"Are you the PC expert in your family? If you're traveling home for the holidays, your relatives will inevitably ask you for help with that computer they're absolutely unwilling to replace, because it still works just fine. Assuming it's less than 10 years old and has sufficient memory and storage, then it probably is worth keeping. But if it's a Windows PC, one of the first things you should check is which version it's running."
"On Oct. 14, 2025, Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 10. That old PC will no longer receive security updates unless you enroll it in the Extended Security Updates program. For anyone still running Windows 10, they've already missed an important batch of updates that were delivered on November 11 -- the first Patch Tuesday following the end-of-support deadline."
Most PCs from the past 15 years can run Windows 11 even if they fail Microsoft's compatibility checks. PCs originally sold with Windows 10 can usually be upgraded after a simple registry edit, and older or unusually configured machines can often be upgraded using a third-party utility. Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on Oct. 14, 2025, so machines no longer receive security updates unless enrolled in the Extended Security Updates program. Upgrading can be blocked by CPU whitelist requirements and by the absence or disabling of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0. Automatic upgrades via Windows Update or the Windows 11 Installation Assistant are restricted.
Read at ZDNET
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