Windows 10 comes to an end of life in October 2025, and a resident of California is particularly discontent for this imminent deadline.
He is not alone, of course, but Lawrence Klein feels strong enough for Microsoft to be out of service when putting the blinds in Windows 10 in just a couple of months that has fired a lawsuit against the company.
As the registration reports, Klein accused Microsoft of violating the legal code of the consumer and the commercial code (including the False Advertising Law) by increasing support for Windows 10 too early, in his opinion.
The Quid of the argument is that too many people remain in Windows 10 for the operating system to have taken out (there are nuances here, to which I will return). And that about 240 million devices do not meet the hardware requirements to update Windows 11, because Microsoft establishes those PC specifications at an unreasonable level, and the electronic waste potential that could request.
In summary, the updates required for Windows 11, including TPM 2.0 security, as well as do not rule out some surprisingly recent processors, are not justified.
In addition, Klein argues that this update timeline is part of Microsoft's impulse to boost people to use their Windows 11 co -driver AI, in a broader impulse to obtain more adoption for co -senses+ PCs, in other words, to buy new machines and discard ancient Hardware of Windows 10 (and again, we are back to that problem of electronic waste).
You can read the demand in its entirety (it is a PDF) here, but that is the essence, and Klein argues that Microsoft should postpone killing Windows 10 and wait until many people use the oldest operating system.
As the demand says: “[The] The plaintiff seeks a precautionary relief that requires Microsoft to continue providing support for Windows 10 without additional rates or conditions until the number of devices that run the operating system falls below a reasonable threshold, thus ensuring that consumers and companies are not unjustly pressed in unnecessary expenses and cybersecurity risks. [of running a Windows 10 PC without security updates]”
Is Klein justified in this demand? In some aspects, I think so, and although I do not imagine for a minute that this legal action will go anywhere in terms of the result of the demand itself, I have the feeling that it could come into play and be important, indirectly.
What do I mean by that exactly? Well, we are going to immerse ourselves in the thought behind Klein's demand, and the key reasons he could force Microsoft to sit and realize.
1. Windows 11 hardware requirements are really unreasonable
Do we really need TPM 2.0 forced on us? Yes, it marks the beginning of a better level of security, I do not dispute that, but hundreds of millions of PC that potentially go to the landfill seems like a price too heavy to pay. For me, as already mentioned, the decision to rule out some relatively new CPUs in Windows 11 specifications is particularly disconcerting.
The key point here is that Microsoft has never pressed the hardware requirements of the PC as hard as it has done with Windows 11, and that leaves it open to criticism, although this observation is nothing new. That is However, the new thing is that the lack of justice to establish this highest hardware bar has become clear with the number of people who still use Windows 10, which leads us to my next point.
2. So close to the end of life, there are clearly too many people who still use Windows 10
The demand cites outdated figures on how many people are still in Windows 10; An estimate extracted from April 2025 suggests that 53% remain in the oldest operating system. While that is no longer the case, the level remains high.
Based on the last Statcounter report (by July 2025), the use of Windows 10 is 43%, which is very high with the deadline at the end of imminent life. Normally, a outgoing Windows version would have much less users than this: Windows 7 had a market share of 25% when it was left without support (and it was a popular operating system).
It is always expected when a new version of Windows comes out, but it seems that this is going to be really bad with the end of Windows 10 support. This is Klein's central argument, and I think it is a key factor that Microsoft does not seem to be taking into account, or maybe he does not want to face.
Perhaps the software giant is thinking that there will be a last minute flood of Windows 11 migration, but given the problem of the hardware requirements described, I doubt it.
3. Try the cynics, right?
Another part of Klein's case against Microsoft is the statement that the company is using Windows 10 and Windows 11 support updates to persuade people to buy new PCs that specialize in AI, namely, co -pilot+ PC. And, in fact, Microsoft has not helped itself here, openly pressing these Windows 11 devices as the demand indicates, and that includes full -screen intrusive ads that are channeled to Windows 10 machines.
That feels like a rude tactic and makes it look part of this is to push those laptops of co -ilot+. Yes, of course, announce Copilot+ PCs and their AI skills (which are limited so far, I must take into account), but do not do so in this way, directly in Windows 10 users, and wait for it to be seen in more than a negative and cynical light.
4. Microsoft has already made a concession, true, but it is not enough
It is worth noting that not everything Klein presents in this suit seems reasonable. I do not think I can argue that 10 years of support are tacaña, which is what Microsoft has given Windows 10. However, Klein chooses the 'transition' support in his demand, which means that the duration of support after a subsequent operating system has been launched, four years in this case, which is not quite fair and looks thin. The problem here is not the time for support as such, but the different circumstances around hardware requirements.
In addition, calling Windows 11 “wildly unpopular” as Klein at a point is equally unfair, even if the adoption of the operating system has been very slow, it is true. There is a definitive bias towards firing the operating system on all fronts, and I think Klein's argument weakens.
But my main containment bone here is that Klein ignores the concession that Microsoft has made in terms of the extended support for consumers who wish to remain in Windows 10. As the demand establishes, this additional support until October 2026 can be had for the price of $ 30, but recently, Microsoft introduced the ability to obtain this extension for free, good, of good type. (Financially, you will not pay a penny, but you must synchronize some PC configurations with OneDrive, and I don't think the requirement is too onerous).
That was an important Microsoft movement, which is not given any credit here, but said that, I still don't think the company goes far enough. As I said before, an additional year of support is certainly welcome, but Microsoft needs to see an extended program for consumers.
So, while demand leaves the rails (at least for me) around these issues, it effectively highlights how we are seeing the measurement of support and a different perspective other than a difficult deadline. Instead of talking about the years 'X' of extended coverage, it mentions a Windows 10 adoption level that must be achieved before Microsoft withdraw the support for the operating system.
I think that is a new valuable angle throughout this matter, and although 10% of the total Windows users, which is the low -bar Klein set for Windows 10, maybe it feels also Under, there is an interesting conversation here. (The other route suggests Klein's demand, which others have raised, is Microsoft simply to relax the hardware requirements for Windows 11, but I think that at this stage of the game, we can end up surely that this will not happen).
5. Under pressure
My last point in terms of why this demand could be a convincing kick in the pants for Microsoft is that, although it was already observed, I cannot see Klein triumph over the company, it is more fuel for fire in the campaign to avoid a potentially important catastroph of electronic waste.
In a nutshell, the PR around this, and has been making the headlines in recent days in recent days, it is another reason for Microsoft to feel, realize and may repeat exactly how the end of the life of Windows 10 is being implemented.
We have already seen a concession, the aforementioned free route to obtain extended support for Windows 10, in recent times, which must surely have been a reaction to the frustration that Klein and many others feel. So, perhaps this demand could be the catalyst to boost Microsoft to go further in its appeasement of the unhappy Windows 10 users: the crossed fingers, in any case.
