1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,520 Unlike the 1990s and 2000s where we expected a new version of Windows every few years, 2 00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:10,320 Microsoft seems pretty set on making Windows 10 the last version of Windows ever, 3 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:14,320 incrementally updating it instead of replacing it with an entirely new version. 4 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:19,280 I mean, we've heard nothing about Windows 11 or Windows 2K20, right? 5 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:23,440 But this raises an interesting question. Do you remember how whenever you upgraded 6 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:27,440 from one version of Windows to another, some of your older devices may have stopped working 7 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:34,000 and there wasn't a good way to get them functioning again? This is often because the device's driver, the piece of software that allows your printer or 8 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,560 whatever and Windows to talk to each other, doesn't play nicely with a new version of the 9 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:43,920 operating system, making it necessary for the device manufacturer to write a new driver and 10 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:48,160 make it available and possibly for you to know that and then seek it out. 11 00:00:48,160 --> 00:00:53,200 But here we are on the last version of Windows. So does that mean that the RGB trackball you've 12 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:58,480 had connected to your rig since people were arguing about the dress is going to work forever? 13 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:05,280 Unfortunately, the answer is probably not. You see, although there does not appear to be a 14 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:10,320 true successor to Windows 10 coming, some of the incremental updates have changed the operating 15 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:16,480 system in significant ways, including under the hood. In fact, Microsoft itself doesn't even support 16 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:21,600 some older builds of Windows 10, with major revisions now receiving fewer than two years of 17 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:27,120 support before being considered deprecated. Users have also reported hardware problems 18 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:32,160 after major updates and Windows 10 has even received criticism for automatically removing 19 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:37,040 programs deemed to be incompatible with new revisions of the operating system during the 20 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:42,240 update process. So not only are some major updates almost like getting a new version of the OS, 21 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:49,440 anyway, Microsoft also appears to be exerting more control over what kinds of software Windows 10 22 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:56,240 will even allow on the same system. And it appears that this does include drivers. Although most 23 00:01:56,240 --> 00:02:00,880 machines will continue to receive Windows 10 updates as they're rolled out, Microsoft itself 24 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:06,240 has come out and said that some systems could stop getting updated as time goes on. And one 25 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:11,280 reason for this is if there aren't current drivers. And remember that most current device 26 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:16,640 drivers are actually written by the device manufacturers, not by Microsoft. So similarly 27 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:22,800 to the days when we actually upgraded from, say, Windows XP to Windows Vista, yes, I use the word 28 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:27,840 upgrade very loosely there, there may come a point in time where you'd have to stick with an older 29 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:32,800 build of Windows 10 if you want to keep full functionality of your devices. But this is a 30 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:38,320 lot trickier than keeping your older Windows 95 machine around to play Mac Warrior 2 because 31 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:43,440 of how Windows 10 makes it extremely difficult to disable updates as long as you're connected to 32 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:49,760 the internet. But why wouldn't device manufacturers be nice and just release updated drivers? 33 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:54,480 Well, the folks that make mice and scanners or whatever else are constantly updating their 34 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:58,320 product lines and releasing new gadgets, and they'd rather put their time and effort into 35 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:03,520 selling new products and supporting their latest offerings instead of writing drivers for older 36 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:08,720 models that few people are using. However, the good news is that Windows 10 is a lot better at 37 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:13,760 natively supporting many different models of hardware than Windows versions of yesteryear 38 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:18,560 that often had a hard time recognizing products without a driver disk. Even if you have an older 39 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:23,680 keyboard that you know and love that one day stops getting driver updates, the drivers built into 40 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:28,800 Windows or provided by Windows update should still provide core functionality. So it could get to a 41 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:33,600 point where you can still keep your old gear, but maybe not all the bells and whistles work quite 42 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:38,320 right. Kind of like your Uncle Station wagon, which is still going strong despite having a 43 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:42,720 duct tape bumper. So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up, 44 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:46,080 subscribe, and be sure to hit us up in the comments section with your suggestions for 45 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:48,560 topics that we should cover in the future.