To add to this, below are the group policy and registry locations to change this setting to do the same as the comment above in order to allow for automation. Of course with the disclaimer that you should only use these if you know what you are doing.
Group policy
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata. Set the policy to enabled.
Registry (also works on Home edition)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Device Metadata. Create a REG_DWORD within called PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork and set the value to 1.
With this and the 5800X3D being manufactured again and Raptor Lake being spun up for yet another refresh, I wonder how long it will be before we see something like the Core 2 Quad Q6600 being resurrected along with the P35 chipset and DDR2.
I jest, but with much of a farce the industry has become lately, it does make me wonder how much further backwards we're going to go.
I tend to stagger my platform and GPU upgrades. It tends to be about 3-4 years between something being upgraded. So I'd technically call the platform upgrade a new build, even though it inherits some older components.
My last build was used for 10 years, and the one before that 4 years. I was planning to have my previous build last for about 5-6 years, but those were the days when Intel stagnated with 14nm++++ and AMD wasn't really showing up, so I ended up prolonging its life a bit more. My current build should last me well into the 2030s since it's an AM5 platform. So this is the timeline:
2008: New build.
2012: New build, plus old hard drives inherited as data drives.
2015: GPU, PSU and SSD upgrade.
2018: GPU, CPU and heatsink upgrade, retired old data drives from previous build and replaced with new ones.
2022: Platform upgrade (motherboard, CPU, RAM), case upgrade and new SSD to use as the main drive.
2025: GPU and PSU upgrade.
2028: Most likely going to be another CPU and SSD upgrade (provided that prices come back down to sane levels), and retirement of older drives.
That was my situation too initially. I first tried while using my Steam Deck and it kept running into errors during checkout. So I yeeted myself to my main desktop where it went through without a hitch.
Mobile always seems less stable than desktop when making purchases.
A laptop from 2015 probably has an Intel 4th or 5th gen CPU. If 8 GB of RAM is an issue, then you could upgrade it to 16 GB in theory, provided that it isn't soldered down. That could keep it going for a bit longer if 8 GB is the only problem that keeps it from daily use. I'd say that 8 GB is about borderline these days. It's still perfectly fine for basic web browsing but not much more.
Even though RAM prices are in the stratosphere, DDR3 prices aren't as badly affected, so you could get 16 GB relatively cheaply. I'd look for 2x 8 GB DDR3L-1600 SO-DIMMs. Just ensure that the laptop can accept it.
Upgrading the hard drive to an SSD will make a huge difference for performance as well if that hasn't been done already. Unfortunately, 2.5" SATA SSDs today are even more of a ripoff than M.2 SSDs at their current elevated prices because they aren't really being produced anymore. At that point then yeah I agree with the sentiment that putting the money towards a new laptop will go much further.
I've found WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode to be very hit and miss for a few legacy devices unfortunately. They can see the SSID, but they simply won't connect even though it's supposed to be 'backwards compatible'.
I've basically done what was mentioned here and went with 2 SSIDs on my network. One for modern devices that uses WPA3 exclusively and allows for all 3 bands along with Wi-Fi 7 features such as MLO. And a second one for legacy devices which uses WPA2 exclusively and only supports the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
Even then, Wi-Fi 6E devices are in an awkward middle ground. While they all support WPA3 and can use the modern SSID, they don't support MLO so they can sometimes hang on to the 6 GHz band which drops off more quickly at a distance instead of switching to one of the other two bands when appropriate.
I ran my old 3770K machine for 10 years and it got the job done. I'll run my current PC well into the 2030s if I have to. Just gotta hope that nothing dies on it because at this rate it's gonna be worth more than a car shortly...
If things still aren't affordable after that, I guess I'm going back to pen and paper again...
My 1080 Ti has been a legend and has carried my last two builds. That 11 GB of VRAM was huge back in 2017 and certainly helped it to remain relevant over the years, particularly since we've seen newer cards with much stronger GPUs and less VRAM struggle lately due to being VRAM limited.
I finally replaced it with a 9070 XT earlier this year, and while this thing buries it in performance and features, I'm questioning if it will see the same kind of longevity my 1080 Ti had since I've a feeling that its 16 GB of VRAM will eventually be what obsoletes it first.
All of this is no problem and essentially any computer manufactured in the last couple decades can meet these requirements. They're effectively irrelevant for this discussion.
