Windows 10 became 10 years old this week. This is a bittersweet birthday, as it marks a commencement of a constant retirement on the beginning of a stable march that will begin on 14 October 2025 with the official end of support.
For a computer operating system, time is measured in something equal to dog years, and by that remedy, 10 years is an eternity. Windows 10, you are Old,
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To mark the occasion, I went back and read some of my coverage of Windows 10 in my first five years, started with my initial review, “Windows 10: A New Beginning”, and continued with an annual report card written on each gradual anniversary. My last report card was in 2020: “Five in Windows 10: Don’t be very comfortable, rules will change again.”
the early years
Windows 10 had a job: Eradicating the memory of Windows 8 from the brain of hundreds of crores of Microsoft customers. It was successful in the task that became the most widely used product of Microsoft. But the path to that success was anything but smooth.
It is difficult to remember now, but they were absolutely chaotic for the first five years. Windows 10 was still running on smartphones and small tablets. Microsoft Universal Windows Platform (UWP) was begging developers for writing apps.
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Two years after the onset of Windows 10, Microsoft became obsessed with 3D technology, the so-called Windows 10 creators update (version 1703) with paint 3D and (I am not making it) with the reality portal-to-tool-which Microsoft distributed to every Windows 10 pCs and which was ever used anytime. It was a complete disaster.
Meanwhile, Microsoft was carrying forward the major feature updates every six months. Version 1809 (The big feature update in the second half of 2018) was so small that it was to be prepared from the Windows update server, and the company eventually released a public apology and changed its updated procedures to avoid the recurrence of that nightmare.
Microsoft also got rid of misleading version numbers in 2020, after realizing that they were releasing a version of Windows with the 2004 version name in 2020. The new naming conference (21h2, etc.) was very easy to understand.
Morning of windows as a service
The chaos of Windows 10 ended in the year 2021, when Microsoft announced Windows 11. Windows 10 Edition 21 H2 marked the onset of the annual update for Windows 10, a policy that continued with Windows 11. Version is the official end of the road for the version 22H2 Windows 10.
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Windows 10 marked the onset of “Windows as a service”. Although Microsoft marketed Windows 11 as another “Big Bang” release, it was actually just a feature update and a UX refreshed for Windows 10. Well, as long as you had compatible software.
The prolonged PC users who have a part of affection for Windows 10 have a direct result of the Microsoft of OS after transferring all the developmental priorities of today to Windows 11 and Copillot-branded AI toys to their wife. Windows 10 lives in the same, month and month, year and year. Microsoft does not try to make it accessible with new features, and they do not transfer one’s cheese with those monthly updates.
After reviewing the historical positions, I was killed by the number of the principles of the conspiracy, which just did not come out. Microsoft’s collection of telemetry data was about to destroy your privacy. Windows 10 was going to be a hit with a user membership fee. C’Mon, he kept giving free upgrade to Windows 10 for eight years, after saying that it was a limited, one year offering.
Also: I use the edge as my default browser – but its new AI mode is incredible and annoying.
My initial review of Windows 10 praised the courtana feature in Windows 10. Cortana Siri-like was an assistant who promised to pull all my personal data together and give me a daily briefing that set me for the day. It was a major failure, but if you enter the Microsoft Headquarters, I am sure you will find that Cortana was creep so that the copillot could run. (They are both, finally, the three-word words that begin with C. I don’t think it is a coincidence.)
Windows 10 legacy
Today, PCs are generally reliable, without any small measures because they are copying models that are standardized in the last decade as standardized Apple (MacBook Air and MacBook Pro) and Microsoft (Surface Laptop and Surface Pro). The software running those PCs is dependent on local hardware and a circular variety of cloud-based resources. If it was not for Windows 10, then we have never reached this turn.
So, Happy Birthday, Windows 10. You will have no other, but it’s fine. Enjoy your retirement. Play some golf or something else.
