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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. They can pay Microsoft to extend support for Windows 10 for $61 per device, a cost that doubles each consecutive year for three years total. Or they can bin their computer 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.
Anyone who doesn’t upgrade will give hackers an easier time breaking into their system, locking them out, stealing their data, or all of the above, cybersecurity researchers and consumer advocates said. That’s because ending support means Microsoft will no longer freely look for flaws in the software or issue patches to fix them, part of the routine ongoing technical maintenance that software companies perform on their operating systems. The cost to U.S. consumers is severe, coming in at more than $16 billion in 2024. |
