Tech Sense: November 2025

A Better Microsoft Christmas

Another November and another Tech Holiday.  Sadly, this year we start with gifts that reflect Microsoft’s decision to end support for Windows 10 and software no longer supported on Windows 10.  In this month’s column, we look at potential holiday gifts for the technically oriented to help survival when keeping Windows 10.

Windows 10 Support is Over

On October 15^th Microsoft ended support for Windows 2010.  Yes, as we have covered before, there are a few things to extend the life for another year.  Microsoft offers a one-year extension for $30 and free extensions if you are willing to set up an online Microsoft Account (I am not).  You can also buy a 1-year subscription to OPatch. OPatch automatically installs fixes to Windows 2010 as needed for about $30 annually.  But Opatch isn’t limited to one year of support.  An OPatch subscription may be a good Christmas gift. (https://0patch.com/)

Replace Microsoft Office

Microsoft is also ending support for running the computer versions of Office 365.  Office support has ended on Windows 2010 except Office 2021 and the web only version of Office 365.  Office 2021 support ends in October of 2026.

I am currently writing this column on a Windows 10 Desktop computer running Office 2013.  The support for the Office 2013 ended two years ago, but I haven’t had any problems. 

LibreOffice is a good alternative to Office and is free and open source.  We have used it in our home for many years.  A gift to the Document Foundation and installation of LibreOffice might also make an inexpensive, yet thoughtful gift. (https://www.libreoffice.org/)

Replace the Browser

Other Windows tools are likely to stop receiving updates or stop working in the future.  Some products, like the Edge browser have their own lifecycle policies.  If you are a fan of the Edge browser, its support should last at least until 2008.  If you are not a fan (I am not a fan) Edge is replaceable with both the Chrome and Firefox browsers.  Firefox is an open-source organization and appreciates donations.

Replace Outlook

Outlook is the email client for Windows and versions come with Windows and Office 365.  Microsoft Exchange is the email server component, but Outlook also has the ability to connect to other mails servers including Yahoo, and AOL.  We can easily replace Outlook with the free and open-source Thunderbird.  Mozilla, the same organization that supports the Firefox browser, creates and maintains Thunderbird.  While the software is free, the Mozilla foundation appreciates donations. (https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/)

TurboTax

TurboTax, while not a Microsoft product, has stated that TurboTax 2025 only supports installation on Windows 2011. Users still using 2010 must use the web version.  It is hard to say what other products will follow this lead.

Switch to Linux

I have previously mentioned a good way to fix windows is to get rid of it. Replace Windows with the free and open-source Linux operating system.  Linux comes in a variety of flavors, some that appear to be very similar to Windows.  ( https://ubuntu-mate.org/)

Switch to Chrome OS

So maybe Linux isn’t to your liking.  Consider ChromeOS instead.  This operating system was created and maintained by Google and supports many computers on ChromeOS Flex.  The Flex version was created specifically to extend the lifespan if older computers and keep them secure.  ChromeOS is web based supporting Google Workspaces, the web version of Office 365 and many other web-based applications.  Since it uses a Linux core underneath it can run many Linux programs as well. (https://chromeos.google/products/chromeos-flex/)

Other Software

There is a lot of free software that runs on even early versions of Windows through Windows 10 and 11. These include:

• Inkscape

A drawing program similar to Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator

• Gimp

Painting and image editing program similar to Adobe Photoshop

• Audacity

A sound editing program

• VLC

A media player that plays video and audio files in many formats

• 7-Zip

A tool to compress and encrypt files

There are many more, but these are the ones I use most frequently.  A useful gift might be to copy the install files for all of these apps onto a USB drive and give it as a gift to friends and family. 

Portable Apps

Another idea is to create a “portable CD” with a collection of portable Apps pre-installed.  Portable apps are applications that will run directly from the CD and do not need installation.  The program that allows this can be found at:  https://portableapps.com/.  It is very useful to have a CD configured this way with recovery tools to help fix problems you may encounter.  You will find a large collection of these preconfigured apps on the Portable Apps site.  The apps in the previous list are all there.

Until Next Time

Ok, so it wasn’t really about holiday shopping. Last year my wife and I (mostly her) scanned nearly 5,000 family photos going back over 100 years.  We copied them onto USB drives and sent the drives to our aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins.  I enjoy putting together gifts like these and portable apps USBs.  I hope this gives you ideas as well.  Next year I may have finished converting all of our video tapes and 8mm film to digital video formats and send them out.  Happy Holidays