Eleven

 

Folks, Micro$oft wants your money, & your personal data

Now, businesses are like that. We understand. 

But they're not exactly, err, accurate, in what they say about Windows and your PC.

Their Windows 11 has certain requirements, they say, which are not entirely required.

But freedom of the press belongs to those who own one; or, to those who own an army of flacks who grind out press releases, who throw conferences for trade journalists & influencers to junket to, and to, well, influence you. 

They say you need TPM 2.0, version 2 of a Trusted Program Module, which is software on a chip, or firmware, to run Windows 11, & ** perhaps more memory, a bigger drive, maybe a faster CPU computing chip. And, wouldn't you know, Microsoft has arbitrarily ended security updates to the perfectly functional & well-appreciated predecessor, Windows 10, this month (October 2025), just like they did in years past with all Windows versions which went before. Why?

Windows (& the Windows-industrial complex) is part of a triangular trade:

    You need the latest Windows to run the latest apps.

    The latest apps need ever-increasing amounts of memory, disk storage, & computing power.

    The latest PCs come with only latest version of Windows, & 

    every new version of Windows has new requirements.

So, the new app you need because the old version won't do, forces you to run the new version of Windows, which needs a new PC.  PC sales climbed by nearly 10% in this year's third quarter due to the end of Windows 10.

PC manufacturers sell more PCs, software publishers sell new versions of their apps, & Microsoft sells new versions of Windows every time you must upgrade. This makes all those businesses in the Windows-industrial complex happy. It's like the fashion industry, or the auto industry; this planned obsolescence serves them all very well, especially when Microsoft stops providing security updates, for as noted here new hacks occur frequently and need countering.

But, what if you don't need a new app, & your PC works perfectly well? 

Today, you have choices.

1) Maybe you could upgrade from TPM 1 to TPM 2, add memory, & add a larger drive (for Windows 11 takes up more space on your internal driver than Windows 10). Folks do sell the TPM 2 chips on Amazon & elsewhere, or maybe your PC has a free downloadable upgrade to its firmware. I've done it when I did PC tech work for a living. However, this is not something which could be easily explained in one blog post; if your PC tech of choice confirms it's possible, great. Just back up your drive, twice or thrice, before starting this journey.

2) PC tinkerers like me found you can install Windows 11 without TPM 2.0 - A free program, RUFUS.IE lets you create an installation USB flash drive with which you can install Windows 11, even if you don't have TPM 2, if you click on one tick box in the process of creating the installer:

https://pureinfotech.com/create-windows-11-bootable-usb-unsupported-pc-rufus/ shows how, as well as many other websites. This still works, BTW, with Windows 11 version 25H2.

3) But, that requires 
    a) backing up all your data (at least twice, please, maybe thrice, to different external drives), 
    b) installing Windows all over again, then 
    c) reinstalling your apps, then 
    d) restoring your data. 
It also might require more memory & perhaps a bigger drive, depending on what's in your PC. Sure, your PC will run faster than if you installed Windows 11 over Windows 10, because you've eliminated cruft, the stale digital residue of old programs, when you installed from scratch. 
Instead, you can get an extra year of Windows 10 support from Microsoft. One year. IF you have version 22H2 (many Windows 10 users found updating to 22H2 failed).

4) However, with options 1-3, you're still becalmed within the triangular trade of the Windows-industrial complex. Option 4 is to leave Windows behind, to change to Linux with your existing, perfectly good PC.

Unlike Windows, Linux is free, runs on virtually all PCs (which you can test before making a decision*), Since it is free-as-in-beer, you get to exit the Windows-industrial complex. 

Linux upgrades and updates are also free-as-in-beer. Almost all Linux programs are also free.

You can try Linux by having someone like me put Linux on a USB flash memory drive like this

 

then choosing to start your PC with Linux by pressing one or two buttons instead of letting it autostart into Windows. The Linux programs can reach into your internal drive to access data on them, or it can run all on its own. 

What's Linux?

The Linux kernel (the tiny program underneath all the programs you use on a computer) started out as a software engineering student's project to recreate the functionality & efficiency of AT&T's UNIX; like other academic theses, it's published & documented for all to see, made Open Source as are almost all the programs it runs. What most folks call Linux is that kernel plus a collection of application programs ('apps') & games which make the PC useful to you.

For nearly every major Windows application program, there's a free Open Source equivalent program which nearly always can use the data files created in Windows; for example, Linux programs (e.g., LibreOffice or OpenOffice) will read in Microsoft Office (Word-Excel-PowerPoint-etc.) data, work on the data, & save it in the same file or type of file. European governments are switching to Open Source to save money and increase reliability (ask any author about corrupted Microsoft Word files, for example).

Linux has ways to run many important Windows programs & games as well, just like Windows has a way to run Linux programs (Windows Subsystem for Linux). 

There are hundreds of versions of Linux, for Linux is modular; the different versions are called distributions, or distros for short. The difference between all those distros is in the collection of which free Open Source programs 2 3 are added to the foundation of the Linux kernel. The Linux distro I use most often is the popular Linux Mint, which is the choice of Freegeek.org where I once volunteered (between assignments at Intel's plants in Oregon) to refurbish PCs and laptops. I will use other, smaller versions like Lubuntu when I run into a really old PC with a small drive or little memory which needs a simpler version. Both make it easy to upgrade when innovation in software & software security lead to a new major version.

And, nine out of 10 Windows games work in Linux: Best Linux choices for gamers here.
 
Rob Braxman has a fascinating video on how to use both Windows 10 and Linux on the same PC: Boot into Linux for web access & email, and the 75% of games which work well in Linux, then use Windows 10 for those few occasions which don't work in Linux, and when you need to save a file in Windows you might need to use in Linux, save it to a special partition (slice of a drive) assigned as D: which Linux can use.

OBTW, almost all Internet servers run on Linux or a UNIX-like equivalent, & about five per cent of US desktop & laptop PCs run Linux. The Android operating system in cellphones, tablets, & TV boxes (think Google Chromecast, Roku, & FireTV) runs atop of Linux, as does ChromeOS in Chromebooks. 

 

*Linux is often loaded onto a USB flash drive, or thumbdrive, to test out Linux on a PC which now has Windows. When doing this, the original Windows & its data files are unchanged, but those data files can be opened, read, edited, and saved back into the Windows drive if needed. If Windows is corrupted & can't start by itself, a Linux USB flash drive can be used to fix many problems as well as to save the data on the Windows drive out to an external drive or server.

 

 ** NEWSFLASH: The day after I wrote this post, Microsoft has decided you don't need TPM 2 after all? But they will kvetch at you: 

"This PC doesn't meet the minimum system requirements for running Windows 11 - these requirements help ensure a more reliable and higher quality experience. Installing Windows 11 on this PC is not recommended and may result in compatibility issues. If you proceed with installing Windows 11, your PC will no longer be supported and won't be entitled to receive updates. Damages to your PC due to lack of compatibility aren't covered under the manufacturer warranty. By selecting Accept, you are acknowledging that you read and understand this statement."

TPM 2.0 has also been revealed as a major privacy leak which 'phones home' to Microsoft to report all you do with your PC.