What I learned from 3 years of running Windows 11 on “unsupported” PCs

https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/24242343

What I learned from 3 years of running Windows 11 on “unsupported” PCs - tchncs

*bites the tongue as hard as possible to not say The Thing*
Go ahead… you can whisper it to me

Find God and switch to templeos. /s

Jk. Everyone knows Hannah Montana Linux is the next bit thing.

ˡᵃˢᵗ ⁿᶦᵍʰᵗ ᴵ ʷᵉᵗ ᵗʰᵉ ᵇᵉᵈ

I started wetting the bed again when I was 11. It continued every few nights until I was 18.

Then it turns out I wasn’t urinating at all. I was just raised in a very controlling home, which meant I had no idea what masturbation was.

It wasn’t until I started having sex that I found out I had been having wet dreams for years, and getting made fun of for it by my dad.

Now my dad is in his 70s, and wonders why nobody will talk to him anymore. Newsflash asshole! You can’t talk to mommy anymore! 103 is a great age to live to, but people aren’t immortal.

Look man, I don’t know what to tell ya. If you didn’t want to read about my penis, then you should have stabbed your eyes out with a fork as a child.

My penis is like Visa. It’s everywhere you want to be!

Sir this is a Wendy’s

Install Hackintosh MacOS

/s

That workaround for your bi-yearly feature update on an unsupported PC is more complicated than installing Linux.
There, I said the bad word.
You obviously didn’t read the article as it makes no such claim and its not an issue unless you have a 20 year old computer. This superior smug answer based on lies is part of why Linux has a bad reputation. Yeah mb 10% of you guys are world class, and another 25% are competent, but that still leaves the majority of Linux supporters looking like ignorant idiots, like you could have at least read the article you replied to.

The article doesn’t need to explicitly state that, because it’s a simple comparison to make.

its not an issue unless you have a 20 year old computer.

Plenty of computers have been made without TPMs in the last 10 years, as well as built by people who have no need for one, or else they simply disabled it.

The article states;

Without Secure Boot or a TPM, though, installing these upgrades in place is more difficult. Trying to run an upgrade install from within Windows just means the system will yell at you about the things your PC is missing. Booting from a USB drive that has been doctored to overlook the requirements will help you do a clean install, but it will delete all your existing files and apps.

If you’re running into this problem and still want to try an upgrade install, there’s one more workaround you can try.

Download an ISO for the version of Windows 11 you want to install, and then either make a USB install drive or simply mount the ISO file in Windows by double-clicking it.

Open a Command Prompt window as Administrator and navigate to whatever drive letter the Windows install media is using. Usually that will be D: or E:, depending on what drives you have installed in your system; type the drive letter and colon into the command prompt window and press Enter.

Type setup.exe /product server

That is objectively not much different than the majority of Linux installs in terms of what you’re having to do just for an upgrade. That’s the point the person above was making. You can’t click a button, you have downloaded an image, mount it, and run through a setup.

You want to talk “smug”, yet you’re the one being triggered enough by seeing Linux mentioned in a perfectly valid comparison to the point you have to hop on your soapbox about “why Linux has a bad reputation”.

Okay but thats not what he said, the comment I responded to said twice a year a Windows 11 install will break which is just not true. And even a fresh install you can bypass that. And mentioning tpms? Literally article was about how guy is running W11 on a Core 2 Duo, what tpm he has? I love the downvotes though, reminds me the average person can’t read let alone think.
If w11 changes something that relies on tpm, and you don’t have tpm, surely you can see how that could cause a significant issue?
Could you give me of something in W11 that actually needs tpm. Surely to comment this you have an example ready, I would like to discuss.
Whatever it is that checks for tpm obviously needs tpm, or it wouldn’t need a work around
Alternative title: “Follow these 17 convoluted steps to stay in your abusive relationship longer.”
And feel like an idiot when Windows 10 support inevitably gets extended in a year anyway.
Or Microsoft kills the work around to get non supported cpus running win 11

Well there are 3 options and they are all bad.

