I can't help but think they're going to shoot themselves in the foot with this.
Adoption of Windows 11 is abysmal and part of it is because of the whole TPM 2.0 requirement.
Windows 11 came out in October 2021, deep into the COVID pandemic. While 2022 had strong sales of new PCs, the sales were dipping and have stayed low since the end of 2022.
I feel like this is going to be another Windows Vista moment, where people will be using the previous iteration for longer simply because not everyone will have hardware that can actually upgrade to Windows 11.
With sales crashing, how many people actually have computers that have TPM 2.0 and can run Windows 11? Most people I know with desktops (an anecdote, I know) don't have TPM 2.0 and aren't looking to upgrade any time soon. They will feel frustrated and angry with Microsoft if the reason they have to upgrade is seen as arbitrary. If their systems would otherwise be considered compatible, except for the lack of TPM 2.0, it's just Microsoft jerking them the fuck around.
I personally expect Windows 10 to get its shelf-life extended many times, much like Windows 7 ended up getting. They can't force the upgrade on people whose computers can't be upgraded and don't have the disposable cash to get a new one on a whim. Inflation is eating people's budgets. Even with prices for PC parts tanking, it's not enough to bring up sales. How do they expect to get people to upgrade when the problem isn't their CPU or their RAM or their SSD... its a fucking chip they don't even know the name of or what it does?
Oh, interesting. I didn't know about this TPM requirement; looks like my CPU does support it, but it's not turned on in BIOS. Hope you're right though and W10 does get its support lifetime extended.
Yeah, honestly. My PC is 10 years old (with the exception of my GPU) and still runs the games I play perfectly fine for the most part. If I didn't want to run them smoother at higher graphics settings, or especially if I didn't play games much at all, I'd have no reason to upgrade my PC. And yet I literally can't upgrade my current one to Windows 11 because it doesn't support TPM 2.0.