Hands-On Tech 232 Transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
Mikah Sargent [00:00:00]:
Coming up on Hands-On Tech. Let's take a look at the way to stick around on Windows 10 for longer. Stay tuned. Hello and welcome to Hands-On Tech. I am Mikah Sargent, and today we are doing what we do here on the show. We take your tech questions, we answer them. Wow, it's so surprising.
Mikah Sargent [00:00:29]:
No, it's actually what one would expect. This week we got in a great question that I think is going to apply to quite a few of you. It comes in from Kevin, and Kevin has shared a video that kind of explains what's going on.
Kevin [00:00:44]:
Hi Mikah, I'd like to get the Windows 10 extension. I know you can get it three ways. One, by paying the $30 fee. Two, redeeming the Microsoft Thousand Point rewards, or three, using the free option by syncing your settings to the cloud with Windows Backup and OneDrive. Since I have over a thousand points of Microsoft Rewards, I'd like to use that. Problem is, I don't know how to use it. I think I know how to use it, but I don't have that option. So what I've seen on YouTube, the option to extend the Windows 10 should be right in this area.
Kevin [00:01:30]:
I don't have it. The updates were supposed to come in the end of August. I believe the update that tells you that you have the option. My computer will run Windows 11, but I don't want to switch to it yet because I've got some programs that won't be compatible with Windows 11. So how do I get the Windows 10 option? That is the question. Thank you, Mikah.
Mikah Sargent [00:02:01]:
Essentially, Microsoft claims that Kevin can enroll in the Extended Security Updates program for Windows 10. As a consumer, the company says that Kevin could use the Microsoft Rewards points that have been collected, and you have to use 1,000 of them in order to pay for the enrollment. So there are sort of different options available to you that give you the ability to enroll in this program. And as I mentioned, one of those is redeeming Microsoft Rewards points. Another one is to pay $30, or you can also sync your PC settings and apps, which is essentially kind of Microsoft's way of saying, look, we've already gotten you this far, so now it's not hard to go even more than that. Like, it's going to be very easy for you to switch to Windows 11. So those are some different ways to go about doing so. But let's talk about what's going on here.
Mikah Sargent [00:03:00]:
Well, first and foremost, Microsoft just started rolling out this option in mid August. Okay? So when the company said, look, we're going to give not just businesses, but consumers, as Kevin is in this case, the ability to enroll in this Extended Security Updates program. We will start doing that in mid August. What should happen as you have, if you are watching this after the fact, you have seen the video and Kevin points to where it should be appearing in Windows Updates, there will be an option that appears that lets you choose to enroll in the ESU Windows 10 ESU. Now, if it's not appearing for you, as it is with Kevin, as it is not, rather with Kevin. What you need to do, Kevin, is over the course of the beginning of this month, continue to head to Windows Update and keep your machine updated. At some point, you should be able to hop in there and see that that option has appeared for you. My suggestion for you, Kevin, is if you do not see that change by mid September, then it's probably worth at that point reaching out to Microsoft support and saying, hey, I would like to do this.
Mikah Sargent [00:04:22]:
You have not given me the ability to do so. And that's a problem because beginning October 14th, that's when Windows 10 reaches its end of life. And, well, end of life in terms of security updates. And so on that date, things change and you want to if you're going to enroll in the ESU program. The ESU program only extends coverage into October 13th of 2026. Okay? So if you enroll after October 14th, when they're done with Windows 10, you're getting a shorter period of time, so you're not getting as much for your money or in the case of Microsoft rewards, your online activity, which technically amounts to money afterward. So you really want to make this happen and make this happen as soon as possible before October 14th. Okay? Because at that point you're not getting any more, any more than what you have now.
Mikah Sargent [00:05:30]:
You still have those security updates and everything in place. It's on October 14th that that stops. Right? And so for now, everything's good to go, everything's peachy keen. But if you were to enroll at the end of October, well, then you missed between October 14th and the end of October. So being part of that program. So reach out to Microsoft support if you haven't seen it appear. Some people have seen some different ways of trying to game the system, logging out of their accounts and logging back in with your Windows machine. I don't recommend that because it's so much more involved doing so in order to sort of fully log out of the machine.
