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I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Microsoft is ending its support for the Windows ten operating system from today. It means computers still running the system might be at risk, given security updates will stop, and while the company is urging users to upgrade for free to Windows eleven, not all devices will be able to support it. At the same time, there are growing concerns about the surge in
electronic waste. Today on the front Page, Consumer and z Products test writer Nick Gelling is with us to take us through what happens to your old devices. So Nick, first off, tell me what's actually happened with Windows ten.
So starting from today, Microsoft is ending support for Win those ten computers. What that means is that they won't be receiving security updates anymore. So any computers that are still running Windows ten start to become a risk against online attacks and that kind of thing.
I mean, I don't know about you, but I do actually have a Windows computer. I had no idea that this was happening, and I don't even know why. I need to go home and check what system is it's operating do you reckon. Microsoft's done a good enough job actually telling consumers about this change.
It's a huge job. They've got so many customers. Yeah, it's a really difficult thing for them to get the word out to everyone. They've tried, but yeah, there will absolutely be a lot of people that have slipped through the cracks, and I'm sure there's more that they could have done. And that's I think where the role of an organization like Consumer is to get the word out and tell people what their options are.
What are their options?
Our first and best option, we think for most people, is to enroll in Microsoft's Extended Security Updates Program, which is a free thing that you can access from your update settings on your Windows ten computer, and it basically opts you into an extra year of support, so that'll keep you getting updates until October next year. Microsoft hasn't done a very good job of telling us that that's there or promoting it, but yeah, that's probably the first
and foremost thing. You could also switch to a different operating system if you're not tied to Windows, you could install a Linux distribution or something like that instead, but that takes a little bit of you know, technological knowledge and If you don't want to do either as either of those things, then probably you're looking at buying a new Windows eleven computer.
Yeah, so I had to look at our Windows ten was first released in twenty fifteen. Is ten years kind of like the standard for an operating system like.
This, Yeah, i'd say it is.
Microsoft has had a ten year life cycle for its operating systems for quite a long time, maybe forever, so that is normal and in of itself, you know, ten years is quite a long time, right. Windows ten was a hugely successful product, and heaps of people are using it. It's got a huge install base and people haven't migrated
off of it yet, and there's a few reasons for that. Partially, it's because in order to install Windows eleven, you need to have particular hardware requirements on your computer, and some people just don't have those parts, so they can't grade, so they're stuck on Windows ten. And that hasn't happened in the past with previous versions of Windows. You've just been able to upgrade, not in one hundred percent of cases, but you know, ninety five percent of cases. So that's
the big difference this time round. Windows eleven was only announced four years ago along with those requirements. So there are people that would have bought computers in you know, twenty twenty or even early twenty twenty one that are now not compatible with Windows eleven only four years later, you know, So what are they supposed to do? And is that fear that they've only got four years out of their computer.
Yeah.
Windows is apparently the most popular computing system in the world, with Microsoft saying it is used on over one point four billion devices globally. Around forty three percent of these we're using Windows ten as of July. So it's fair to say there should be quite a few New Zealanders impacted. Do you know how many thereabouts there might be in New Zealand?
I mean, we have estimates, they're not very scientific estimates. I'm going on about thirty percent of New Zealand computers running Windows ten. That number has come down in the last few months because coming up to the switch off, people have been thinking about their other options. But even based on that thirty percent figure, we're talking hundreds of thousands of affected computers in New Zealand, which is you know, it's a pretty unbelievable scale.
Really, Yeah, it's huge.
I mean, given it means that these systems won't be receiving security updates, will it just be open market for hackers? Like if I were a hacker, I'd be rubbing my little hands together at the moment, just hoping that half of at least half of these or even one percent of these people don't know that this is happening, right.
Yeah, absolutely, And that's that's the risk.
And I think it's a risk that Microsoft has created for them selves a little bit. If there is waves of cyber attacks and heaps of people are losing their private information or losing money, it's going to look really bad for Microsoft. It's just so hard to predict. I think it's the thing. You know, things might be fine for for months or even you know, a year in the future. It might still be safe to use Windows teen. Who knows, but we can't know that, and it could
be super dangerous as of tomorrow. So it's an unpredictable environment. We don't know what's going to happen, but you don't want to be involved if it all can tends to custard.
Is there a way that because there are.
External companies that do those secure security upgrades. I'm thinking like was there Noughton or something I'm thinking of, like back in the back in the day, where you'd have a desktop and you'd put a CD in and it would do like security software, So Mum and Dad didn't get any bugs in the computer after I downloaded Jason Derulo or something. Are there those kind of things anymore?
Yeah, yeah, all that stuff still exists.
It's a little bit less popular than it was, but yeah, there are plenty of security suite options.
They will do a job.