  • pay to upgrade your PC (or for extended 10 support)
  • stay on 10 and go without security updates
  • jump through hoops to update to 11 unsupported
  • It’s almost like being on Windows is all bad.

  • Use another OS (I hear temple OS is even better then 11 these days)
  • I would vote for 2. myself, its not like the security updates have been deal breakers before (nothing is secure anyway).

    You’re about to get ripped to shreds for daring to suggest the odds of anything actually happening to someone on a recently discontinued operating system are not dramatically higher as long as the user has basic use cases and basic tech literacy.

    Eh I am used to it. Even when I ask for an example of a end user getting compromised from using out of date software (like a new story, court case, etc.) and they come up empty I am still somehow the “insane” one. You are better to learn to back up things, not get caught in phishing attacks (the most common risk) and watch your accounts then even worrying about security updates.

    Worked 15 years in the industry but, hey what to I know… Not like you bank is still using server 2008 and windows 7 or anything…

    Azure Data Breach: What & How It Happened? | Twingate

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    It does make me wonder if perhaps malicious actors have novel intrusion methods waiting for the deadline because they know those people won’t just get a patch the night the intrusion gets detected.
    Oh we’re talking about all options including outside of Windows? Well gee life has a lot to offer, even things more glorious than using Linux.
    You think Linux is any better? I have to upgrade my Mint install every two years! And I have to wait for them to get their update tool ready. And then it takes like 15 minutes or so to complete! My time does not grow on trees!

    I have to upgrade my Mint install every two years

    I know you’re joking around here, but you don’t have to upgrade every two years. You can use an LTS release instead, or, on the opposite of the spectrum, a rolling release.

    Release schedule and duration of support should always be factored into the decision of choosing a distro.

    4th option…(Microsoft’s favorite one) Buy a whole new computer compatible with windows 11. Vista style.
    ITT: People who talk about Linux (as if that was the subject) because they just can’t accept that some people actually need to use Windows and might find articles like this one useful.
    It’s so annoying to see in literally every thread about windows
    Who needs Windows? You need to use better applications. And if work requires Windows, this article still doesn’t apply because it is the company’s responsibility, not yours, and running on an unsupported machine is a security risk.

    Because of course there’s absolutely no program a regular person outside of work could possibly need Windows for. None at all. Not a single application. Not a single game. Not a single piece of hardware they’re using (like many laptops with hardware needing specific drivers that don’t exist for linux).

    Nope, absolutely nothing a regular user could have a need for Windows.

    OWC instructions for updating their firmware on macOS are literally “install parallels. Install windows. Run the firmware updater.”

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    I didn’t say all applications work. I said use better ones.

    As for hardware, less computers support win11 than Linux. You can run Linux on 40 year old computers, and on brand new computers.

    Ans this article is literally about bypassing the restrictions that were put in place to protect users with CPUs that have the specte and meltdown vulnerabilities. You’re safer on win10 even after they stop supporting it than win11.

    So just another variation of the “you’re using it wrong” excuse. Gotcha.

    If you’d rather risk becoming a botnet node than to even consider using alternative software then you are absolutely using it wrong.

    If your computer doesn’t support win11, then switching to Linux before win10 ends is the only right choice. The other less right choices are:

    Stay on win10, Upgrade to win11 and disconnect it from the network and the internet permanently.

    The worst choice is do what OP did.

    You’re safer on win10 even after they stop supporting it than win11.

    That’s just not true. An actual spectre/meltdown/etc exploit is much less likely than you run-of-the-mill virus or whatever, so if you’re not getting security updates to your OS and apps, you’ll be much worse off than the fringe case of a theoretical attack.

    So that part is just flat out wrong.

    Either upgrade your hardware or run Linux, don’t run outdated software on anything that touches the internet.

    Security updates means patches against exploits like spectre/meltdown, not antivirus updates. You’ll still be getting antivirus updates on windows 10.

