"Windows 10 is Outdated"

The number one issue customers have brought to me since Autumn 2025 has been something along the lines of, "Windows is telling me it is out of date." This statement in all its forms is usually followed with a question like, "does that mean I have to buy a new computer?"

What is Happening, and Why

Microsoft is no longer a company that sells you products like the Windows Operating System or Microsoft Office. For the past 10 to 15 years, it has increasingly become—like most tech companies—a kind of digital landlord whose main idea for making money is to get everyone hooked on subscription services. After all, why sell you Office for $120 one time, when they can charge you $10 a month for the rest of your life to use it? And not only that, but they can use the telemetry (measurements about you and how you use your computer) to sell information about you to advertisers.

Despite calling Windows 10 "the last version of Windows you will ever need," and despite jamming it full of advertisements and things you didn't ask for in order to squeeze some extra revenue out of your computing experience, they have since decided this wasn't enough. They needed a new Windows version, and it had to be the ultimate mechanism for spying on their customers and bleeding them dry with subscription fees. Enter: Windows 11.

But how do you force people to buy in on an operating system you promised they'd never need to replace? The answer: you tell them "it's for your own good". You create a few unfixable problems, and then state the only way forward is with their new OS, Windows 11.

Unfixable Problem 1: Microsoft announced they would stop pushing security updates to Windows by the end of October 2025, and thereby leave anyone still using Windows 10 at the mercy of hackers. "If you want to stay secure," they seemed to say of a problem they created, "you must upgrade to Windows 11."

Unfixable Problem 2: Microsoft arbitrarily drew lines in the sand about which hardware was going to be compatible with Windows 11. And I'm not just talking about the new OS being slow on old hardware—Windows 11 is slow no matter how good your hardware is. I am talking about Windows 10 analyzing the insides of your computer, and saying, "if this piece or that one isn't new enough, we will never let you upgrade this machine to Windows 11." Well, shucks! I guess you'll have to go buy a new one. And of course, Microsoft will make money off the sale, since they supply the OS!

What is a person to do? Keep using Windows 10 and just hope they don't get hacked? Go out, and spend $600 or more on a replacement machine, and just chuck the old one in the garbage? Even $600 doesn't buy you a very capable computer these days, both due to Windows 11's heaviness, and, due to the component crisis driven by the AI boom.

What a sad day for computer users everywhere! And Microsoft must be doing a poor job explaining it to anyone, because none of my customers have a very good grasp on the what or the why, nor how they can deal with the matter.

My Recommendation: Try Linux

Windows 10, like macOS (or, Macintosh OS before they shortened it) is just an operating system. Under the glitz and gloss of windows and animations, an operating system is a just a pile of hundreds of little computer functions all stitched together to create a useful ecosystem for "end users" (that's you!). This includes software to start the computer, software to log in to the computer, unseen programs to keep track of the date and time, or to connect you to the Internet with ease. The OS facilitates access between you and the software you want to run.

The most well-known part of an operating system is the "graphical user interface" (that just means more visually interesting and dynamic than simple text on a black background). The GUI for most modern computing systems is designed—from all the way back in the 1980s—to be an analog for a real-life desktop. This is where you have lots of icons, and you can dig into "folders" to find and use your "document" "files". These typically open programs in "windows", and have some kind of "taskbar" containing your currently-running software, date, time, volume control, and so forth. Windows and Mac have different versions of the "desktop" experience, but at the end of the day, they're doing much the same thing: giving you a launchpad to use software on your computer.

Software written for one OS is not compatible with a different OS. The Google Chrome web browser, for example, exists on Windows, and it also exists on macOS, but only because Google has "compiled" a version for Windows, and a version for Mac. Historically, this meant that consumers had to decide which ecosystem to live in, because they could face compatibility issues if they made the wrong choice.

However, that is no longer the case for the vast majority of computer users. There are two main reasons:

1. Almost everything we do on our computers is done through a web browser, and the worldwide web doesn't care what operating system you use to access it.

2. Except for very special use cases, like people in creative industries who need special software, you can do almost any task on any operating system.

I bring all this up so I can tell you about my current recommendation for people faced with this Windows 10-or-11 conundrum:

There is another operating system you may not have heard of, called Linux (or, GNU/Linux if you want to be picky). This operating system is completely free, and not just free in the sense that it doesn't cost money to use on your home computer, but also free of ads, free of telemetry used to spy on you and sell that information to data brokers so they can advertise to you more effectively. It is also free of so-called Artificial Intelligence, or AI, being crammed into your experience with a shoehorn.

The problem with ads, telemetry, and AI aren't just that they are annoying, spying on you, and trying to turn you into a lifelong resource from which to harvest money; the other problem is they slow your computer way, way down. See, Windows is what people in the computer world would call a very "heavy" operating system. When something is heavy, you need even more strength (in this case, computer resources) to wield it. That means if you have two computers with identical hardware, and one computer is running Windows 11, you can be guaranteed that Win11 machine will be the slower computer because it needs extra power to be any good at all. This is a big part of why $600 won't get you very far anymore if you plan to run Windows.

