Last I heard, Micro$oft was killing security updates for Win 10 mid-October, but they will generously let you keep getting updates if you either make a Microsoft Account (I refuse) and log in with that instead of your local account, or pay them $30 (if I had $30 to spare it would go to Palestine and then I wouldn’t have $30 to pay Microsoft), unless you’re in Europe where for inexplicable reasons you can just get them no strings attached?
I will not pay Microsoft for extended support.
I will not “upgrade” to Windows 11.
I will not switch to using a Microsoft Account. Hang privacy, this is about tradition! We didn’t have this always-online shit on Windows XP when I was a child and I’m not about to switch over to it. I’m too old to figure out what a “Microsoft Account” is, how to use it, how to make sure that Microsoft isn’t using it to steal my files with OneDrive (not that I have anything anyway. It’s not a good enough OS to warrant using for personal files).
The only thing I use this Windows Partition for is playing games, and if my Steam account gets hacked somehow because the OS was out of date, I’ll just switch back to pirating any game that requires Windows.
Anyway my thinking was that if they’re not being shits about it in Europe for some reason, is there a way to make Microsoft not be shits about it in the US? Do I just set my VPN to Europe and do something to route my Windows 10 Updates to look on a European server?
Bonus question: Where else on the lemmyverse should/could I ask this question? I try not to venture outside Hexbear lest a gang of feral radlibs rend me tentacle from tentacle, so I don’t know where else is even good to post a nonpolitical technical question like this.
Here~! We technical leftists are few and far-between (literally the lemmy devs, and maybe the hexbear team + some anarchists on db0 are probably small in size)
As for the question, honestly, my dual-boot setup uses Win11 and Linux, and it’s been… a journey to say the least. Honestly, just do what our fellow comments are saying and either dual-boot and keep your Win10 out of the internet, or fully move into Linux. Win10 without like LTSC I think?? is very vulnerable and Microsoft will likely stop updates for your specific windows version soon anyway.
To compound your anti-Win11 sentiment, Win11 is a godawful mess that only works because I heavily modified it to have ExplorerPatcher, OpenShell and many anti-Edge and generally be debloated. It’s… admittedly unstable at times, and if you’re not willing to deal with that then don’t lol switch to Linux (I recommend Arch Linux btw haha)
massgrave.dev
If you’re already dual booting, you should check how your Linux side does at games. Maybe you’re already ready to switch.
There’s probably some goofy scheme possible where your Linux copy of Steam downloads the games and your Windows copy plays them, so you don’t need to have it exposed to the internet.
Regardless, probably don’t log in to your Windows partition this week. EOL is tomorrow, who knows how many zero days people have been hoarding.
The scheme is to use an NTFS partition which contains all your games which can be shared by both Linux and Windows (Windows has terminal main character syndrome so it can’t read anything not NTFS by default).
There’s probably some goofy scheme possible where your Linux copy of Steam downloads the games and your Windows copy plays them, so you don’t need to have it exposed to the internet.
I’m pretty sure this is possible but it sounds like a nightmare. I wouldn’t want to have storage that both Linux and windows are aware of / capable of using. Keep those separate lol
This page talks about some of the options you have, some legit some pirated. You can get a few more years of support with these methods
windows 10 ltsc will be supported until january 2027
2032 since the last one was released in 2022
If you’re just playing games on it then why do you need security updates? Keep your Linux encrypted and don’t do your taxes on the windows side and don’t do anything too stupid on there and you should be fine. Unless your games are known for spreading malware.
Honestly this is it. I have an old laptop just for sims 2 that works offline. And 99% of cybersecurity is just not falling for obvious social engineering.
My plan is to install a new hard drive in my computer and dual boot to Linux. Gradually move all my day to day operations there, and keep my windows drive in place for gaming and music production where I’ll just enable the network connection for game and software updates.