    Which means that until such an exploit has been discovered, windows 10 would be safer than windows 11 since windows 10 does have a countermeasure against spectre/meltdown while windows 11 doesn’t. Windows 11 literally does not provide security updates to unsupported computers, and the exploits are already known.

    windows 10 would be safer than windows 11

    Virus protection is a lot different than security patches, and there are a lot more exploits than hardware-level exploits. Virus protection can limit the mechanisms that security holes can be exploited, but they aren’t proactive, but reactive, so by the time your antivirus detects a virus, you have already been exploited, and it’s possible you have been exploited for some time. Antivirus checkers don’t catch everything, and they can be delayed in catching issues for quite some time.

    On the whole, I think Windows 11 would be safer than Windows 10 because:

    • almost nobody uses Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, so the attacks in the wild will be much less common
    • a lot of people will use Windows 10 on supported hardware after SW support ends, so any zero-days will remain unpatched at the OS level, so you’ll be vulnerable to any new viruses using older exploits; the longer you use unsupported SW, the more viruses will be created to exploit it

    If I had a friend/family member considering using Windows 11 w/ unsupported hardware, I would give them these options:

    • upgrade their hardware - I’ll help them pick out something or upgrade what they have
    • use something other than Windows - some flavor of Linux, most likely

    Remaining on Windows 10 is unacceptable because it’ll get more insecure the longer they use it, and using Windows 11 on unsupported hardware is unacceptable because they’re vulnerable to bugs in unsupported hardware. That said, I think Windows 11 on unsupported hardware will be more secure than Windows 10 w/o software updates on supported hardware.

    I’m sorry but “your need to use better applications” is very funny to read when most of the time the Linux open source alternative will never be as good as the product made by the company that has hundreds of paid employees working on it.
    otoh a lot of the most useful and enduring software ever made has been made by volunteers in their spare time

    Except most big open source project are developed by companies, and only the tiny ones aren’t. This applies to all open source projects on all platforms.

    Also, most of them already are better. People just don’t want to change their layouts and workflows. And people also don’t value privacy, which if they would, they wouldn’t rate the proprietary software as half as good.

    Exactly. For example:

    • LibreOffice - Collabora offers paid support for larger companies and does a ton of development on the core
    • WINE - CodeWeavers has their own proprietary version (CrossOver) that they sell as a commercial product; oh, and Valve helps a ton too
    • GNOME - RedHat/IBM funds it and most things in its ecosystem for its commercial customers

    And so on. Most big FOSS projects are backed by one or more companies with full-time developers supporting it. The difference is that the license makes lock-in a lot less likely, since the community (read: non-paid devs) will likely patch in compatibility (i.e. file support, data export, etc).

    I use Linux and none of the programs I need for structural engineering work on Linux.

    Trust me, I would totally ditch the dual boot if I could, but sadly, I can’t

    What are they called? What do you need for Linux that only works on Windows or Mac right now?
    Revit, Tekla, AutoCAD, the usual. I have tried out FreeCAD but found it clunky to use comparably.

    Try BriscCAD. It is very similar to AutoCAD and supports their files.

    Revit seems to work fine with Wine, and although wineHQ reports Tekla performance as garbage, that was a very long time ago. It probably works better now.

    Trust me, if you’re used to the AutoCAD workflow and UI, BricsCAD is just different enough that it can be a bit jarring and a huge drop to your productivity.

    Hopefully that’ll change as more users adopt it. But most users don’t need structural engineering or other specialized software, they just don’t want to change their workflow.

    Exceptions exist, and they should become fewer as the userbase of Linux grows.

    Linux doesn’t have several programs I use to control my peripherals, the mobo RGB profile, and GPU fan control from Sapphire. It also doesn’t have a proper AMD adrenalin as far as I’ve checked, nor firmware updater for SSD/NVME, and the list goes on and on. I also heard controlling high refresh rate displays on linux is a nightmare.

    If I want to use the gaming PC I built to its full potential then I need windows…

    The article is still dumb though, anyone left behind using old hardware should not go through the pain of forcing win11 to run. They all should switch to linux

    You usually don’t need proprietary software and drivers on Linux because of the great general purpose open source alternatives. Even on Windows, a ton of the drivers are actually useless and only bloat your system or perform invasive telemetry.

