Replies

I changed my mind a little and decided to perform the 18.4 update on my iPad Air 4. I will continue to wait on my other iOS devices (especially the iPhones) until I am satisfied that updating will not cause significant issues.

The update process seemed to proceed smoothly. However, after the update was completed, a message on the screen told me the system will (re)enable automatic updates if I tap Continue. There was a second option that said “Only Allow Automatic Download” or something like that. But there was no option to keep automatic updates disabled.

I find this irritating as I have completely disabled automatic updates on ALL my iOS devices. I do NOT want Apple to reenable automatic update on my devices in ANY circumstances whatsoever.

In the end I tap Continue and then went into Settings and disable automatic updates completely again.

I suppose this message will not appear at all if the user already has automatic updates enabled on his/her iOS devices.

Take note if you, like me, prefer to disable automatic updates and do updates on my own schedule. I do not like what Apple has done here with the 18.4 update.

It seems to me that Apple wants to “persuade” users who chose to disable automatic updates to reenable it. Is Apple going to remove the option to disable automatic updates on iOS devices in the future, I wonder?

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

4 users thanked author for this post.

jburk07, pmcjr6142, J9438, Bill C.

iOS / iPadOS 18.4, iOS 16.7.11 (for iPhone 8 / 8 Plus and iPhone X) and iOS 15.8.4 (for iPhone 6S / 6S Plus / 7 / 7 Plus) have been released.

I updated my old iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 to 15.8.4 (from 15.8.3) and another iPhone 8 to 16.7.11 (from 16.7.10). No issues so far although the phones are now rarely used. But it is good to see that important security vulnerabilities on old iPhones are still being patched.

Not going to update my other iPhones (XR / 13 / SE 2) and iPads (Air 4 / Mini A17) for some time. I will wait at least for a few days or weeks until I am satisfied that updating won’t cause significant issues.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

1 user thanked author for this post.

pmcjr6142

I think it is clear that Microsoft eventually wants everyone who uses Windows (Home, at least) to use a Microsoft account, and these little things show that it is moving in that direction. I can’t even setup Windows without access to the internet and a Microsoft account? No thanks.

I never used the Home version of Windows since Windows 8.1, and from what I can see the Home version of Windows has since become more and more crappy and rubbish.

I echo Donny H’s advice above :

Donny H wrote:

Never use Windows Home, it is a worthless OS.

Yesterday morning my aunt came to my home and I helped her to “configure” a preinstalled Windows 11 Home on her “brand new” notebook with a Intel 13th generation CPU (two generations behind) as she has complained she can’t navigate around the “shiny new” interface. I installed Open Shell and configured Windows to present the old right click context menu for her. Also installed LibreOffice on her computer for her to try and use (instead of the “free” Microsoft 365 given to her as part of the purchase of the new computer). Didn’t do anything else as she needed to leave for work. I suppose she now has a Microsoft account although I am pretty sure she is not aware of it.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

RetiredGeek wrote:

So if the premise that 11 is more secure than 10 it makes sense to upgrade to 11 as the worst case final outcome is a more secure system that doesn’t update.

What do y’all think?????

If you believe Windows 11 is more secure than Windows 10 (and it might well be), then I agree it is in your own interest to move to Windows 11 on your unsupported hardware, since apparently you consider security of the OS paramount.

But I don’t think your worst case is going to come to pass any time soon, the reason being that Microsoft itself provided ways to install Windows 11 on unsupported PCs until not so long ago, and I don’t believe it will suddenly decide to really cut off updates for those PCs now.

At worst, I believe Windows 11 installed on your unsupported PC should still be supported with security updates until October 2026, the end of support date for the consumer versions of the current Windows 11 24H2.

I am not sure about future versions of Windows 11 past 24H2 though. We will have to see if Microsoft will really clamp down and refuse to provide updates to all unsupported install of Windows 11 in the future.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

Well then, let’s be more specific.

Susan Bradley wrote:

In business you can’t without risks and cyber insurance issues.

I am not involved in a business, so this does not concern me. Nor do I care. I am just a semi-retired person.

Susan Bradley wrote:

In consumers, you have other options, including 0patch, and extended security updates.

Both of the options you mentioned may require consumers to part with more money, unless I am mistaken. I am not even sure if I can access them at my location even if I want to. I am not living in the USA after all.

Susan Bradley wrote:

There is no blanket right answer for all. You have to determine your risk level.

I have already done what I need to do regarding the Windows 10 EOS.

My father’s old retired friends have not. I expect some of them might come to my father for advice, and my father in turn will turn to me. I believe they will not want to part with more money if they can, and I am pretty sure they will not want to purchase a whole new PC just for this, and why should they, when their computers are still working fine? Some, if not most, of the computers are quite old, and may not be able to run Windows 11 even via an unsupported install.

I believe for them, any unnecessary expense is out of the question, including a PC replacement or paying for extended security updates.

So, do you have any suggestion about what I should tell them if and when they come to my father for advice?

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

Alex5723 wrote:

OS security is the number 1 to consider.

Your opinion is noted. It is certainly not mine, however unpopular it is.

