California man sues Microsoft for discontinuing Windows 10 — says company is doing this to “monopolize the generative AI market”

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Will the courts intervene to keep Windows 10 alive?

(Image credit: Anton Watman/Shutterstock)

Lawrence Klein, who’s based in Southern California, filed a complaint against Microsoft in the San Diego Superior Court over its plan to discontinue support for Windows 10 by October 14, 2025. According to the Courthouse News Service, Klein owns two Windows 10 laptops, both of which will become obsolete come October. He asserts that Microsoft is making this move “to force its customers to purchase new devices optimized to run Microsoft’s suite of generative artificial intelligence (AI) software such as Copilot, which comes bundled with Windows 11 by default.”

Upgrading to Windows 11 from Windows 10 is currently free, but millions of devices are barred from doing this because they lack one crucial requirement — TPM 2.0. Microsoft states that this is a non-negotiable requirement for all future Windows versions, so devices that do not have these installed aren’t eligible for upgrade. You can bypass this requirement, but doing so means your computer is not officially supported, and you will have a difficult time obtaining technical support from Microsoft if you encounter any issues.

Klein is requesting that Microsoft be compelled to support Windows 10 at no additional cost until its market share falls below 10% of all Windows users. If the court agrees with him, this will incur additional fees for the company and may even delay the adoption of Windows 11. After all, even though Microsoft launched the latest version of Windows almost four years ago, it wasn’t until this year that it overtook Windows 10 — probably because of the impending demise of the latter.

Jowi Morales
Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

43 Comments Comment from the forums
  • USAFRet
    Oh please.

    Every other OS version, no matter if Windows, Linux, Apple....expires and falls off support after some time.

    This guy has 2 laptops. Apparently not Win 11 compatible?
    That means that are about a decade old, or older.

    He has options:
    1. Switch to Linux
    2. Go for the extended support option from MS
    3. Run Win 10 as it is, without getting new updates.

    The laptop won't simply cease to run on that date.
    Reply
  • Findecanor
    We were told when Windows 10 arrived that it would be the last Windows version, and that users would only receive software updates for it.

    But Windows 10 users running on 32-bit x86 haven't got updates for quite a while now.
    And the last few updates we got were only for the worse: the user interface getting much slower and getting lower contrast making things harder to read, the PDF reader disappearing, etc.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    Findecanor said:
    We were told when Windows 10 arrived that it would be the last Windows version
    No we weren't.
    That was a throwaway comment, totally misunderstood over the years.

    But no matter what they call it, things change.
    Win 11 24H2 could have been called Win 10 24H2.
    The "10" or "11" is irrelevant.

    What ran on 2010 hardware is different than what 2025 hardware can do.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    The biggest thing that sticks in my craw about Windows 11 is the "TPM 2.0" requirement. Microsoft should have made TPM 2.0 a requirement for things like Windows Hello, Bitlocker, and other features the leverage TPM 2.0 but not block the installation of it (just to sell more PCs), because there are many machines in service that are quite capable of the tasks they are given and may not be that old, especially in an enterprise environment where new machines mean new non-transferrable licesnses. They could make it a requirement for Windows 12 because by the time Windows 11 support ends the number of people with even the last generation non-TPM 2.0 hardware (Ryzen 1000 series) would be using a machine at least 13 years old, and by then those machines need to be repurposed as a Linux based media server or the like, or retired.

    The blocking of only local accounts is my second biggest issue because it makes preparing a machine for sale or for other people, and using it in a VM, among other tasks, far more annoying, but as far as actual use goes it's not a big deal since it's easy enough to make a primary administrator Microsoft Account under a new email and then use a second, local account only for people who don't want to use a Microsoft account, and for everyone else that knows it's no worse than having to have a Google, Apple, or (insert basically anything else here) account to use their products.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    The biggest thing that sticks in my craw about Windows 11 is the "TPM 2.0" requirement.
    MS had been pushing that TPM requirement for a long time.

    The manufacturers pushed back with "Waaaaa, we don't wanna!"
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    USAFRet said:
    MS had been pushing that TPM requirement for a long time.

    The manufacturers pushed back with "Waaaaa, we don't wanna!"

    Aye, but they could have went about it in a different way so as to make the manufacturers take the flak, not Microsoft, the same way manufacturers made Microsoft take the flak for Vista's requirements because they wanted to continue to sell single core 512MB RAM systems from the XP era.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    Aye, but they could have went about it in a different way so as to make the manufacturers take the flak, not Microsoft, the same way manufacturers made Microsoft take the flak for Vista's requirements because they wanted to continue to sell single core 512MB RAM systems from the XP era.
    MS is an easy target, no matter what they do, or if they are right or wrong.

    MS is always 'wrong'.
    Reply
  • short-n-round
    The lawsuit is an interesting development, although I don't think it will pass muster.

    As for MS, they really don't care about retail users since the larger user base for desktop is enterprise. Those who Jump to Linux / Apple / whatever will be in the minority, and they know it. As it has been every time in the past.

    For the record, I am going to be one of them who jumps. I have several W10 machines and when that goes away, I am porting to Ubuntu or a similar disto. I will only keep 1 Windows machine for those things that absolutely need it.
    Reply
  • dwd999
    Clicked through to the court complaint. A Beverly Hills firm specializing in class action suits.

    https://www.counselonegroup.com/current-investigations/windows-10-support-is-ending-class-action-investigation/
    Reply
  • abufrejoval
    USAFRet said:
    MS had been pushing that TPM requirement for a long time.

    The manufacturers pushed back with "Waaaaa, we don't wanna!"
    The problem is M$ using the Fruity Cult's playbook, where Personal Computers are turned into something you pay for, but don't own for lack of control and which might be told by the vendor to work against your best interest.

    Because what M$ or manufacturers have to say in this matter isn't important, only the PC owners are.

    And they don't appreciate being pushed around by the janitor or footman while they have their private life investigated and any valuable insight into your habits sold to the highest bidder.

    And contrary to what they claim, TPM is not a technical requirement, just a wanton decision to push Pluton.

    Server and IoT editions of Windows do not require a TPM to funktion without compromising whatoever M$ calls support.
    Reply