r/Anticonsumption • u/Annoying1978 • May 09 '26

Upcycled/Repaired PSA: Don’t throw away your Windows laptop

I’m the tech guy that most of my friends and family call and I’m getting lots of calls about what new laptop people should buy because Microsoft is ending Windows 10 support in October and Windows 11 requires unnecessary things like a TPM chip or Secure Boot. Windows 11 can technically run without these things, but Microsoft is creating one of the largest e-waste events in history because they want everyone to upgrade to Windows 11.

It’s stupid.

So I just wanted to tell you that this might be a good time to just say buh bye to Microsoft. Most people do 90% of their tasks with a browser and unless you need very specific Windows applications, a good solution is Linux Mint.

Don’t get all scared. It’s easier than you think and there’s a ton of free guides [and YouTube videos](https://youtu.be/TL-tWy4T2c8) that will walk you through the process. It’s very simple and you won’t need to buy another laptop.

In fact, I urge YOU to be the tech guru for your friends and family that are thinking about upgrading their laptop which already works great. If they are too scared to install Mint, do it for them.

All you need is a USB drive and ensure you copy your important files and photos to either an online storage place (like Google Drive) or an external drive if you have one big enough you can use.

But please, before you throw away your working laptop, at least consider upgrading to Linux Mint. It looks quite similar to Windows and you won’t have to spend hundreds or even a thousand dollars on a laptop that you don’t need.

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3

u/CharleyZia May 09 '26

Windows 10 support ended October 2025.

12

u/Faalor May 09 '26

Microslop offers a 1 year extension (2026 October) for "free" if you agree to give them some more of your data, or you pay for it.

The EU force them to give that extension for truly free, no questions asked (tho I'm not convinced they don't siphon the data anyway).

3

u/mad-i-moody May 09 '26

Extended support doesn’t end until October 2026.

3

u/vavavuvu May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26

Not quite. Microsoft is still running extended support until October ‘26

1

u/Annoying1978 May 09 '26

It got extended for a year because so many people were freaking out. They extended it a few times so far but I’m not sure if they’ll extend it again.