Upgrading To Windows 11
As we have discussed several times before, Microsoft have introduced a number of hardware specification requirements for Windows 11. This means some older Windows 10 systems will not be automatically upgraded to 11, but there are some work-arounds for this – see the blog from November 2021:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2021/11/
Note that the above blog links to a Microsoft support page which described a Registry edit to bypass some of the hardware restrictions. As of 4th Feb this year, that option has been removed from that Microsoft page.
The latest version of Windows 11, version 24H2, seems to have introduced a further requirement which cannot be bypassed – see this Ghacks article for more details:-
https://www.ghacks.net/2024/02/26/windows-11-version-24h2-may-block-devices-without-sse-4-2-support/
Only CPUs with support for a function called SSE4* are capable of running Windows 11-24H2. As this CPU feature was announced in 2006 and became available in 2007, this new requirement should only rule out very old hardware.
Another Ghacks article mentions a new open source application called Flyby11 which seems to offer a fairly simple way to upgrade an “unsupported” machine to Windows 11, although it will not work for the very old hardware as described above. I haven't tried using it, but if it works as described in the article, it should make things simpler:-
https://www.ghacks.net/2025/01/17/this-is-the-simplest-option-to-upgrade-windows-11-on-unsupported-hardware/
* SSE stands for Streaming SIMD Extensions. SIMD stands for Single Instruction Multiple Data, a form of parallel processing.
Windows 10 – End of Support
Just a reminder that support for Windows 10 ends on 14th October this year, after which it will not receive any further security updates. Here are some of your options:-
- Keep using Windows 10 and accept the greater security risk (not recommended).
- Upgrade to Windows 11 using one of the methods discussed in the November 2021 blog (see above) or use the Flyby11 utility to assist (see above).
- Pay for a further year of Windows 10 updates – price is not yet confirmed, but expected to be around $30 for 1 more year (Enterprise customers can buy up to 3 years, with the price doubling each year).
- Give up with Windows and install a version of Linux
- Buy a new PC with Windows 11 preinstalled.
Print Friendly
Print Friendly is a free service to print web pages and to save them as PDFs. You can use it to print this blog. There is a Print Friendly button at the end of this blog, but you will get better results by installing the Print Friendly extension in your web browser – then you will be able to print/save this blog or other web pages.
To install the extension, if you are using Chrome as your browser (or Chromium-based browser), go to:-
https://chromewebstore.google.com/
Type PrintFriendly in the search box and then click on PrintFriendly in the search results (should be the one at the top).
Click the Add to Chrome button.
Click Add extension in the pop-up box.
(The process is similar in other browsers)
When it has installed, you can click on the “jig-saw piece” icon on the Toolbar to see your Extensions. Click on the Pin icon next to PrintFriendly to pin the PrintFriendly icon to the Toolbar.
Alternatively, just go to:-
https://www.printfriendly.com/
Click on the Website Tools drop-down menu near the top right and select the extension for your browser.
Now, when viewing a web page, such as the blog, just click the PrintFriendly extension icon on the Toolbar.
If you cannot add an extension for any reason, just bookmark the PrintFriendly web page and then use it to copy and paste the URL of whatever web page you are trying to print.
As Dave pointed out, you can use Ctrl+P to print a web page, or select "Save as PDF" as the printer destination to save the file as a PDF. However, PrintFriendly may make a better job of optimising the web page for printing by removing clutter and spaces. Its free, so give it a try.
Microsoft 365 Price Increase
Microsoft have increased the cost of the Microsoft 365 (M365) subscriptions from 16th January. The new costs are:-
Personal Plan - £8.49/month or £84.99/year (previously £59.99/year).
Family Plan - £10.49/month or £104.00/year (previously £79.99/year) .
