an alarming number, the reality is that most of the bug fixes were minor or cosmetic. Many security experts agree that there has not been a serious security threat to Windows since the Follina vulnerability was discovered and quickly fixed in 2022.

As I write this, my Windows 10 laptop for which Microsoft has ended support almost two weeks ago, nevertheless just received its daily antivirus update from Microsoft. So, I am going to continue to use my Windows 10 laptop until I find a good deal on a new Windows 11 laptop, perhaps during the Black Friday sales next month... or next year. Aside from my three-year-old laptop still being usable, my reasons for this are two:

First; I am reasonably comfortable believing that after 10 years all of the serious security vulnerabilities that could be found in Windows 10 have already been found and fixed. It has been three years since the last one was discovered, and the Follina vulnerability was a truly serious threat to only a small percentage of Windows 10 users anyway.

Second: I firmly believe that Microsoft can always be counted on to do what is in the best interest of Microsoft. Anything that produces a lot of bad press is something the company will try to avoid when possible. Historically there are several instances in which very serious security vulnerabilities were discovered in Windows, and those bugs affected all versions of Windows, even the older discontinued and officially no longer supported versions. In spite of saying publicly that support was discontinued for the older versions, Microsoft quietly updated the older versions of Windows too. Of course Microsoft did so to avoid the negative fallout that would have come from millions of Microsoft customers being hacked when Microsoft could have easily prevented it.

Organizations including Consumer Reports and the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) have urged Microsoft to reconsider its decision to stop support for Windows 10. The environmental impact of up to 400 million perfectly functional computers being discarded simply because they are more than a few years old is often sited.

So far, Microsoft's official response continues to be the company has "nothing to share at this time." My official response is that I have the new Windows 11 on one computer and will plan on having it on others as I eventually purchase newer computers.

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Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant with decades of IT experience and a Texan with a lifetime love for Mexico. The opinions expressed are his own. He may be contacted at 415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

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