Microsoft dangles extended Windows 10 support in exchange for Reward Points

Microsoft has found a new use for Reward Points – and another incentive to upload everything you hold dear to someone else's servers. You know the drill by now. Windows 10 is approaching its end of life (although the special LTSC edition has years to go, and we told you how to get it a couple of months ago). In April last year …

[ecofeco]

Meh

I've noticed a significant increase in performance since M$ STOPPED actively remote diddling my PC.

You THINK you have everything blocked, yet M$ is always sneaking in the back.

No joke, since they are winding down their support for 10, my PC has been booting and running, much, much faster. The difference is stunning but not surprising.

So, they can keep their "support". Call me weird, but I've never considered deliberate crippling, "support".

[Jurassic.Hermit]

Re: Meh

Let me guess, you’ve also disabled Windows Defender? What are you using instead?

[Grunchy]

Re: Meh

I disabled Windows Defender probably 3 years ago. “What am I using instead,” I am using Virsh. “What’s Virsh,” that is Virt Manager within which I run several different Windows virtual machines. “So how is that anti-virus,” it’s anti- anti-virus. Rather than looking at malware and viruses as things to avoid, I let my virtual windows get just as infected as possible. Then when I’ve had enough I roll back to my original snapshot. So in effect, NOBODY can affect my Windows, ever. Not even Microsoft updates have any effect.

(What I did was I made an intermediary server on my Linux host OS that exposes one single Linux directory to Windows through which I exchange data. So I can process the data in Windows, then when I’m done I return back to Linux and move the data somewhere else that Microsoft cannot ever touch.)

It’s great having a completely impervious computer for a change!

[steviebuk]

Re: Meh

You do know some malware can escape VMs? And some don't run when on VMs because they assume you are doing "research" so they stay "vewy, vewy quiet".

[Bill Gray]

Re: Meh

I have one token, rather elderly Win10 machine. It has a wired connection. It's used quite rarely [0], so when it is turned on and connected to the Interwebs, it's pretty frantic to communicate with Microsoft and get soi-disant "updates". Presumably, telemetry as well, but that has to be a small component, given that it hasn't had the chance to do much of anything interesting.

If I really want to do much with it, I unplug the Ethernet cable, and it suddenly becomes much more responsive. If I have Task Manager running while so doing, the drop in CPU usage is usually astonishing.

[0] The only thing I ever do with it is to check that my code compiles and runs with MSVC. I pull changes from GitHub, unplug the cable, and do my testing, temporarily unhindered by Microsoft's priorities for what their (sic) machine should be doing.

[williamyf]

Some people already have onedrive acoonts (as part of their office/microsoft 365 sunscriptions)

some people even use windows bachup to onedrive on their own volition!!!

I say this is good. Is like some streamers that offer you "free with ads" or pay no ads.

more choices are better.

I have a 1TB onedrive as part of my office 365 plan. May as well activate winbackup (currently backup to NAS) and get done with it.

[Anonymous Coward]

I store all of my classical music in "bachups", just in case my PC gets fiddled with.

[Korev]

I view mine with Vivaldi

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

It's good to have a Händel on these things.

[Homo.Sapien.Floridanus]

I though my bachups were lost, turns out they were Haydn.

[spireite]

I never lose bachups. ,i maintain a Lizst

[ecofeco]

I have mine on Holst, just in case.

[Tarmacsurfer]

I find it's best to keep a Liszt of backup locations.

[Ken Shabby]

I keep mine in a Cage, they always take 4 minutes and 33 seconds, but they never seem to restore anything

[ABehrens]

That will be helpful in case hackers violintly attack your system. "All your double bass are belong to us".

[Bill Gray]

My thanks to the commentardiat for my daily dose of puns. I should make a Liszt of them.

[Kurgan]

Hack

I wonder how hard will it be to hack something (registry?) to make updates work without having to pay or give up your data to train copilot.

I personally don't care, I run Linux since windows XP went obsolete, but a lot of people will be happy to make their perfectly good PCs live some more.

[williamyf]

Re: Hack

«I wonder how hard will it be to hack something (registry?) to make updates work without having to pay or give up your data to train copilot.»

If the ESU of XP and Win7 are any indication, super easy.

Having said that, if you are in a company, SMB / PyME, or you use your "personal" computer in certain professional areas, like, law, finances/accounting, medicine/health, or have customer data in it, those types of "hacks" and other things (like installing LTSCs or using rufus to put Win11 on unsupported machines) may run afoul or certain certification/auditing/"cyber"insurance requirements in your industry or jurisdiction.

If that is not your case, do as your consience tell you, but if this your case, better be on the up-and-up.

