Microsoft has been trying to force users to upgrade their operating systems to Windows 11 for some time, despite the fact that many Windows 10 users have PCs which do not meet Microsoft's hardware requirements. Some time ago, Microsoft even rolled out an update to force the upgrade on users, and when their hardware is not Windows 11 compatible, this update fails, and then repeats ad infinitum, causing Windows 10 to become unusable (10 minutes to log in, and another 10 minutes to open a file!).

This report on Forbes describes the latest attempts to force users to upgrade to Windows 11. Users with PCs that are not capable of running Windows 11 will be warned that "the PC will not receive updates and is not eligible for upgrades", so no more security or functional updates for these users. Users whose PCs are Windows 11 compatible will be given the opportunity to schedule the upgrade, so no choice but to upgrade. Customer choice is, apparently, an alien concept to Microsoft.

Another annoying issue with upgrading your operating system is the insistence that you have (and enter) a Microsoft email address. Many users do not want to have a user account linked to an MS email account, for good reason, and some made use of workarounds to get a local account for logging in to their machine. This report on PC World describes how MS have now blocked the simplest and most commonly used workaround. Another workaround exists (described briefly in the report), which still apparently still works, but PC World expects that this too will soon be blocked. Corporate customers gave up the fight long ago, and their staff logins are all done using an MS-linked email id. There are, however, large organisation (like to CIA and GCHQ) who have legitimate reasons to not have such MS-linked email/login ids, because to do so would be in direct contradiction to their security policies; I assume that such organisations have an exemption to Microsoft's rules, although they probably need a variant of the Windows 11 operating system to allow the exemption.

Add to all this the trend in Microsoft pricing, which is for users to be required to rent software (operating systems and applications) via a yearly subscription rather than a simple licence purchase, which will increase the cost of having a PC.

Given how difficult and unpleasant MS has made life for users, it came as no surprise to me to read recently that Microsoft doesn't actually want users to run their desktop operating system. They now make most of their money from Windows server and from applications, and their preferred model is to provide these apps online (Office 360 - access is via a browser, and it makes no difference what operating system you run your browser on); still free for private customers, but corporate customers must pay; expect to have to start to pay for Office 360 access, even as a private customer in the next year or two.

The knowledge that MS isn't really interested in providing your desktop operating system explains all of the complexity and unpleasantness that they are causing their users. They are trying to drive their customers away (to Mac, Chromebook and Linux), because Windows is a lot of effort for them, and generates little, if any, profit.

Windows users run the risk of being left high and dry by Microsoft. Time for you to jump ship.