I want to upgrade my laptop to Windows 11. Microsoft won’t let me

This year my laptop turns six–a relatively young age in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it’s gotten slower and the battery life has taken a hit, but since I don’t use it for advanced video editing or gaming, it’s no problem. For lighter workloads like web surfing and emailing, it gets the job done just fine.

There’s really only one problem: my laptop is too old for a Windows 11 update. On October 14th, 2025, Windows 10 will reach the end of its life period, which means no new features or security updates. The former is not a big problem. The latter would be a disaster.

I’m not alone in this situation. Over 50 percent of users are still running Windows 10, and this figure is gradually dropping. How many will have updated in six months’ time is anyone’s guess, but whatever the percentage, one thing is clear. A large proportion of the world’s 1.6 billion Windows PCs will still be running Windows 10 on October 14th, 2025.

What makes this challenging is that Windows 11 is so technically demanding that it’s not possible to update all fully functional computers. Sadly, my six-year-old laptop is one of them.

If Microsoft stops updating Windows 10, it would turn into a breeding ground for cybercriminals. A computer without security updates is not only a problem for the user, but it can also spread malware to others.

This decision also creates major environmental problems. If a few hundred million fully functional computers are thrown away and users buy new ones, emissions will increase. Manufacturing new computers requires large amounts of energy and the extraction of rare metals.

Microsoft has stated that security updates to Windows 10 will still be available for another year, but for a fee. Until now, businesses could subscribe to extended support for old Windows versions and now we consumers can do the same. This is, of course, tempting for Microsoft in the short term, but it’s not a sustainable solution. In such a situation, a large proportion of users would continue to run Windows 10 without paying, thereby compromising security for us all.

I personally hope that Microsoft realizes that they should reconsider this decision. The only reasonable thing to do is to send out free security updates to Windows 10 as long as the system is widely used. It’s neither economically nor ecologically sustainable to sell computers with a six-year lifespan.

We need to move away from the idea of computers, mobiles, tablets, and other technologies as disposable products. This is a transition from the throwaway society that we all need to make. If Microsoft is serious about being a sustainable company, they should immediately remove the death sentence on my six-year-old laptop and other working Windows 10 computers.