You will now get access to Microsoft AI features which they brand as Copilot across all their apps. You will also get the new Designer app, which offers graphic design and image editing. See this Microsoft page for more details:-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/01/16/copilot-is-now-included-in-microsoft-365-personal-and-family/
Full details of the price plans can be found here:-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products
Copilot/AI usage is limited based on credits – you get 60 credits with the M365 subscription. AI features are only available to the M365 owner, not other users within the Family Plan. If you need more AI features, you can subscribe to Copilot Pro for £19/month – see the Microsoft page for details:-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/store/b/copilotpro
The Personal Plan allows you to install all the Microsoft apps and gives you 1TB of storage on OneDrive. The Family Plan allows up to 6 people to use the apps and they each get 1TB of OneDrive storage.
The article in The Verge from 16th January discusses this price increase:-
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/16/24345051/microsoft-365-personal-family-copilot-office-ai-price-rises
If you don’t want to pay the subscription, you can buy Office Home 2024 for a one-off price of £119.99 which gives you Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote
Microsoft Sign-in Change
Previously, when you signed into your Microsoft Account, you were asked if you wanted to “Stay signed in”. From this month, you will no longer be asked – you will “stay signed in” by default.
On your own PC, this is not a big deal. However, if you are signing into to your account on a public machine (e.g. at a library), it is now vital that you actually sign out before you leave to avoid anyone else being able to access your account. Better still, on public machines, use Private Browsing mode – you do this by clicking on the 3-dots/3-bars at the top right of the browser and selecting New (In)private window. When you close a private browsing window, all cookies, history etc relating to that session are deleted.
This Ghacks article from 22nd January provides an excellent description of this change, including a method to “sign out everywhere” in case you left that machine in the library without signing out:-
https://www.ghacks.net/2025/01/22/microsoft-changes-account-sign-in-system-to-keep-users-logged-in-automatically/
To sign out everywhere, go to:-
https://account.microsoft.com/
Click Manage how I sign in
(You may be asked for second factor at this stage).
Scroll down and click on Sign out everywhere.
2G and 3G Switch Off
I think we first mentioned that the 2G and 3G mobile networks will be phased out back in October 2021:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2021/10/
Then in June 2023, we mentioned an announcement from Vodafone saying they were starting the 3G switch off:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2023/06/
The 3G switch off is now all but complete. Vodafone, EE and Three completed their switch off of 3G last year and Virgin Media O2 will complete this year. See this Ofcom article from May last year for more:-
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/coverage-and-speeds/3g-switch-off/
All the mobile operators have also confirmed that 2G service will cease by 2033, but the precise timetable is still unclear.
Currently, there are only these 4 mobile providers in the UK. Other MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) buy air time from the main 4, so they will follow the same 2G/3G switch off schedule. You can find a list of the MVNOs and which host network they use on this Wikipedia page:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_virtual_network_operators_in_the_United_Kingdom
A merger between Vodafone and Three is in the pipeline which will reduce the main providers to 3 – see this Guardian article:-
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/05/vodafone-and-three-given-approval-to-merge
So, everyone will need a phone that supports 4G (and possibly 5G). The MoneySavingExpert site has a handy tool to check if your model of phone is 4G compatible:-
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/4g-checker/
Library Extension
Dave recommended a browser extension called Library Extension. With this extension installed, as you browse for books and ebooks on Amazon, Waterstones, etc, it will notify you if this book is available in your library. It's free and you can read more about it and install it by going to:-
https://www.libraryextension.com/
Changing Email Address
I have always recommended that you don't use the email service provided by your ISP. If you choose to change your ISP in the future, you will probably lose that email address. So, it is better to use an ISP-independent service such as Google's Gmail, Microsoft's, Outlook, or Apple's iCloud. However, changing to a new email address can seem a bit daunting.
You can simplify things by forwarding email from the old to the new address, if possibly. Gmail has a feature that allows you to fetch emails from other accounts, so mail sent to either your old or new address will all be in the same gmail inbox. Here's how to set it up:-
Go to gmail.com in a browser.
Click on the Settings Cog and click See all settings.
Select Accounts and Import at the top.
Under the heading Check email from other accounts, click Add an email account.
Complete the boxes which follow to add the credentials of the account you want to fetch from.
Once set up, Gmail will periodically fetch mail from the other account(s).
Over time, you can gradually notify everyone of your new email address.
Next Session
Wed 12th March 2025 at 2pm by Zoom