If you were to keep using a Windows teen computer after today, which I wouldn't recommend, but having one of those installed would help you, it would, you know, it certainly wouldn't do you any harm. While they can stop I guess the more surface level attacks, the really fundamental, deep level kind of the really scary cyber stuff is at the operating system level. And so yeah, an unsecure operating system is there's no way to really patch over that completely.
Well, what happens when you like had the old Windows and then installed Windows ninety five.
That's a good question, honey.
When you upgrade from Windows three point one, old program manager groups transferred automatically to this menu.
Oh, well, that's easier than changing dry cleaners. I mean, you know you always leave something behind.
Now below that is your document's menu, which contains your recently used documents.
So I mean if you can get back to work on a file faster.
Precisely, Now Settings gets you to the new improved control panel your printer's folder and allows you to customize the taskbar. The fine feature is all new on Windows ninety five. It's a fast way to find files or folders.
You mentioned Microsoft is giving uses those two options either update to Windows eleven or sign up to get that extended security updates for twelve months. Do you reckon that's good enough?
I would say it's the bare minimum, So you know that's good that they're meeting the minimum. Now by making that extendency scurity updates free and available to everyone, there's a lot more that Microsoft could do, right. They're a huge company. They have all the resources in the world and close to a monopoly on the PC market, right, so they have so much control, and we think they've got a duty as well, like a responsibility to all of these customers that paid for their product in the
past to kind of look after those people. And that includes the people that can't access Windows eleven for whatever reason.
Yeah, because when I saw that twelve month timeline to get that security A mean, I mean, it kind of looked like to me that it was we're giving you twelve months to go buy another laptop or go buy another desktop or something.
Hey.
Yeah, that's exactly what the messaging has been. I've been pretty disappointed in the messaging from Microsoft, to be honest. They're using the extended support kind of just as another way to market Windows a live in more than anything else. You know, people do need a bit of time to you know, maybe you need to save up some money to buy a new computer or whatever. So that is, you know, it's a validle thing that you might need just a little bit more time extended security updates. We
think it's more than that. It doesn't need to just be a way to buy you some time while you buy a new Microsoft branded laptop.
You know, Apple's battery gate scandal was about deliberately throttling old phones to encourage upgrades. Is ending Windows ten support? Microsoft's version of that perhaps.
Trying to get me to say something that I might regret.
You don't say anything you won't regret. I mean, it just looks like that right from like your general consumer point of view. Because Apple got into a lot of trouble for that.
Yeah, yeah, they have.
They've had just been quite a lot of money on it. It's important to note that they've never Apple has never admitted that they did anything wrong. They settled the lawsuit, but I think that was really just to get it out of the news cycles.
You know.
I imagined Microsoft would take a similar kind of stance in that trying to move technology forward or whatever, and this is the way to do that. This was obviously planned well in advance in Microsoft's case, but there's not really evidence to suggest that it's an intentional you know, we're doing this just to sell more computers. That might be a happy accident that you know, they might be quite happy that that's happening.
Yeah, I don't know.
There's question marks for sure, but I don't know if we can say it's definitely a dodgy behavior.
Very diplomatic, respectives, Well done well. I see that Auckland Council is anticipating a surge in electronic waste as a result of this. I see today is also coincidentally International e Waste Day, so batteries and electronics and rubbish or recycling can cause fires in the trucks. I say that in Auckland alone, waste trucks experienced nine fires in January alone. So what do you actually do with your old tech?
Yeah, this is a huge problem, and it's part of the reason that we're trying to encourage people to not just get a new laptop for a new computer and to try and eke out more use from your current one if you can. Waste is really quite damaging and harmful. If you buy a new computer, you've got to mind new minerals to build that, and you've got to have a whole bunch of emissions to put it all together and ship it to you from wherever it was built.
So there's costs everywhere. Environmentally, there are ways to mitigate that. I mean, you can recycle technology and they can take some of the more valuable components out of it. And also that's some of the stuff that's also the most
damaging environmentally. It will cost you money often to do that, which is you know, people aren't necessarily going to want to do that, but some recycling centers will take e waste for free, which would include laptops, really the key message is to try and keep using your laptop for a bit longer if you can, if it's still working perfectly, so that it just doesn't end up in that situation.
I've seen all of this being called the twenty twenty five version of Why two K Do You Reckon?
That'sach Currett. You know, I hadn't thought about it like that. It could be we'll see ask me again in a week. You know.
That's probably a little bit dramatic, right, but Y two K was dramatic. Basically, It's not like you're using Windows ten and then tomorrow your computer won't turn on.
Right. It's not going to exactly now, You'll still be able to use the computer. It's just it'll be a risk to you, to your privacy and your safety, which is a you know, people aren't going to want to do that. Yeah, it's going to affect a lot of people, and it could be a pretty huge deal. It could be a really significant moment that will remember, you know, for years to come. Depends on how people act now if they try to mitigate those risks to themselves.
Thanks for joining us, Nick, Thank you. That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Jane Ye and Richard Martin, who is also our editor. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.