But Linux doesn't have all of that baggage. Linux is made by volunteers, and has been growing and maintained since 1991. At its core are notions of simplicity and efficiency. So why don't more people use it?

Linux is the backbone of practically all enterprise software around the world, and it is even the beating heart of Android smartphones...but for home use, it has been rather obscure. Part of its obscurity is due to the fact that until maybe ten years ago, it wasn't very user-friendly. Only the dorkiest of computer nerds were using it at home. But those days are over and Linux is now not only free, and not only simple to use, but it can easily be a drop-in replacement for your Windows OS—on your existing hardware, with little to no need to upgrade anything! And, between all the stuff you do on your web browser, and the "free and open source" alternatives to Windows software that are available, well, I think Linux is a perfect fit for 9/10 computer users.

Linux Mint is my recommendation for most people.

There are hundreds or thousands of "distributions" of Linux—remember, I said it is maintained by volunteers. Not only that, but anyone is allowed to copy the code, and spin it off into their own 'flavor'. Some are made to feel more like macOS, some feel more like Windows, and others are totally different! But my recommendation—and the one I have been installing for customer after customer in the past year—is Linux Mint.

Linux Mint, pictured above, is a dead ringer for Windows 10. It can be customized to look any way you want, including a light mode (where windows and bars are a light gray, instead of dark as in the above screenshot), making things bigger and easier to read, changing the way your mouse cursor looks...all kinds of customizations of the sort that Microsoft has been removing from Windows over the years.

Linux Mint is also incredibly secure! Viruses targeting home users of Linux are practically unheard of, but just to make absolutely sure you're safe, I always install an anti-virus called ClamAV, which will run every night when you're asleep, scanning for threats and quarantining them if it finds any.

I also install RustDesk, which I can use to support customers remotely—that is, I can connect from my house to yours, and save on the cost of your session since many problems can be solved without needing me to come to you physically. Don't worry! I can only access your machine when you give me permission, so there is no risk to your privacy.

The approach I use

Overwriting Windows in order to install Linux means erasing Windows completely. In order to protect your precious documents from being erased, I always make the following checks, and back up everything I can before proceeding:

1. Check for bookmarks in your web browser. I can put these in place on your web browser once we switch you to Mint.

2. Check the Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Downloads folders, and any others that you typically use. The contents of these are all backed up to a flash drive. Once Linux is installed, I will fill its Documents folder with your old documents; I will fill its Downloads folder with your old downloads, and so forth, so that everything important to you continues to exist just where you expect it to be.

3. If possible, preserve your desktop 'wallpaper' or background image, and install it under Linux so your computer feels even more like home after the change-over.

4. Make note of any visual or input preferences you may have, such as large text on your screen (for better readability), whether your mouse is right-or-left-handed, etc., so I can make these adjustments after installing Linux.

5. Make note of what peripherals you use, like a printer or speakers, so I can ensure these work under Linux.

What's the deal, buddy? You sponsored by Linux?

I'm an evangelist for Linux because it made my life easier. Using Linux after struggling with Windows 11—or being told you can't even have Windows 11 because your hardware is too old—feels like dropping into the driver's seat of a sports car after you have been stuck driving around an old Winnebago conversion van from 1983.

It is simple, it is elegant, it is compatible with almost everything you are likely to do. It even has free alternatives to software that would cost you money on Windows. For example, Microsoft wants hundreds of dollars for Microsoft Office (including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)—or they want to charge you a subscription for the rest of your life. And, recently, they have even begun to warn people like me who purchased a supposed lifetime license for Office 2019, that it will no longer receive security updates (why does that sound familiar?) and may even stop functioning altogether.

Instead, Linux users have instant access to LibreOffice, a free and open source alternative to Microsoft Office, which is compatible with all the files Microsoft Office can produce. That means if you have been writing the great American novel or using spreadsheets for your taxes, they will open in LibreOffice Writer or LibreOffice Calc, just as though you were using Word or Excel. And it's free! And if you don't like LibreOffice, you could try OpenOffice, or ONLYOFFICE, or FreeOffice, all of which are also free!

If you are comfortable with backing up all of your stuff, installing Linux in place of Windows, and putting all your files back where they belong, you can do everything I have described here, for free.

But if you want someone to do it all for you, CozyTech has your back. I have installed Linux on many machines to this point, and no one (including my 91 year old grandmother) has ever come back to me saying that it more difficult to use or understand than Windows.

The cost of service is only $180 plus the $20 booking fee associated with all CozyTech jobs. That's $200 out the door to keep your computer secure, stable, and snappier than it has been in a long time. That's a real bargain compared to buying a low-end Windows 11 machine for $600-1,000 that will feel slow from the day you first power it on. It also prevents e-waste by keeping still-usable computers functioning for years to come.

If you ever want to know more about how CozyTech can save your old PC by installing Linux, feel free to call, email, or use the contact form on the website!