I also put this in the Hardware Software thread, FWIW:



I'm a Steam fanboy. For example, I just bought a second copy of "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" (on sale) because it has been released on Steam.

Their move makes sense to me -- but, it will negatively affect a few of us.

As previously mentioned, valid W10Pro and W11Pro keys can be had for under $20. And, AMD 5000 series CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory play any game well and are cheap now - if a system update is required.

I can see this affecting only legacy gamers but as you alluded to it's a niche within a niche.

I'm trying to remember what the trend was from the last Steam Hardware Survey as regards O/S usage.

*edit* Found it.

Win 7 0.09%
Windows 8.1 64 bit 0.34%
Windows 7 64 bit 1.43%

That'll be why then.

I am wondering if it makes a lot of sense to move from Windows 10 to Windows 11. It seems technology is moving a lot faster than this old fart is.

Unless you play a lot of recently released games and you have a high end video card like the Nvidia 3000 series then I would say just stay on WIN 10 for now.

i would stay away from win11.....almost every day but surelly every week the tech news i follow always has some new bug in win11 caused by recent patch. it may not affect all users but, some things are mind boggling if they do affect you.

I've had good luck with Win 11 (so far) I have been using it for over 6 months. I have read, recently, about some bugs affecting Nvdia GPU's, lowering framerates, by 5%. also slowing down SSD's.
I don't play high end new games, so it does not affect me.
I've also read that WIN 12 may not be that far away.

Interesting. I thought my laptop wasn't quite as snappy as it was 6 months ago. It's an 11th gen i7 high end gaming machine running Win 11 on an NVME SSD and it just seemed a little lethargic lately. Maybe thats what it is. A clean O/S install at the weekend didn't help.

This is why I waited a good 8-9 months until after the initial release of Win 11. I never get a new MS OS on release.

Windows 11 Home is "pushy". It attempts to force a user to become part of the Windows Ecosystem -- weather one wants to be, or not.

Windows 11 Pro is also "pushy". But, being for "Professional Use", it gives the user some ways to sidestep some of the "pushes". However, it takes an experienced user to figure out the "bypasses".

Windows 10 works very well and is not nearly as "pushy". Not a dumb choice. And, it can be upgraded to W11 at any time for no charge.

I'd suggest W10Pro for folks who do not want to take chances or be bothered -- though, long term, one may eventually have to move to W11Pro.

To repeat above, legitimate W10Pro and W11Pro licenses/keys are typically in the $10 to $20 price range. Notably, if one buys a W11 license/key, one often gets a W10 license/key which unlocks W11 also with no issues.

bad windows, good windows, its a cycle, so lets hope MS doesnt break it with win12 we need a good windows.

I'll "upgrade" to Win11 when I have no other option

Where can you get keys for 20 bucks?

I've used SCDKey for a few years now. I'm a VIP in their system. I forget why. Typically, the advertised price is reduced at checkout for me. They are NOT the cheapest place. Just my place.

https://www.vip-scdkey.com/ and https://www.welcomevips.com/

A cheaper place that I've not used is frequently advertised on wccftech. https://wccftech.com/godeal24s-east...ft-windows-10-or-11-from-as-low-as-7-25/

by buying OEM key from sites. its ilegal but so far microsoft has not care to crack down on it yet. i got one for win 7 way back and so far it worked to upgrade for win 10 and win 11. but i think oem keys are locked to your hardware registry. so upgrading problalby will use one of your activations

Since my computer is only two years old and running just fine on an i7, 3080 video card and 32 gigabytes of ram I think I will just stay on Windows 10 a while longer. The rig is only used to play games as all my business stuff is till on my Apple Laptop.

G2A is a great website. LINK

Isn't Win 11 a free upgrade for win 10 users ?

and 7.....at least a while ago i read while they did remove oficcialy, the site was still up and you could use it. but now that everyone is droping suport for 7 i dont know.

Oh, wow I did not know that.