Microsoft’s decision to end support for Windows 10 has raised concerns among environmental and cybersecurity experts, as hundreds of millions of devices may become obsolete. The company announced it would stop providing updates for the operating system, affecting about 40 percent of all Windows users. While some can upgrade to Windows 11, many devices do not meet the technical requirements.
Researchers from Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing (SIC) and School of Cybersecurity and Privacy (SCP) have echoed these concerns. They warn that forcing users to replace their devices could result in up to 240 million old computers ending up in landfills.
“The problem of e-waste raises the question of why and how these technologies become obsolete,” said Cindy Lin, a Stephen Fleming Early Career Assistant Professor in SIC. Lin studies data structures and environmental governance in Southeast Asia and the U.S.
“Scholarship in human-computer interaction (HCI) on repair reveals that many of these technologies suffer from planned obsolescence,” she said. “This means that companies have designed products with a short lifespan, increasing consumption and waste simultaneously.”
Discarded electronic devices contribute to methane emissions when organic materials decompose in landfills. The production of new devices also requires mining, refining, and processing raw materials, which consumes significant energy.
Microsoft will continue to provide security updates for Windows 10 for one year. However, after this period, users who have not upgraded will be more vulnerable to cyber threats such as phishing attacks.
“The cybersecurity implications are very serious because new vulnerabilities of Windows 10 will go unpatched for a large part of the user base of this system,” said Mustaque Ahamad, Regents’ Entrepreneur Professor and interim chair of SCP.
“These users will become targets of hackers and cyber criminals who will be able to exploit these vulnerabilities. This will make these machines more prone to attacks such as ransomware and data exfiltration.”
The cost to replace an outdated device can range from $300 for basic models to over $2,500 for high-end gaming computers.
Josiah Hester, an associate professor in the School of IC who researches computing and sustainability, suggested that users could install Linux Mint—a free open-source operating system—as an alternative to discarding their hardware.
“I would hope that instead of discarding, people might see this as an opportunity to go into a more open ecosystem like Linux Mint, which was designed for Windows users,” Hester said.
“So much perfectly good hardware is obsolesced by force, when users are more than willing to give it a second life, either through ending support on the software side, subscription services that require certain versions of an OS, or even building the hardware or low-level functions that reduce the autonomy of device owners.”
Linux Mint offers its own suite of software products and built-in security features while requiring modest hardware specifications.
Lin and Hester also highlighted broader solutions such as supporting right-to-repair initiatives and legislation aimed at preventing planned obsolescence.
“HCI studies of informal economies of improvisation and repair have demonstrated that technologies have a longer lifecycle if we have access to expertise on how to repair them without facing penalties such as copyright violations,” Lin said.
“The ongoing right-to-repair movement in the US shows promise in making technology repairable and, in turn, more sustainable.”
