It's insecure (in more ways than one) to be running Windows in general. If you value security to a high degree you probably shouldn't be using Windows.
Well, security doesn't matter for a media device like that. The exposure is so minimal that it might as well not exist.
Hell, considering I really only use it to pirate shit maybe once a month nowadays, my main desktop PC isn't even on enough to matter; I could keep any old OS on it.
I've been forced to install Windows 10 on my brand new build because it doesn't support W7.
But Steam is also dropping W7 support by the end of this year anyway. Yes, there are native Linux games on Steam and there's also Proton and WINE, but it's not a 100% solution.
Well, I was hyped for Baldur's gate 3, and I may still end up getting it, but I'd have to upgrade too much hardware to play it, and there's really no other games that I'm interested in.
Musicbee is the main reason I'm still running 7 on that pc rather than some flavor of linux. If it ever gets a port, or actually starts working right via wine, bye bye windows for me.
True story: I had been consistently telling my laptop not to upgrade to Windows 11 for literally months. I left it at home for like 3 days and when I came back it had upgraded itself anyway. That was the day I completely deleted Windows from my laptop. Formatted the entire hard drive and haven't regretted it yet. Never even logged into Windows 11.
Does win 11 still require physical hardware to run? Why I have to sacrifice one of my motherboard slots for a worthless authentication chip that might stop working and brick my computer - ya I'll stay with 10.
You're not sacrificing a slot. TPM chips are typically either soldered onto the motherboard, built into the chipset, or (in the few instances that they are optional) go in a special port just fir them.
There are plenty of reasons not to move to W11 without making up new ones.
Technically it's an artificial requirement, it'll run just fine without secure boot and TPM, you'll just need to do some work around to install it that way.
It told me that too. Which was fine because like nobody asked? But then it did it anyway. Quietly in the night like the sneaky little hoe that it is. I'm still pretty salty. I thought I was safe 😔
LTSC is good for a machine with a dedicated purpose. My DJ laptop runs LTSC, for example. But I wouldn't suggest using it as your main OS unless you don't mind reinstalling Windows every year (I don't, but some people do).
11 really isn't that bad once you work around the bullshit. Use StartAllBack to restore the old Start Menu and position the taskbar vertically, and SoundSwitch to keep it from changing your default audio device every time you plug something in. Once you install those two apps, dare I say that 11 is better than 10.
Hell, it's worth it alone for its considerably better HDR experience. In 10 you had to constantly fiddle with it, or even turn it off altogether when viewing non-HDR content, if you didn't want a washed-out image. In 11, just enable AutoHDR, change your monitor settings to automatically tone map (instead of using HGiG), and forget about it. You'll never have to mess with settings, toggling things, or calibrations ever again to get a good HDR and SDR image, even in games. It just works.
I have to say I really like windows 11. It’s more secure and it runs well for me. It’s very similar to 10 still with some more refined existing features, and even some cool new ones like live captioning and OCR snipping