Sometimes, Loving Something Means Letting IT Go

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is a day to celebrate love, romance, and every butterfly that has ever fluttered in a stomach. However, the greatest loves can bring the greatest sorrow… particularly when the time comes to say goodbye.

Take Windows 10, for instance. PC users have loved the OS for a decade, but in a few short months, it will no longer be a good relationship for anyone—particularly business users—to maintain.

Why? It’s simple… once support for the operating system is no longer provided, any continued relationship with Windows 10 will be invariably toxic.

Microsoft is Dumping Windows 10…

This is, admittedly, old news. With the official announcement coming out in early 2024, Microsoft has made as much abundantly clear since that initial notification, sharing this timeline across support articles and marketing materials.

We’ve all known this relationship was never going to last forever.

After all, without Microsoft’s support, the operating system will become less and less usable over time. New software won’t be designed to work with it, new technologies won’t be compatible with it, and critically, new protections won’t apply to it. Any new threats will have no resistance from a system running Windows 10, allowing them to fully take advantage of your systems and the data they hold.

Obviously, none of this is desirable.

…and You Need to Do the Same

Let’s face facts for a moment and acknowledge that cyberthreats aren’t going to go easy on you just because you’re sticking with Windows 10. In reality, they’re hoping you do so… it makes their job much easier for them. Therefore, you must break it off with any unsupported technology you have used to build your business before you regret it.

Be Warned: The Breakup Might Come with Some Baggage

Migrating to Windows 11 may take more than just clicking “Okay.”

It is never easy to end things, and that’s even more the case when a business is involved. For instance, there’s a pretty good chance that your business relies pretty heavily on Windows 10, provided you haven’t migrated away yet.

That’s not even the worst-case scenario, either.

Windows 11 has specific hardware requirements that some workstations can’t quite measure up to, as follows:

• 1 GHz, 2+ core processor or System on a Chip (SoC)
• 4 GB RAM
• 64 GB or larger storage
• Unified Extensible Firmware Interface system firmware that is Secure Boot capable
• Compatibility with Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM)
• DirectX 12-compatible graphics card with Windows Display Driver Model 2.0
• HD (720p) display that is larger than 9” diagonally

The TPM requirement is where many modern PCs don’t quite stack up, meaning that you may need to upgrade rather than update your IT… it may be pricey, but if it keeps your business secure, it will be worth it. That said, you will want to prioritize making these purchases as soon as possible, as predictions indicate that hardware will become much more expensive to procure in short order.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do… But We Can Help

It’s important that, whenever an IT breakup is happening, you have a support system in place to keep you on track and ready to bounce back. Your operating system is the one place where having a rebound is a good thing, as it will help ensure that your business’ operations can go on with minimal disruption.

It is vital to have friends there for you in these situations. We can be that friend for your business.

We Can Play Matchmaker and Set Up Something New

Network Solutions Unlimited can be your wingman as you pursue a new relationship with Windows 11. More than that, we can ensure that all of your business’ technology is properly taken care of and that your entire team is happy and comfortable with the tools they wake up to use each day.

Give us a call at (217) 428-6449 when you’re ready to turn the page on Windows 10, and in the meantime, have a happy and safe Valentine’s Day.