Not quite. Windows 11 requires an Intel 8th gen or AMD Zen+ CPU or newer, with some odd exceptions. I've dealt with some machines that only fail on the CPU check and can confirm that Windows 11 will refuse to install without bypassing those arbitrary 'requirements'.
It wasn't the same experience over here. All MSRP cards sold out instantly on all stores. Whatever was actually in stock were all at least £100 over MSRP, and they quickly sold out too.
It's unacceptable that there's new cards for sale (if you can even find one) that cost more than I paid for my 1080 Ti 8 years ago and have essentially the same amount of VRAM (12 GB vs 11 GB).
I thought that maybe the 9070 XT would be at least a reasonable option if I could get it for MSRP. Of course that launch ended up being another farce.
At this point it looks like I'm going to be riding my 1080 Ti until the bitter end. Sure, newer cards will wipe the floor with it, but I can't justify the current prices.
Yep, you can delete your Windows partition once you no longer need it or any data within it. Then once you update your bootloader (usually GRUB, some distros do this automatically when updating the system), Windows will disappear from the boot options.
Then you can either create a new partition in its place to store data on, or extend an existing partition to fill the empty space.
I'd recommend also backing your data as a precaution in case something goes awry.
If you have a spare drive on your PC I'd recommend trialling Linux on that. With that setup, you will have it dual booted with your existing Windows installation. It should help with the transition since you can just boot into Windows if you still need it for anything. That will give you time to get accustomed to Linux while still having that Windows safety net for a while.
Also if you later find that Linux isn't for you then it's easy to undo that, since all you will need to do is boot into your Windows drive instead.
I went with that strategy when I made the jump 4 years ago, and later dropped Windows entirely when I built my new PC a few months later since I realised I didn't need it at all.
Nova Lake was always planned to be a late 2026 release according to a leaked Dell roadmap.
We were supposed to get Arrow Lake Refresh for desktops later this year but this was cancelled. So while the headline is technically correct, it's not because Nova Lake is delayed.
That's fine, I've closed the door on supporting Microsoft. They could have just charged for the 'upgrade' and that would have been better since it wouldn't result in the colossal amount of e-waste that this is creating. Even without the forced obsolescence, their products have become hostile, invasive and generally just a PITA to use. Meanwhile Linux distros are knocking it out of the park lately.
I really don't know what Microsoft are thinking. They haven't made particularly good strides towards gaining any kind of goodwill, so once it becomes common knowledge that alternatives not only exist but actually show them up, those lost customers are people that they will never get back. Look how pathetic their marketshare is for Edge for example, even though it's the default browser on Windows. They still haven't been able to shake off the bad stigma that Internet Explorer had (and to be fair, they aren't doing people any favours with Edge either).
Not only that, but hundreds of millions of PCs can't 'just upgrade' because Microsoft has arbitrarily blocked them from doing so without resorting to hacks in order to bypass those blocks.
That kinda did the trick for me since my old PC was starting to struggle with some tasks, so I went and built a new PC recently.
Joke's on Microsoft though, I installed Arch Linux on it instead. It's so much less work to maintain compared to Windows these days.
A relative of mine had also got fed up with the Windows BS and was interested in what I was running, so I got her machine dual booted with Debian now to try it out. She hasn't looked back either, so that to me proves that Linux is ready for non-techies.
I already did this 2 years ago and I still don't miss Windows. I want my OS to just work, and that means not having big companies intentionally blocking updates and bullying consumers just so they can profit from artificially induced OEM license sales. It's pretty wild how quickly Linux has fit the bill in recent years, and how Windows no longer does.
Only hurdle on Linux right now is the transition from X11 to Wayland. Proton doesn't have good support for it yet so I occasionally have to load an X11 session for some games to run. I can imagine that getting worked out eventually.
Microsoft could have simply dropped official support for older machines and then literally done nothing and that would have still been better than what they did. At least then those machines would still receive security updates beyond next year, provided they could still run the latest version of Windows.
For the record, if the arbitrary CPU block is bypassed, then it's possible to install Windows 11 23H2 on a Prescott era Pentium 4 or Athlon 64. The true requirements did change for 24H2, but even then you can install that on a 1st gen Intel or a Bulldozer era AMD system. Microsoft can go suck a dick.
To add to this, below are the group policy and registry locations to change this setting to do the same as the comment above in order to allow for automation. Of course with the disclaimer that you should only use these if you know what you are doing.