    Personally I don’t even use the RGB features on my gaming PC, but OpenRGB is open source and lightweight. I would probably use it over proprietary RGB profiles even on Windows. You should give it a try.

    GPU fan control is already available by default in most Linux distributions and should require no additional drivers.

    AMD always have Linux drivers. The Linux adrenaline driver is here: www.amd.com/en/support/…/linux-drivers.html

    SSD/NVME firmware updates should also already be supported by default in linux. With for example fwupdmgr.

    High refresh rate displays should also work out the box on the modern distributions. On Linux Mint and Ubuntu they have a GUI for it, but changing resolution and refresh rate with Xrandr also only takes one or two terminal commands. There likely is software to do it, but if anything I could write you a script that does it if your distribution doesn’t already have GUI for it. I had to write a script to adjust some of my monitors’ drawing area because I mirror, but my displays don’t have the same aspect ratio.

    I have already looked up most of what you recommended, and I arrived at the same initial conclusion…

    • OpenRGB doesn’t list support for my Gigabyte mobo, or XPG ram (unless I’m reading this wrong). I need this to stop the default behavior which is rainbow puke
    • AMD adrenalin only lists 3 distros, and none of which I’d like to use (I’d prefer linux mint LMDE)
    • Plus I haven’t even talked about the apps (office for starters, then itunes+icloud which I use to sideload apps)
    OpenRGB

    Open source RGB lighting control that doesn't depend on manufacturer software

    OpenRGB doesn’t list support for my Gigabyte mobo

    Unfortunately, this is still relatively common on Linux, but it’s not really a Linux issue, but a manufacturer issue. The manufacturers should be the ones supporting Linux, not the other way around.

    The situation is getting better, so when it comes time to upgrade, you can find something more open so you’re not beholden to some random software and have more choice.

    AMD adrenalin only lists 3 distros

    Honestly, I don’t see the point of adrenalin on Linux. For framerate locking, use libstrangle or mangohud. Don’t bother with OC, it’s honestly not worth it (if you really want to, it is totally possible).

    I don’t know what else Adrenaline provides, but I’m sure there’s a way to get what you want on Linux.

    apps

    This is absolutely hit-or-miss, and IMO a bigger issue if you really need something that’s not properly supported on Linux. If it’s not in the repositories or in flathub, IMO, don’t bother if it’s going to be a dealbreaker (esp. Adobe products).

    But if you’re fine using an alternative (e.g. LibreOffice for office software, likewise for any other apps), then give WINE a shot, maybe you can keep your same workflow. Or if it’s really only for an occasional thing either run a VM (if it’s not performance sensitive) or dual boot. I have a drive w/ Windows installed just in case I need it for something, but I haven’t booted into it for something like 2 years now. But it’s there if I ever actually need it (will need a ton of updates though).

    AMDGPU - ArchWiki

    When people create programs/drivers “See, it exists for Linux, no need for manufacturers, it’s much better!”

    When programs/drivers are missing for Linux “It’s the manufacturers you should blame!”

    So, which is it now?

    We should always blame manufacturers. Either it’s manufacturers helping out development by creating decent drivers, or it’s manufacturers hiding their documentation so developers have to reverse engineer their chips, which takes way longer. But the focus should always be on the manufacturers, whether for good or bad.

    If you need Windows, don’t run it on hardware that doesn’t support Windows 11. If you need it, do it the right way, so you can count on it working.

    Now, what do you do with your old hardware? There are plenty of good ideas in the comments here.

    Or instead of installing Linux as a workaround and having to learn how to use a new OS and having to troubleshoot a ton of inevitable issues to make it work as well as the setup you’re used to just… Use a workaround to skip the hardware requirement! In the end both are a way to work around Microsoft’s requirements, one is something you need to deal with once just requiring you to follow a guide and you’re done, the other will be an ongoing learning process.
    How long with working around the requirements work? If I need Windows, I’m not going to risk it.
    Then get newer hardware, simple as that, anything from 2017 or more recent will work.