Windows 10 support is ending - and Microsoft's “helpful” checklist wants you to toss your laptop

Image Credit - Clint Patterson on Unsplash.com

For the past few years, Microsoft has been pushing to bring Windows 10 users to Windows 11. And now Windows 10's end-of-support date is nearing, October 14, 2025.

The strategy to push users to upgrade has been paying off, and Windows 11 has claimed an all-time high Windows market share of 42.69% on desktops, and it's not like it's stopped growing.

However, a recently published end-of-support checklist is curious. It's written in such a way that it clearly sounds more like a farewell to your favorite laptop or hardware than a guide on how to smoothly transition.

The thing is, it's not just Windows 11's minimum hardware requirements, but also the entire checklist. It seems Microsoft doesn't want you to really upgrade your laptop from Windows 10 to 11. It seems to want you to get rid of it altogether and go for a new laptop or PC.

People have frowned on Windows 11's intense hardware requirements previously. In fact, people long suspected those are not entirely all about the hardware, but were to drive sales of new hardware. But now, with this checklist published, it does seem like this is more close to the truth than to a conspiracy theory.

The way the checklist is organized... well, it somewhat assumes from the start your laptop running Windows 10 is for the graveyard. Yep, it basically says to back up your data and erase the machine if you're planning on recycling or donating it.

The checklist goes on to say that you should recycle responsibly when it's time to say goodbye to your old machine and also suggests you can trade it in to get some discount on a computer with Windows 11.

The system requirements are mentioned in the intro briefly, and that's all. All the other text in the blog post does sound... well, grim.

As many of you know, Windows 11 has evolved since the time it first launched back in 2021. Generative AI is now playing a bigger role in the OS and is (understandably, but somewhat annoyingly) raising the bar on the needed hardware.

Windows 11 is demanding. The minimum hardware requirements may not even be enough for the full experience with the way Microsoft is hyperfocusing on AI (and it's not just Microsoft, everyone is).

There are now Copilot+ PC-branded laptops that use more modern processors aimed at delivering faster AI performance, and Microsoft may be right that maybe, the time of these older Windows 10 machines is running out... fast.