I strongly believe that with some common sense and sensible precautions one can certainly continue to use unsupported OS past their EOS, especially when you can still run a supported browser. Therefore, to me, OS security is neither the most important thing nor the only thing to consider when trying to determine what to do.

I have been running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 (and their Server counterparts) since their EOS in January 2020 (five years ago) and January 2023 (two years ago) respectively, and I have yet to have a security issue. Not one after 5 years. I run Firefox ESR (still supported until September 2025) on both of them to browse the internet. That’s why statements like “You must run a supported OS or you are doomed”, or things like that, have not been able to convince me so far, based on my own experiences for the past 5 years.

Personally, I am continuing to run Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 when necessary, in conjunction with Windows 10 1809 LTSC and Windows Server 2019.

Perhaps we shall agree to disagree on this then, shall we?

Alex5723 wrote:

Coming October with hundred of millions of Windows 10 PCs that can’t upgrade to Windows 11 and won’t get security updates, hackers will get down on these PCs like vultures on a corpse.

Like it or not, it is clear unless Microsoft relaxes the hardware requirements for Windows 11 (and so far it has not shown any willingness to) there will be a large number of PCs that currently run Windows and cannot be upgraded, or won’t be upgraded, to Windows 11 come October.

So let’s see if that will really happen, past October.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

I know my opinion may be unpopular here. But why do we have to upgrade to Windows 11 if the only problem is the Windows 10 EOS (End of Support, mind you, not EOL aka End of Life)?

And why can’t we continue to run older operating systems past their EOS date? Are those people who insist on running for example Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 even now doomed, for example? How about those who insist on continuing to use their current incompatible (with Windows 11) systems to run Windows 10 past October?

Personally, I believe “security of the OS” is only one of things you need to consider. Even if you consider security to be the most important and overriding aspect (which I respectfully disagree), security of the internet browser is, IMHO, far more important for most people. If the browser they use is kept updated to fix security issues (and I believe we can assume the current browsers that run on Windows 10 will continue to be updated past October 2025 for at least 2-3 years if not longer), I don’t see any serious problems with continuing to run an “unsupported” OS past the EOS. I still run Firefox ESR 115.21.0 on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, for example, and I have never had a problem with it.

My own thoughts, anyway. YMMV.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

Susan Bradley wrote:

I think it depends on the hardware.  I don’t recommend running 11 on a system with less than 16 gigs of RAM.

Well then, Susan, what do you suggest we do about the upcoming Windows 10 EOS with still working systems that (1) cannot be officially upgraded to Windows 11 and (2) have less than 16GB RAM?

Other than spending additional money or throwing them away, that is. No adding more RAM, for example. And please do not give any Microsoft’s official answers like “You should buy a new PC to run Windows 11”.

I would think that most people facing this matter would not want to spend additional money or throw the computers away if the computers are still working fine. Unless, that is, it is what they want anyway.

I would really like to hear your opinion on this matter.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

OpenAI, how hypocritical it is.

I am sure OpenAI will want to be compensated if someone were to make use of their AI technologies. (And it already complained about someone (Deepseek) stealing their tech without compensation, I believe.) But it doesn’t want to compensate others to make use of their data to “train” their AI models.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/03/13/openai-wants-the-us-government-to-legalize-theft-to-reach-the-ai-promised-land

I like this quote from the above article :

Deepseek is an existential crisis for OpenAI’s bottom line, not Democracy.

I agree this is all about OpenAI’s bottom line rather than anything else, and not about other AI competitors and definitely not about China. OpenAI is burning through cash to train their models and offer AI services, and it is losing money fast.

Speaking about bottom line, OpenAI just received US$6.6 billion in a funding round in October last year (Apple was set to invest but declined to do so eventually, perhaps Apple saw something that raised the alarm bell?) :

https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/02/openai-raises-6-6b-and-is-now-valued-at-157b/
(Valued at $157 billion? Apparently I am really dumb, but I certainly don’t see how this thing can be valued that much.)

Apparently that was not enough as OpenAI said back in December 2024 that :
https://openai.com/index/why-our-structure-must-evolve-to-advance-our-mission/

The hundreds⁠ of billions of dollars that major companies are now investing into AI development show what it will really take for OpenAI to continue pursuing the mission. We once again need to raise more capital than we’d imagined.

And in February there was talk that Softbank (Japan) was set to invest $40 billion in OpenAI. I wonder how much more money will OpenAI need?

I expect those who provided the funding to OpenAI (including Microsoft which provided a so-called US$13 billion “investment”) will expect to be paid back in full in the future with whatever interest necessary, or else. OpenAI’s current business model is losing money by the truckload. Apparently it lost US$5 billion last year, according to the New York Times. How will OpenAI pay back all these “funding” or “investment”?

Maybe that’s why OpenAI now wants the US government to protect it from copyright holders so that it can be above the law and use their data without compensation?

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

3 users thanked author for this post.

SueW, Alex5723, WSbobby-p

AMD has released drivers for the RX 9070 / RX 9070 XT (25.3.1) which support Windows 10 and Windows 11.

