Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Windows 11 and the fools who refuse to upgrade. In the news, the iPhone 16e arrives, Gmail is (correctly) dropping SMS two-factor, Twitch is capping uploads for 0.5% of streamers, and Germany represents a profound realignment of global politics.
Live Stream:
Activism of the Day: if you live in Massachusetts you can write to your state and local reps about this.
I have not made the jump for three reasons
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Software issue with archival tools
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AI and Copilot (issue in Windows 10, so this point is moot)
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I don’t have the TPM chip on my motherboard
I was going to let it ride until September then get a new PC from there, BUT due to Linux issues and workflow of what I have to do with job, I am changing tactics sooner than I would have liked.
100% this is the reason I have not yet upgraded. I was hopeful that eventually Microsoft would back down from this requirement but so far that does not look to be the case. And as long as they continue to put out security patches for Windows 10 I have been happy to remain here and wait to see what developed. It just sucks that a computer I built in mid-2020 for not a small amount of money to lack a hardware feature I didn’t know to look for or that it was not so ubiquitous as to not to be needed as selection criteria and then for Windows to require it so suddenly.
I plan on getting Windows 11 later this year when I get a new tower–mine is over a decade old by now. Money’s a bit tight for me, though, so I’m just filling my pot o’ savings until the time is right.
Thanks.
Yes, I did all those things. I even beat the game one time, and came close several times.
The game still suffers in that even if you do everything right, many runs you end up with no choice but to stab in the dark. In Minesweeper that almost never happens. This fatal flaw removes all replay value from an otherwise very clever game.
Also, the bricks are not a total trap, and are actually essential to victory. You often find yourself in a situation where you have very little HP remaining, and it’s not enough to fight any available enemies. However, you also have a heal available, either because you have already gotten enough XP for a level, or there is a heal on the board. In those cases you should be dumping your remaining HP into the brick walls. If you don’t use it, you lose it. The rewards from the brick walls could make the difference between making the next level or not.
I played one game just to demonstrate. I played this game flawlessly up to this point. I used every single heart, even spending the spares on that brick wall, as I suggested in my previous post. I expanded to get as much information as is available.
I have no health. I do not have enough XP for a level. There is no visible healing. Given the available information there is no square that is 100% safe to click on. There are some squares I know are absolutely unsafe, but there is no choice in this situation other than gambling.
This would be fine if it was rare, but it is a situation that happens in most games. It’s not like I had to try a bunch. I played a single game, and this happened immediately.
I already know everything you are saying. It does not contradict the point I am making. Obviously playing this game better will increase the chances of success. The problem is that perfect play does not guarantee success. The chances of being required to guess are just too high. If the chances were much closer to 0, this game would be terrific. They aren’t, and that is the opposite of fun.
I have no problem with Windows 11 - I use it on my work laptop every day. But last year I got a notification that my PC didn’t meet the requirements for Windows 11. I ignored it for the moment because I didn’t want to invest the mental energy into resolving it and figured it would be Future-Me’s problem. But this episode reminded me that I should probably look into it.
I was thinking I was going to have to drop a bunch of money to replace or upgrade this perfectly good PC, but after I did some research, it turns out that the only reason this machine didn’t qualify was due to some security settings in the BIOS. I flipped those settings, and less than an hour later I’m running Windows 11. It didn’t even log me out of anything or mess with any settings at all. I just spent a few seconds changing the look of the taskbar a bit, and I’m perfectly happy.
Update: as @UncleUlty mentioned I too had to flip those switches and was able to get it up and working bought an OEM copy for future me just in case I need it. Thank glob I still have a DVD drive.
Yeah. Some PCs don’t have the TPM switch at all. Others do have it, but it’s just disabled.
Even if a computer doesn’t have a TPM chip, adding one could be easy. The real problem are people who have a CPU that is too old and unsupported.
What does a TPM chip even do, anyway? What’s the point of it, and why does Microsoft want you to have it for Windows 11?
TL;DR: Microsoft is prioritizing security. They really want Windows to no longer be full of security holes all the time. It costs them a lot of money.
TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module. Apple devices have something similar, but they call it Secure Enclave. Basically, it’s a chip that provides a wide variety of security and cryptographic functions.
Many of these functions are things you really want to keep your systems secure. It has a hardware random number generator. It can generate cryptographic keys securely. When it comes to things like encrypting your disks, a TPM greatly increases the security by making it very difficult for the keys to leak.
