When does your computer become obsolete?

You are certainly on the ball today GNHQ.👍

I've had my MacBook Air for at least 12 years and its still fine ...

Suzieque66

I've had my MacBook Air for at least 12 years and its still fine ...

It'll be on its way out now, then, like this thread
😁

Slight change of subject - need advice.

My desktop PC is probably getting on for 10 years old - think I bought it when Windows 10 was fairly new.

I just got a message on screen yesterday warning me that Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 10 in a year ( I think) and inviting me to "read more". I didn't have time to read any more then , and am not sure how accurate my memory is, but am worried, as my PC works well, though it may not be the fastest

I recently had an unpleasant experience withMicrosoft Outlook, which I use extensively. In short, with the help of my IT guru I found out that the reason I couldn't access my emails, contacts etc was that Microsoft had loaded a new version of Outlook onto my PC without me knowing.

So I worry about what the transition to Windows 11 will be like. Any advice would be welcome. ( Yes - I could ask my IT guru but he costs money!
And, though I've been using computers for years, I am rather ancient and finding it difficult to keep up with progress. I have a smartphone, but don't use it for banking etc. and still have trouble answering phone calls on it ( I still have a landline!!)

I'm in the same situation Rowyn, and I've decided to replace my desktop with a laptop. The thing that is bothering me is how to safely dispose of the processor that runs my desktop. Any advice welcome.

Bookwormbabe you can remove the hard drive with all your info and take the desktop to the tip. Our local one has a section for old computers and laptops .
You might need to google removing the hard drive as they’re all different. We had a 16yo iMac and the hard drive was a bloody pain to remove .
Or if the computer is still working you can clear the hard drive .

I am in the same boat. I have a Windows 10 desktop which is 6 years old but will have to be replaced next year when support for W10 ends on 14th Oct 2025. The message informed me that my computer 'is not eligible' to be upgraded to W11. Whether that is true who knows. I'm convinced they tell you things like that to make you part with your money. It might be worth asking a computer expert whether your machine can be upgraded.

As for destroying the hard drive, there was a thread on this a while back.
www.gransnet.com/forums/technology/1304192-How-to-Destroy-an-old-Hard-Drive
I disposed of a couple but they are very difficult to smash up as they are about as strong as a black box from an airplane!

There is also something called Diskwipe which as far as I can see is a very secure and safe program for wiping hard drives. I'm not sure how it wipes a C Drive however as that is where the operating system is. Diskwipe can be downloaded and is free. There are instructions.

Here is what they say:
The only real, and many times proven method of permanent data removal (without making a physical damage to a disk) is DISK WIPING technology. So, what is disk wiping and how it works? In order to permanently wipe a data from a disk all binary data, down to a basic 0's and 1's must be overwritten with a new data. So, contrary to what is's name implies disk wiping (or disk wipe method) doesn't really wipe, or delete the disk data, it actually replaces or overwrites the existing data with a new data. In it's simplest form the new data written could be all zero's, but more advanced algorithms use a combination of filling up a disk with random information plus multiple passes to ensure impossibility of retrieval from a wiped disk.

Disk Wipe is a free software that does so, it wipes the disk using one of predefined advanced algorithms, by overwriting the existing disk data with a new, random meaningless data, and it does so multiple times, by users choice, to secure even higher level of safety.

Thanks for the tips on clearing the hard drive. Unfortunately I don't have transport for going to the tip but maybe a kindly relative will take it for me.

have had dellm6400 since 2008 works great but i use linux and upgrade it my self does not cost anything to do

It's not too old if it's running current software :-) Some of them just go on and on hardware wise. I used to take the old ones and install new software on them :-) If it's a good one I'd keep using it - but - it's important to have up to date software. So if it's on Windows 10 it's fine. If it's on Windows 7, 8 or Vista then there are no more security updates available and it's not really safe to use.

However Windows 7 and 8 can be upgraded to Windows 10 - I could do it for you but I'm not there. So you'd need a local IT man to do it. Having said that, Windows 10 becomes obsolete in October 2025 and if your computer is 8 years old it won't be eligible to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 in 2025.

So yes some time before October 2025 might be the time to consider a new one. Assuming it's running Windows.

With Apple Macs they have a similar cycle of Software needing updating - they can usually keep being updated but can start to run slow as the newer software becomes heavier to run on older hardware with not much memory installed for example.

I had to go through this myself in the past year or so and was quite prepared to buy a new Windows 11 laptop but I couldn't find one I liked. They are all extremely thin now and the cooling isn't as efficient on most as a result (ie they can get hot) and the keyboards are hard as they are so thin. I much preferred my old one. I found HP keyboards to be the best and their laptops not quite as thin as some.

It's particularly important to have up to date software/operating system if you do online banking. My parents used to worry me to death with that! And also a good antivirus. Antivirus on it's own won't be enough if Windows is out of date.

Even if an 8 year old computer won't run Windows any more it will run one of the free Linux operating systems - they are not that user friendly unless you're an IT expert but you can still sell the computer and someone who is au fait with Linux might buy it :-)

As for wiping hard drives - there are a number of ways to do it but I would still never rely on discarding a hard drive even if it has been securely wiped. The most secure thing is to either keep it as a paperweight or get someone strong to smash it to bits with a mallet.

Most modern hard drives have a "secure erase" function built in - but you need some software on a usb stick to use the secure erase function. Alternatively ask Windows to do a "full format" of the drive (you'll also have to do that from an external usb stick) which fills the drive with zeros - which is what most erasing software does. But I'd still not throw it away even after erasing it.

rowyn

Slight change of subject - need advice.

My desktop PC is probably getting on for 10 years old - think I bought it when Windows 10 was fairly new.

I just got a message on screen yesterday warning me that Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 10 in a year ( I think) and inviting me to "read more". I didn't have time to read any more then , and am not sure how accurate my memory is, but am worried, as my PC works well, though it may not be the fastest

I recently had an unpleasant experience withMicrosoft Outlook, which I use extensively. In short, with the help of my IT guru I found out that the reason I couldn't access my emails, contacts etc was that Microsoft had loaded a new version of Outlook onto my PC without me knowing.

So I worry about what the transition to Windows 11 will be like. Any advice would be welcome. ( Yes - I could ask my IT guru but he costs money!
And, though I've been using computers for years, I am rather ancient and finding it difficult to keep up with progress. I have a smartphone, but don't use it for banking etc. and still have trouble answering phone calls on it ( I still have a landline!!)

Windows 11 is fine :-) It's a bit of an adjustment but not that different to Windows 10 really and there are still bits of Windows 7 in there! Which will look familiar. At first I preferred Windows 10 but now I'm used to it I prefer Windows 11 and it's that bit faster. In fact the latest Windows 10 updates are turning it more and more into Windows 11 anyway.

The new outlook app is annoying and buggy - hope they sort that out soon.

Any laptop from October 2017 or later should upgrade to Windows 11. Anything older will "unofficially" run Windows 11 if you know how to install it. There are tutorials online on how to do that. It's accepted by Microsoft but it's unsure how long it will run before it stops receiving updates if it's an older generation model.

What I ended up doing was buying a second hand HP laptop (3 years old) that would upgrade to Windows 11.