Mikah Sargent [00:06:11]:
And because of how tied in your Microsoft account is to your login stuff, it's unwieldy to try to force it now because it quite literally does not matter until October 14th. That's the date at which the support of Windows 10 stops, right? So you don't need to worry about it until then. I understand that wanting to go ahead and get enrolled or get enrolled as soon as possible. And so that's why I say mid September, because it's still plenty of time to have to go back and forth with Microsoft support for the next 15 days or in this case up to 30 days as you are getting added into the program. But I will say pretty cool that you can either pay $30, redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points or as we said, sync your PC settings and apps, which is basically a way of saying go ahead and get your foot out the door for Windows 11 and then we'll let you enrol in Windows 10 ESU. It works on up to it works on any of the eligible Windows 10 devices. And I would say Microsoft is being a little bit cagey on the front of it as to which of the actual devices are eligible. It's important to note that it's only in certain regions.
Mikah Sargent [00:07:37]:
The U.S. of course, is one of those regions in this case. And when it comes to being able to to do this, you will need to go through the Microsoft Store and well rather through Windows Update to the Microsoft Store to do this built in ESU offering. It is available on Windows 10 devices running 22H2 and again will appear in that Windows Update portion and give you the option to do that. Now we will link to a page that talks about the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates. What is going to happen if you don't Enroll in Windows 10 ESU and you don't upgrade to Windows 11? Well, beginning on October 14th, Microsoft says it will no longer provide the following for Windows 10 devices technical support. So asking for help now if you got a Windows 10 device that isn't in ESU, feature updates or new features obviously, and then quality updates which of course include those security and reliability fixes. So that's what you need to know, Kevin.
Mikah Sargent [00:08:52]:
It's a waiting game. You'll get there and it will pop up for you again if it doesn't by mid September. Now that's about the time that you should reach out to Microsoft support you along with probably many more saying hey, I want to do this and you have not given me the option to do so. So thank you Kevin. Now I've got a little bit of follow up for this week's episode. Very exciting as I always mention, love to hear from you if you follow through with one of the fixes I've suggested, or if you are able to answer a question that comes up on the show in a new or novel way, or you know you've used some sort of app or service or gadget that helps you. Love to hear about it all. Heath has written in Heath heard my suggestions about the person who wrote in to ask how they could use a KVM or what kind of KVM or what kind of solution we had to run a like personal Mac and a work Mac with 4K displays 3 4K displays Here is what Heath had to say who was just kind of talking about the general nature of KVMs as I offered some advice on using KVM's and how they can be a little bit finicky at times.
Mikah Sargent [00:10:15]:
Heath uses a KVM to switch between a personal Mac Mini and a work Windows 11 laptop, so switching between operating systems regularly. And Heath also says that there are three monitors in Heath's setup does not use any 4K displays, so in this case did not need to spend as much money on the KVM. However, I'm not going to link to it because the KVM that Keith was using no longer available for purchase but working in Heath's setup now here's what else Heath had to say. Just a few things I wanted to add to your summary. As you said, the setup can be a bit finicky, but it does work. This is really interesting. This is the one thing that I hear the most complaints about and so it's always kept me from entering KVM territory. Windows tend to jump around when switching from one.
Mikah Sargent [00:11:08]:
Jump around, sorry? Windows tend to jump around when switching from one computer to another if the switch doesn't have what's called EDID emulation. The more expensive switches are more likely to have EDID emulation and you should look for that as an option if you are worried about that, not if you're worried about that being an issue for you, right? If you don't like things jumping around and so that is something to pay attention to, that's extended display identification data which again gives information about each of the displays and in the case of a KVM is kind of emulating the process, right? Of pretending as if it is passing that information along so that those windows stay where they are. Heath had some advice. There's an app called Display Maid that works for macOS and it does tend to be. It's again my experience from what I've heard that people using macOS with KVMs have more of those display rather window rearranging issues. And so something like Display Maid can help you kind of keep things where they're supposed to be. Or once they do fall out of line, you can use Display Maid to kind of lock them into place. There are quite a few, quite a few different options for Windows management on macOS, but this tool is kind of specific to that issue.
Mikah Sargent [00:12:47]:
Lastly, very good advice, Heath. If you're using a USB hub, make sure that you're using a powered one. Of course the switch itself would not supply enough power for things like webcams. So I had mentioned in the original episode about using a KVM that for the listener who had written in, it may be enough to just switch between. In this case it was HDMI switcher. So not a full on USB switcher. But if you are using a USB hub, definitely make sure it's a powered. And by powered we do not mean bus powered.
Mikah Sargent [00:13:22]:
We mean you plug it in to the wall on its own separate from the power that is being provided to it by your machine. So that's great advice from Heath. We got one more follow up, but before we get there I would like to invite you all to join Our Club. twit.tv/clubtwit is where you can go to join the club. When you join the club, $10 a month, under $20 a year, you gain access to some awesome things. First and foremost, it's all of our shows completely ad free. That's right, you just get the content, none of the ads.