However, there are other features that are more controversial. The biggest of those is remote attestation. A computer with a TPM can be configured in such a way that it can cryptographically verify that hardware and/or software have not been tampered with. If they have, then it can prevent the computer from running or from performing certain operations.
This has many good and legitimate security uses. If your computer got rootkitted, the TPM can catch that, and now you are protected. Someone sneaks in and messes with your hardware, TPM protects you. If you are a business running a whole fleet of computers, you can prevent employees, or anyone else, from tampering with their hardware or software.
You can take this a step further and prevent people from cheating in online games. If someone has modified their hardware or software with cheats, the remote attestation could detect it. I don’t know of anyone doing this, although it is theoretically possible.
Now for the evil parts. It could theoretically be used for making very strong DRM. It could be configured so that a computer will only run Windows, and would refuse to boot when you try to put another OS on there.
The reality right now is that TPM chips and such have been around for a long time. The evil uses remain purely hypothetical. Meanwhile, the chips are frequently used for their legitimate purposes. It’s quite difficult to make hardware that only does the good use cases, because the good use cases are the same operations as the bad use cases.
Microsoft Windows has a reputation for being super insecure compared to the competition. Microsoft has to spend money on a huge security team to patch it all the time. Users call into tech support all the time. Governments and other security conscious organizations choose to go away from Windows when possible because it is less secure. They get a bad reputation, etc.
By requiring a TPM they can protect the computer from a wide variety of security vulnerabilities. They can provide many important security features. They don’t have to worry about trying to provide those features without the TPM. They don’t have to worry about figuring out how to make Windows work without those features. They require you to have the TPM, they include the features, and they implement them in the securest way they can. The end.
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Update, got a BSOD this morning turning on the computer, it didn’t recognize the boot device. After fumbling with doing some basic tips with safe mode and a way DVD was able finger it working. Will keep an eye on this.
Anyone encounter an issue that when leaving your computer on and you try to move the mouse to wake it up from a screen saver that nothing happens?
I haven’t used a screen saver in years. They’re not really needed anymore.
They may have been helpful in the 90s to prevent your screen from burning out, but monitors use so little energy nowadays that they’re just a novelty now.
Not a novelty anymore for people with OLED screens! While many advancements have been made to make them more resistant to burn-in, they are still susceptible. A screen saver will help.
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Probably actually an automatic suspend problem.
I got two Beelink EQI12 mini pcs for work. $250, Windows 11 compatible, three times as fast as our 10-year-old Dells, and totally adequate for email and word. Weird glitch, I couldn’t install LibreOffice. Tried a couple things, then reinstalled windows from the Windows update option. Which works surprisingly well. Exact same problem and solution on both computers.
Dunno why Rym and Scott were extra snarky in this episode - but sure lets go! I work in AV so I’m used to working with other people’s computers all the time. My everyday PC runs Windows 10 but my loungeroom PC runs Windows 11.
First the good news - Windows 11 is improving. For example accessing the settings for multiple screens used to be buried (a feature we need literally every day in AV setups) and now it shows you the multiple screen layout right out when you open display settings. Nice! And I appreciate that the cut, paste, rename, delete icons now have words below them too – just a nice user friendly choice.
Some stuff is a mixed bag. It’s easier than ever to change sound input sources – its one click away once you’ve selected the sound icon. However sometimes I still need to go to the old sound menu to see what sources are getting audio input – and that menu has been buried and is more of a pain to access. I would love it if your volume slider also displayed audio levels, just so you can see that you’re outputting something. Again this is an everyday thing in AV work.
Lastly the right click menu needs some work. I do like the idea of it being more condensed as there’s a ton of stuff I never need in the old menu. My ideal scenario would be options to choose what’s included and excluded from the right click menu. Options like play in VLC, send to desktop, 7-Zip, create shortcut are functions I need all the time. The idea of being able to remove “open in terminal” and add those options would be really appealing to me.
I should add there is an option to pay $30 for an extra year of security updates. So you can literally buy more time if you need to for whatever reason. I’ve seen videos of people getting Win11 running on CPUs from 2006 – so I’m somewhat hopeful that I can probably make the switch without having to replace my functioning motherboard, CPU and RAM. Given the improvements that have already been made, Windows 11 is prob going to get there – but it’s nice to have the option to not have to rush.
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