¿Do you want a definitive way to keep a machine that does not qualify to an upgrade to Win11 secure for years to come, and complying with all regulatory/cerrtification/auditing/CyberInsurance requirements? Install a legal copy of Win Server 2022 with desktop experience (supported until early 2033), or failing that, a copy of Win Server 2019 with desktop experience (supported until early 2030).

[anthonyhegedus]

Cheap trick

What a cheap and desperate way to behave! Not only do we have to put up with the dreaful "please don't install chrome" stuff, the endless prompts to make you set up a microsoft personal account, the inability to have local accounts with messing about with will-it-won't-it-work hacks, but now we have an OS that's arbitrarily terminated - unless you pay extra or have some stupid "points" that nobody gives a toss about.

It's all very well saying "but how long should they keep an old OS going"? but I disagree. They aren't letting users of older computers upgrade, not because of some amazing feature that we need, or because of the speed, but an arbitrary set of decisions.

And we end up with more landfill, for no other reason than Microsoft's bottom line. They have a duty to keep the old OS updated as long as people use it - within some limits, much longer than 10 years. Fine, if they allowed upgrading, but they don't in many cases. They're not just removing support, they're blocking attempts to upgrade. It's wrong and they need to be brought to account about this.

[Lusty]

Re: Cheap trick

I don’t like it either, but it’s far from arbitrary. Those chips had well documented hardware bugs that couldn’t be fixed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Cheap trick

So do many of the required ones. In fact, ALL of them have hardware bugs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Rewards...

It's not too hard to accumulate rewards points if you try...

I've used them to get Game Pass Ultimate for the past ~5 years (though the "price" did rise recently from 10,000 to 12,000 points per month).

[Cruachan]

Re: Rewards...

Same, I bought an Xbox Series X using mostly points too. Easy enough to use Bing to get search points at work when I'm constantly looking up PowerShell syntax and things like that.

I've got 30gb on OneDrive, I've had it that long that my photos folder is called SkyDrive Camera Roll. IIRC I had to opt-in to keep 30gb when they tried to change the amount of free storage some years ago.

[Blank Reg]

Re: Rewards...

I've got 38k points right now. I keep using them for Best Buy or Amazon gift cards, I then use that to buy Playstation gift cards. So I've got Microsoft paying Sony so that I can play games on Playstation

[Alumoi]

Re: Rewards...

It's not too hard to accumulate rewards points if you try...

You only need a Microsoft account, right?

No, thank you.

[LBJsPNS]

Re: Rewards...

Chained dogs getting tossed treats.

[Anonymous Coward]

Am dumping MS for a combination of Linux and Mac in the family home.

Ultimately W11 is a poor product which is locked down to to prevent any hope of fixing it.

On top of that is leaks my data to the supplier like crazy and I resent paying for the privilege of being mugged on top of getting a third rate product.

Oh and adverts on a paid product, micro-transactions like an EA game, and a continual shakedown for yet more money.

Nah, you're dead to me now.

[billdehaan]

So basically backup supported security updates instead of ad supported

I've had a Hotmail/Live/Outlook/whatever account since around 1998. I just checked, and I've earned... 18 points. So it would take me over a millenium to "earn" a year of security updates. Oh, well, it's not like I'm using Windows anyway.

I have to admit I'm a bit conflicted over this.

On the one hand, Microsoft is withdrawing free security updates and basically blackmailing the most vulnerable people, the ones whose machines won't/can't run Windows 11, and who can't afford a new machine into tying themselves to the Microsoft ecosystem.

On the other, it is a ten year old operating system, that has been superceded, and free support for a decade matches or exceeds the industry standard. Ubuntu 14.04 was released in 2014, its' free support teir ended in 2019, and its' paid expanded security maintenance option ended in 2024.

So Windows free security support is already about twice what we have on Linux, and they are just entering now the paid support tier. And they are offering consumers a free option in exchange for those users... doing something that's beneficial for them and that they should be doing in the first place.

All products have a lifespan, after which you can't really expect support, and it's not realistic to expect Windows 10 to be supported indefinitely, especially when security issues are the result of architectural issues that have been replaced in later versions.

So, I'm gonna have to give Microsoft a thumbs up for this one.

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Re: So basically backup supported security updates instead of ad supported

On the other, it is a ten year old operating system, that has been superceded unnecessarily bulldozed into planned obsolescence after Micros~1 announced it was "the last Windows."

FTFY.

[Homo.Sapien.Floridanus]

Re: So basically backup supported security updates instead of ad supported

I came to Install Linux and chew bubble gum.. and I'm all out of bubble gum.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So basically backup supported security updates instead of ad supported

"especially when security issues are the result of architectural issues that have been replaced in later versions"

Well, there's the rub. They have simply been replaced with different security issues, to ensure you keep paying for those never ending upgrades.