Group policy
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata. Set the policy to enabled.
Registry (also works on Home edition)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Device Metadata. Create a REG_DWORD within called PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork and set the value to 1.
With this and the 5800X3D being manufactured again and Raptor Lake being spun up for yet another refresh, I wonder how long it will be before we see something like the Core 2 Quad Q6600 being resurrected along with the P35 chipset and DDR2.
I jest, but with much of a farce the industry has become lately, it does make me wonder how much further backwards we're going to go.
I tend to stagger my platform and GPU upgrades. It tends to be about 3-4 years between something being upgraded. So I'd technically call the platform upgrade a new build, even though it inherits some older components.
My last build was used for 10 years, and the one before that 4 years. I was planning to have my previous build last for about 5-6 years, but those were the days when Intel stagnated with 14nm++++ and AMD wasn't really showing up, so I ended up prolonging its life a bit more. My current build should last me well into the 2030s since it's an AM5 platform. So this is the timeline:
2008: New build. 2012: New build, plus old hard drives inherited as data drives. 2015: GPU, PSU and SSD upgrade. 2018: GPU, CPU and heatsink upgrade, retired old data drives from previous build and replaced with new ones. 2022: Platform upgrade (motherboard, CPU, RAM), case upgrade and new SSD to use as the main drive. 2025: GPU and PSU upgrade. 2028: Most likely going to be another CPU and SSD upgrade (provided that prices come back down to sane levels), and retirement of older drives.
That was my situation too initially. I first tried while using my Steam Deck and it kept running into errors during checkout. So I yeeted myself to my main desktop where it went through without a hitch.
Mobile always seems less stable than desktop when making purchases.
A laptop from 2015 probably has an Intel 4th or 5th gen CPU. If 8 GB of RAM is an issue, then you could upgrade it to 16 GB in theory, provided that it isn't soldered down. That could keep it going for a bit longer if 8 GB is the only problem that keeps it from daily use. I'd say that 8 GB is about borderline these days. It's still perfectly fine for basic web browsing but not much more.
Even though RAM prices are in the stratosphere, DDR3 prices aren't as badly affected, so you could get 16 GB relatively cheaply. I'd look for 2x 8 GB DDR3L-1600 SO-DIMMs. Just ensure that the laptop can accept it.
Upgrading the hard drive to an SSD will make a huge difference for performance as well if that hasn't been done already. Unfortunately, 2.5" SATA SSDs today are even more of a ripoff than M.2 SSDs at their current elevated prices because they aren't really being produced anymore. At that point then yeah I agree with the sentiment that putting the money towards a new laptop will go much further.
I've found WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode to be very hit and miss for a few legacy devices unfortunately. They can see the SSID, but they simply won't connect even though it's supposed to be 'backwards compatible'.
I've basically done what was mentioned here and went with 2 SSIDs on my network. One for modern devices that uses WPA3 exclusively and allows for all 3 bands along with Wi-Fi 7 features such as MLO. And a second one for legacy devices which uses WPA2 exclusively and only supports the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
Even then, Wi-Fi 6E devices are in an awkward middle ground. While they all support WPA3 and can use the modern SSID, they don't support MLO so they can sometimes hang on to the 6 GHz band which drops off more quickly at a distance instead of switching to one of the other two bands when appropriate.
I ran my old 3770K machine for 10 years and it got the job done. I'll run my current PC well into the 2030s if I have to. Just gotta hope that nothing dies on it because at this rate it's gonna be worth more than a car shortly...
If things still aren't affordable after that, I guess I'm going back to pen and paper again...
They're apparently still releasing 'new' APUs which use RDNA2: The 10 and 100 series.
Not sure what AMD are thinking, but I've a feeling that this isn't going to help them regain market share.
My 1080 Ti has been a legend and has carried my last two builds. That 11 GB of VRAM was huge back in 2017 and certainly helped it to remain relevant over the years, particularly since we've seen newer cards with much stronger GPUs and less VRAM struggle lately due to being VRAM limited.
I finally replaced it with a 9070 XT earlier this year, and while this thing buries it in performance and features, I'm questioning if it will see the same kind of longevity my 1080 Ti had since I've a feeling that its 16 GB of VRAM will eventually be what obsoletes it first.
Ah yes, the Atari Jaguar approach.
