The end is near!
This edition of Ken’s Korner’s Newsletter covers December 2024.

That statement could be interpreted in several different ways.
The end of the world is near. There have been people who have made that claim repeatedly throughout the centuries. I am not a member of that group nor a believer in that prophecy. They have been consistently wrong for centuries, so I am going to say - False.
The end of the year 2024 is near – True.
The end of Windows 10 is near – True.
That is the subject of this newsletter.

Microsoft has announced that October 12, 2025, is the “end of life” for Windows 10. What that means is Microsoft will no longer provide …

• Technical support
• Feature updates
• Security updates

… for windows 10. Version 22H2 will be the final version.

What can you do?
The answer from Microsoft is simple, just get a new computer with Windows 11. If you keep your old Windows 10 machine you won’t get any fixes, new features or updates. That puts you at risk from malware and that risk will increase over time. Finding an antivirus for your old computer may be difficult. Once Microsoft stops supporting the operating system, other manufacturers tend to follow suit. Driver support for printers, cameras and other peripherals will also become more difficult to find.

In some cases, you can buy extended support contracts for Windows 10. But these tend to be costly and may still leave you at risk. You can try to install Windows 11 on computers that do not the rather stringent hardware compatibility requirements. Sometimes you can get away with this, at least for a while, but you will be on your own if problems develop.

You can rent a virtual PC. Microsoft and other companies will rent you a virtual computer. You access it with your old computer, but all the work is done by another computer in the cloud. It is not cheap, but it is cheaper than buying a new computer. At least in the short term.

These alternatives will not work for everyone. In fact, most people would find them unsatisfactory. So I am recommending to my customers, (at least most of them) to be Windows 11 users by the end of April 2025. While the end-of-life isn’t until October I don’t want to wait until the last minute. Too many things could go wrong especially when you are pressed for time. Choices made in desperation are usually not the best way to go.

So, make your move to Windows 11 early while there are some good deals on the hardware. Do you think there will be a lot of bargains on Windows 11 computers. Or just a few very expensive machines that are not a good match for your needs.

Internet Tip
Here is a tip. Are you tired of searching with Google and Bing? Try using Chat GPT, Grok2, Claude or Perplexity. These days artificial intelligence augments Google and Bing searches anyway but you might find that using some of the other AI services provides a different perspective.

Proceed with some trepidation. While AI has advanced massively it is far from God like. With AI training the model is critically important. The number one requirement is that it must be brutally honest. Many of the current models are trained to be politically correct and that is a problem.

Gemini is one of the worst offenders. The pope does not look like a Hindu grandmother. Abraham Lincoln was not a black man. These are not glitches; they are the result of deliberate programing choices resulting in something that is more a bad caricature of AI than a useful tool. It is like a bad joke at an inopportune time.

Chat GPT was trained by searching the Internet. There is a great deal of information on the Internet and some of it is useful. Even though ChatGPT is continually being moderated and refined it still makes mistakes. Sometimes it outright lies and occasionally makes things up. So, watch out for AI. Monumental mistakes can be made almost instantly. Massive mistakes are sometimes made while you wait.

My current personal favorite is Grok2 which generated the image of the grim reaper above. But that is a fungible human emotion and subject to change.

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And remember — always back it up!