@-Jim- The main point for me, personally, is getting security updates on my 11+ years old hardware for Windows 10, though there are many with much newer and very capable hardware not allowed to officially update to Windows 11. Since I won't get it along with old hardware I'll assembly new PCs.
I certainly understand the frustration of owners of much more recent and very capable hardware.
You will still get the Security Updates. I've tested that too on a couple of Boxes.
Of course there comes a time when folks should retire their gear and move on. I've been doing this Hobby for decades, and consider most laptops become unreliable at about 5 years if used daily. IMHO their typical design life is 3-5 years. Rotating Hard Drives should be replaced with SSDs by this time if you are trying to extend the life of a Box of this vintage.
Data loss is what really hurts, especially when it's photos, or documents, that haven't been backed up.
I build Gamer Boxes for my son, and until just recently for 2 of my nephews. (One is now a Software Engineer for Electronic Arts while his brother does Web Page Design and support after getting his degree. They build their own boxes now, but consult with me on the Hardware.) Typically these Gamer Boxes last 5 years with a mid-life refit to a current Graphics Card. I moved all the Boxes I build to Windows 11 a couple years ago. One of the retired Gamer Boxes (my son's last one) was on Windows 10 but met the specifications for Windows 11 but we didn't have Secure Boot or TPM enabled, so Windows update indicated it didn't meet spec. I recently tweaked those and installed Windows 11 on it . It's probably going to become my wife's Desk PC (she also has a Laptop & and iPad) as her present Motherboard & CPU don't meet spec. Besides the CPU, Ram, and M2. Nvme SSD are all much more capable on the retired Gamer Box. Never mind the GPU that I installed in it.
Personally I just built myself a new Box last year which is far more capable than I need these days; retiring a 7 or 8 year old Box that was still going strong.
Some folks are going to upgrade (before October 14, 2025) from Windows 10 Home or Pro to
Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024 which has a 10 year support life => far beyond any reasonable retirement age for the Hardware. That way they can avoid the migration & re-learning issues on Windows 11. It also doesn't have all the Bloat of Windows 11, and for most folks it will be fine. I'm thinking of experimenting with it just for Grins for those who are resistive to moving.
I've already done a clean install of Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024 on the 9 year old Asus GL552V Laptop I mentioned above & and it works flawlessly so far. It also doesn't have all the Bloat of Windows 11 but retains it's current look and feel.
As you can see I'm mucking about on my own gear (I got my Mom into a new LG Laptop some time ago and it was upgradable to Windows 11) to ensure I have good solutions for my Friends and Family before the end of support for Windows 10 in October.
I lent an old Acer Laptop to my other son years ago, and then gave him a decent Dell Laptop to replace it. Both are going to need my attention as they are Windows 10 boxes. The Acer is so ancient it's got a 4x3 screen! My plan is to play with it with the images I've mentioned above, or even install ChromeOS Flex, just to see how it goes before sending it to the recycler. I'm still chewing on what to do with the Dell (He just bough a new iMac).
I know other cyber buddies who are moving their older Windows based Boxes to Linux. I've gotten a Chromebook which has become my traveling PC as all I do is web based stuff and play a few Tunes / Videos on it. I've experimented with putting a couple of Linux Apps on it as well.
So there's lots of options for these older Boxes to have fun with.