Mikah Sargent [00:13:57]:
Because it's almost like you're the sponsor. I mean you are being a member of the club and your sponsor. Your membership fees are what help make this possible. So we give you ad free versions of the show. That's kind of cool when you go in and subscribe to them. By the way, I've got some great videos I created that show you every single step of the process so you know how to sign up for all of it. When you do that, you will have a feed that's quite literally custom to you. It will say your name in the feed.
Mikah Sargent [00:14:27]:
It's pretty cool. On top of that you also gain access to our Twit plus feeds. So we have multiple feeds available to you that include our news events. Leo Laporte and I pretty soon will be be covering the iPhone event live. So live commentary there will be in the news events feed. We also have sort of the behind the scenes, before the show, after the show clips and bits feed and then a feed for our Club Twitch shows, including my Crafting Corner upcoming D and D campaign that I'm in the early stages of getting together. Very excited about that coffee time. We've got Chris Marquardt and the photos.
Mikah Sargent [00:15:09]:
So much great stuff. All available. And last but certainly not least is access to the members only Discord server. A fun place to go to chat with your fellow Club Twit members and also those of us here at TWiT. We love to see everyone hanging out in the Club Twit Discord. It's a great time if that sounds good to you. I hope it does. Well join the club because we also have a two week free trial so you can see if it's right for you.
Mikah Sargent [00:15:32]:
Every time I go into the welcome section of Club Twit I can see the new people who have joined. We've got RJ Ortega, welcome to the club. As of yesterday, a user called Stork who's joined. Hello. We also have, let's see, Ticonderoga, Wonderful and kish2020754 also welcome. Lots of fun stuff going on in the club and as I mentioned, very exciting every time we pop in there and we go, oh, oh there's a new person. Oh there's a new person.
Mikah Sargent [00:16:12]:
Oh there are 15 new people. Wow. So exciting. So would love to see you join the Club twit.tv/clubtwit. We look forward to it. All right, we are back from the break and I would like to follow up with some more follow up. This bit of follow up comes in from Jim. Jim had asked a question about a cross platform password manager and wanting my suggestion.
Mikah Sargent [00:16:42]:
My recommendation for a cross platform password manager to use given that it would be not just Jim but also Jim's wife participating. And so I provided some advice on what password managers are available, what options are available and what I use myself. So this is what Jim had to say back. Thank you Mikah. I really appreciate you answering my question about a password manager. I'm sure many others also appreciated your advice. Certainly hope so. I am going to try out 1Password as you recommended.
Mikah Sargent [00:17:13]:
Yes, I am a 1Password user. I have been for many years. I've used it for a long time even before they were a sponsor on the network. I think it's fantastic. It's been my password manager for so long that I can't really imagine using any other one. The family plan now 4.99 per month, so it's $60 per year but Jim says it should be worth it. Jim says you are absolutely right about not dumping some of the experimenting on my wife. Especially my wife who is a hardcore technophobe.
Mikah Sargent [00:17:40]:
She would throw her iPhone in the trash before trying to experiment with password managers. Jim, I feel you there. My significant other, also a bit of a technophobe and so that definitely came from the heart. You don't want to involve your so in doing the experimenting with tech. If they are not techie people themselves, it's only going to result in them not wanting to use whatever solution you've come up with. So I had suggested to Jim that Jim try different password managers and different solutions that I suggested to see what worked for Jim before involving his wife. At which point then it would be simple to train and show how it works and not hey, actually no, I want to switch from this. I want to try something else.
Mikah Sargent [00:18:30]:
Yeah, not great. Jim says. By the way, I have a master's in computer science circa 1976. I retired a few years ago after 40 plus years in application development. Congratulations on your retirement. What I miss most in retirement are one colleagues, mostly the challenge of the work, which I truly loved most days and having access to the company help desk team. You and Leo have filled in some of the gap for my missing help desk. Thank you Jim.
Mikah Sargent [00:18:56]:
Thank you for the touching message, thank you for the follow up and good luck to you and and your wife. With 1Password and you know, using it across different platforms, I think it'll be great. Believe it or not, that is going to bring us to the end of this episode of Hands-On Tech. I want to thank you all for taking the time to join me this week. If you have questions that you would like answered, Hot TV is how you get in touch with me. We love to hear from you, love to answer your questions and I look forward to seeing you again next week for another episode of Hands-On Tech. Bye bye.
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