from Hacker News

Company offers unofficial security patches for Windows 10 until 2030

by tgol on 7/1/24, 10:05 PM with 78 comments

  • by userbinator on 7/1/24, 11:47 PM

    I suspect as people start realising that the majority of these security patches are for bugs in things they never wanted nor needed on their system[1] or outside their threat model and thus present only to make their lives worse, thirdparty services like these will become more popular. Especially when they see what Win11 has become.

    There have long been communities providing unofficial contributions (including drivers for newer hardware) for MS OSes going back to DOS, and their existence has always seemed to puzzle the FOSS advocates.

    [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28449607

  • by RedCardRef on 7/1/24, 10:49 PM

    If anyone is exploring options, Windows 10 IoT LTSC has official support till 2032. Added benefit is that it doesnt come with preloaded bloatware from MS.

    I have recently installed W11 IoT LTSC on a 3rd gen Intel, the TPM requirement in this version is optional.

  • by silisili on 7/1/24, 10:27 PM

    I'm guessing 0Patch doesn't have access to source - does anyone know what method they're using to provide said patches?
  • by StressedDev on 7/2/24, 12:31 AM

    I suspect that these patches frequently do not fix the security bug. Basically, if you care about security, you should use software supported by the vender, or open-source team which produces the software.
  • by bongodongobob on 7/1/24, 10:30 PM

    Guarantee that's going to void your support contract with MS if you have one (or worse).

    I also cant imagine any win 10 software not working on 11. It's not that different under the hood. You've also had plenty of time to test with your vendors. And yes, legacy niche software blah blah, been there done that, but win 10 -> 11 isn't like XP -> vista. It's like win 10 to 10.5.

    Terrible idea on a number of levels. Best of luck to anyone who tries it.

  • by Yawrehto on 7/2/24, 2:26 PM

    As a Windows 10 user who hates the idea of installing Windows 11 and its AI and Microsoft-Edge bullshit, I like the idea, but what I'm worried about is the existence of a free and paid tier. What if the company (which seems to be for-profit) starts pressuring users to upgrade to the paid tier by limiting what sorts of updates they provide, e.g., only doing the 'most important' ones, leaving users who can't afford to pay in the lurch?
  • by boring-alterego on 7/2/24, 12:33 PM

    A strategy that was used in my industry to address obsolescence like this was to embrace whitelisting software and a least function mentality.