If MS were serious about actually maiking it secure instead of bleating a lot about it (aka marketing) they'd stop releasing new versions until their colander finally holds water. But they you'd stop paying for subscriptions an/or updates, so I'd posit that their lack of security is deliberate and updating as commanded won't in reality offer no improvements whatsoever. As far as I'm concerned, some of these fixes introduce other problems, just to keep you paying.

[Cloudseer]

Why do they want your backup, is onedrive reading its contents?

[DS999]

Gotta feed their AI somehow!

It looks like you can select what gets backed up though, so you don't have to give them your personal documents or photos. Put a few MP3s in the Music folder and let it back that up.

[doublelayer]

The article covered this: because you have to pay them monthly to have enough space to store your backup, and the easiest way to get that is to buy Office365, and if you do that, maybe you'll use Office365 and then you'll want to keep having it even after you replace your computer, and that would mean plenty of cash going directly to Microsoft's bank accounts. Or maybe some people will forget they have it or not remember why and keep paying for that OneDrive forever, the way I see some people with Apple devices who have higher storage subscriptions for iCloud but don't know why or for how long. No, it's not about AI training. Sometimes, the secret profit plan is less devious and more obvious than the theories.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you even need to ask?

[Happy Lemming]

Good move, Microsoft

Surprise - as the arbitrary end of support for Windows 10 nears, ways to delay the annoyance appear. I like this one. My ten-year-old i7-4790K system will be happy.

[Richard 12]

How though?

I apparently have 3 (three) points.

Yet I've had that hotmail account since the mid 1990s, and check it daily. It's not only the spamcatcher account.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: How though?

You do need to sign up for the rewards with a Microsoft account.

I've had at least £100 worth of Amazon credit through the rewards. I used to do the daily puzzles to earn them but just searching with Bing on desktop or phone builds up points over time.

[LBJsPNS]

Re: How though?

"You do need to sign up for the rewards with a Microsoft account."

No thank you.

[aks]

Re: How though?

I've currently got about 12k points but have mostly spent them on Skype credit which I use for diailing out to an overseas number my current £42 credit has survived the transition to Teams Free on PC and Android mobile. I've never paid a penny in "real" money.

[Tron]

I have lost faith in computer tech.

Having toxic crap like 'AI' and Recall forced on us was the final straw.

It feels more like a punishment than a benefit.

If I can't get an LTSC machine, I'd be happier with a W98 retro system to actually use for doing stuff (offline).

Internet interactions that I am forced into - gas bills etc, I can do on any cheap tablet.

As more stuff becomes app/smartphone only, I'm happy to opt out of it.

For all that could have been achieved with a global village and an open internet, our tech will end up as little more than the infrastructure that realises Orwell's dystopia.

[ecofeco]

Re: I have lost faith in computer tech.

Switch to Linux. You'll be glad you did.

[StrangerHereMyself]

Re: I have lost faith in computer tech.

Same here. The IT sector is riding on hypes, with A.I. merely being the latest.

I've noticed many software engineers checking out of this rat race and starting their own business so they can do what they love: develop software without having to chase the next hype (AI, Javascript framework, cloud frameworks etc. etc.).

[harrys]

would be a shame if ....

the mafiosi are in town!

[original_rwg]

Extended Windows Support - Translation

MS: So this Windows 10 OS that we've been repeatedly fixing for nearly 10 years, we'll keep on trying to fix it if you pay us $30 per year.

ME: Why would I do this?

MS:

1. It's really easy.

2. You get to save all your stuff in our Cloud (we like that 'cos we want to read your stuff and feed it to our LLM)

3. We'll give you 1000 Microsoft Reward points which are precisely useless and worth fuck all (but we get your stuff so that's OK)

4. We get another prisoner at whom we can throw CoPilot.

5. Seriously, just give us your money.

[steviebuk]

They are awful

SatNav is ruining the image, one of the main moves is putting in the pay day lending into Edge shopping. Fucking awful. It didn't go down well on their forum when that was release yet they ignored the feedback and continue to spout it.

[Chris Evans]

Cheaper than $30 a year?

If "OneDrive storage... costs $19.99-a-year plan gets you 100 GB of OneDrive space" why not buy that rather than pay the $30 a year. Presumably you don't even need to use it! Or have I misunderstood?

[David Hicklin]

Re: Cheaper than $30 a year?

I think you need to sign up to use it for backups as well, not just buy the space.

[David Hicklin]

Desperation?

So, M$ are getting desperate as not enough people have upgraded downgraded to W11 or paid the W10 protection racket tax yet ?

[0laf]

Re: Desperation?

Not desperate, just business as usual

[Is there anybody out there?]

Only Windows Settings Need to be Backed Up

It says that you need to back up your settings - not your files. That won't take up so much space - Just means your apps etc get backed up. https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-backup-settings-catalog-deebcba2-5bc0-4e63-279a-329926955708#id0ebd=windows_10