As expected, AMD will continue to support Windows 10 as well as Windows 11 for the new RDNA4 graphics cards, at least for now.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

VMware Workstation 17.6.3 and VMware Fusion 13.6.3 have been released :
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/workstation-pro/17-0/release-notes/vmware-workstation-1763-pro-release-notes.html
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/fusion-pro/13-0/release-notes/vmware-fusion-1363-release-notes.html

These are the first releases after the announcement of “Free for All Users” back in November 2024 and the release of the first “Free” versions 17.6.2 and 13.6.2 in December 2024, so the development of these products goes on, for now.

Workstation and Fusion are now the so-called “Free for All Users” but Broadcom still put in various blocks to hide the downloads of these so-called Free-Tier products.

When I attempted to login to Broadcom, I was told my account was “locked” when it was not before. OK, this was apparently due to some sort of “maintenance”, and I was successful in unlocking the account by following the on-screen instruction to send a link to my email account.

After I successfully login, I tried to find the downloads but was unable to locate them. Finally I found a download link in a support article but after I clicked on it, it told me I could not download it now because I needed to be “screened”. When I agreed to this “screening”, it required me to input my address again, and I was certain I did this once before on Broadcom.

Frustrated and not wanting to do this again, I declined and left, and eventually found a download link from the Internet Archive for both the full versions of VMware Workstation 17.6.3 and VMware Fusion 13.6.3 :
https://archive.org/details/vmware-workstation-full-17.6.3-24583834

By the way, you can also download the “Core” versions of VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion (lacking the VMware Tools isos, including some of the older versions that still require keys) from here :
https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/

Click on fusion to download Fusion and ws to download Workstation.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

Alex5723 wrote:

How can Microsoft abandon hundred of millions Windows 10 users coming October ?

Well, you will have to ask Microsoft about that. I don’t know. I would also really want to know why, apart from “official” answers like “You should buy a new computer or upgrade to Windows 11.”.

With Windows 10 still having a significant worldwide marketshare as of February 2025, 8 months before the end of support (more than 55% according to Statcounter, for comparison, Windows 7 had roughly 30% marketshare in May 2019, 8 months before end of support), IMHO AMD will be really stupid to drop support for Windows 10 at this point, if their objective really is to gain meaningful marketshare from Nvidia.

https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/worldwide
https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/worldwide/2019

The last AMD graphics drivers that support Windows 7 (22.6.1) were released in mid-2022, more than 2 years after the end of support of Windows 7 (disregarding the ESU). I believe AMD (and probably Nvidia as well) will continue to provide new drivers for Windows 10 for at least 2-3 years after October 2025, like what it did for Windows 7.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

“AMD makes a Windows 11 official requirement mandatory for latest graphics cards”

That Neowin article only repeats what AMD is saying : that the RX 9000 series graphics cards will be officially supported only under UEFI mode and may not work properly under CSM mode. UEFI mode is one of the official requirements of Windows 11, but that does not mean the cards will ONLY work with Windows 11.

Frankly, with Windows 10 users still vastly outnumbering Windows 11 users, I find it unlikely that the new graphics cards will not support Windows 10. How can AMD meaningfully gain marketshare if it decides to abandon Windows 10 users with the new generation of graphics cards?

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

2 users thanked author for this post.

satrow, Alex5723

Alex5723 wrote:

Are the Radeon™ RX 9000 Series restricted to Windows 11 ?

No, I don’t think so. Even if the new graphics cards can only work in UEFI mode (which requires confirmation), Windows 10 can also boot in pure UEFI mode, and I don’t believe AMD will abandon Windows 10 now, especially given their stated aim of “gaining marketshare” :
https://www.techpowerup.com/326415/amd-confirms-retreat-from-the-enthusiast-gpu-segment-to-focus-on-gaining-market-share

But it is certainly possible that these graphics cards won’t work properly if the PC is set to CSM mode, as it seems to be the case that the integrated graphics inside the AMD AM5 CPUs already won’t work with CSM mode :
https://community.amd.com/t5/pc-processors/am5-igpu-support-with-csm-enabled/td-p/576434

Count me out if the cards won’t work with CSM as I intend to continue running my (old) systems in CSM mode for the foreseeable future.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

Excellent news. I will be able to continue using an updated browser on Windows 7 (Windows Server 2008 R2) / Windows 8.1 (Windows Server 2012 R2) and MacOS High Sierra / Mojave for a few more months. Mozilla has done something good for once with its 2 extensions of support for Firefox ESR 115.

I shifted to the ESR version of Firefox quite some time ago as I find that the ESR versions suit me better since they are not updated frequently (apart from security updates). I hate software that do not provide “easy” ways to disable automatic updates as I found in the past that automatic updates often caused problems. It is the primary reason why I don’t, and don’t ever plan to, use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.

I also disable automatic updates with Firefox ESR using a registry setting on Windows (and a special file placed in a specified location on MacOS) as I like to do updates on my own schedule, even though in my experience the updates rarely if ever causes issues.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

4 users thanked author for this post.

TaskForce141, Charlie, SueW, Cybertooth