Not quite. Windows 11 requires an Intel 8th gen or AMD Zen+ CPU or newer, with some odd exceptions. I've dealt with some machines that only fail on the CPU check and can confirm that Windows 11 will refuse to install without bypassing those arbitrary 'requirements'.
I do agree with the rest of your post though.
It wasn't the same experience over here. All MSRP cards sold out instantly on all stores. Whatever was actually in stock were all at least £100 over MSRP, and they quickly sold out too.
The entire GPU market has gone to shit.
It's unacceptable that there's new cards for sale (if you can even find one) that cost more than I paid for my 1080 Ti 8 years ago and have essentially the same amount of VRAM (12 GB vs 11 GB).
I thought that maybe the 9070 XT would be at least a reasonable option if I could get it for MSRP. Of course that launch ended up being another farce.
At this point it looks like I'm going to be riding my 1080 Ti until the bitter end. Sure, newer cards will wipe the floor with it, but I can't justify the current prices.
Yep, you can delete your Windows partition once you no longer need it or any data within it. Then once you update your bootloader (usually GRUB, some distros do this automatically when updating the system), Windows will disappear from the boot options.
Then you can either create a new partition in its place to store data on, or extend an existing partition to fill the empty space.
I'd recommend also backing your data as a precaution in case something goes awry.
If you have a spare drive on your PC I'd recommend trialling Linux on that. With that setup, you will have it dual booted with your existing Windows installation. It should help with the transition since you can just boot into Windows if you still need it for anything. That will give you time to get accustomed to Linux while still having that Windows safety net for a while.
Also if you later find that Linux isn't for you then it's easy to undo that, since all you will need to do is boot into your Windows drive instead.
I went with that strategy when I made the jump 4 years ago, and later dropped Windows entirely when I built my new PC a few months later since I realised I didn't need it at all.
Nova Lake was always planned to be a late 2026 release according to a leaked Dell roadmap.
We were supposed to get Arrow Lake Refresh for desktops later this year but this was cancelled. So while the headline is technically correct, it's not because Nova Lake is delayed.
That's fine, I've closed the door on supporting Microsoft. They could have just charged for the 'upgrade' and that would have been better since it wouldn't result in the colossal amount of e-waste that this is creating. Even without the forced obsolescence, their products have become hostile, invasive and generally just a PITA to use. Meanwhile Linux distros are knocking it out of the park lately.
I really don't know what Microsoft are thinking. They haven't made particularly good strides towards gaining any kind of goodwill, so once it becomes common knowledge that alternatives not only exist but actually show them up, those lost customers are people that they will never get back. Look how pathetic their marketshare is for Edge for example, even though it's the default browser on Windows. They still haven't been able to shake off the bad stigma that Internet Explorer had (and to be fair, they aren't doing people any favours with Edge either).
Not only that, but hundreds of millions of PCs can't 'just upgrade' because Microsoft has arbitrarily blocked them from doing so without resorting to hacks in order to bypass those blocks.
That kinda did the trick for me since my old PC was starting to struggle with some tasks, so I went and built a new PC recently.
Joke's on Microsoft though, I installed Arch Linux on it instead. It's so much less work to maintain compared to Windows these days.
A relative of mine had also got fed up with the Windows BS and was interested in what I was running, so I got her machine dual booted with Debian now to try it out. She hasn't looked back either, so that to me proves that Linux is ready for non-techies.
I already did this 2 years ago and I still don't miss Windows. I want my OS to just work, and that means not having big companies intentionally blocking updates and bullying consumers just so they can profit from artificially induced OEM license sales. It's pretty wild how quickly Linux has fit the bill in recent years, and how Windows no longer does.
Only hurdle on Linux right now is the transition from X11 to Wayland. Proton doesn't have good support for it yet so I occasionally have to load an X11 session for some games to run. I can imagine that getting worked out eventually.
Microsoft could have simply dropped official support for older machines and then literally done nothing and that would have still been better than what they did. At least then those machines would still receive security updates beyond next year, provided they could still run the latest version of Windows.
For the record, if the arbitrary CPU block is bypassed, then it's possible to install Windows 11 23H2 on a Prescott era Pentium 4 or Athlon 64. The true requirements did change for 24H2, but even then you can install that on a 1st gen Intel or a Bulldozer era AMD system. Microsoft can go suck a dick.