Windows 10 support is ending very soon as we are less than a month away from the October 15, 2025 date. As such, we recently conducted a test to see how much better or worse the outgoing OS was compared to Windows 11, and the results definitely surprised us.
Earlier this year, a group called The Restart Project released a new "End of Windows 10 toolkit" to help guide community repair groups on ways to deal with this massive upcoming change. The change is indeed massive as it is expected that between 240 million and 400 million systems will become obsolete as they will not be able to upgrade to Windows 11. That is because of the hardware requirements that Microsoft has set for Windows 11, and those have not been relaxed since their original conception.
Today, The Restart Project reached out to Neowin to reiterate its stance on the matter. The group offered the following statements that continue to urge Microsoft to extend support. Fiona Dear, Co-Director of The Restart Project said the following:
“On International Repair Day we celebrate the power of communities around the world to resist premature obsolescence, implementing alternatives and sharing skills to protect people and the planet from manufacturers" throwaway approaches. Meanwhile, ironically, the end of Windows 10 support coincides with ‘E-waste Day’.
We need Microsoft to extend free, automatic support for Windows 10. And we need legislation to make software obsolescence illegal for all products. Companies like Microsoft are getting away with mass e-waste flytipping. With the UK’s Circular Economy Strategy, the new DEFRA minister, Emma Reynolds, has a chance to stop us sleepwalking into further software obsolescence disasters."
Cristina Ganapini, the Coordinator of the Right to Repair Europe coalition, added:
“Microsoft"s decision to end support for Windows 10 could make 400 million computers obsolete — not because they’re broken, but because of software. Companies can do this because there are no regulations to stop them. In Europe, EU Ecodesign requirements for laptops could prevent this in the future. We need strong horizontal requirements on minimum durability and repairability, with software and security support to match the potential lifespan - not just for computers, but for all products with a plug or battery. No more devices designed to break or become obsolete before their time.”