Californian Lawrence Klein has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the company of forcibly forcing Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 and leaving those who don’t want to or can’t do so without necessary security updates. Klein owns two Windows 10 laptops that can’t be upgraded to Windows 11 because they lack the required Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM).

Windows 10 support ends on October 14, with Microsoft offering a paid extended support plan for $30 per year (the first year may be free under certain conditions). Klein is asking the court to order the company to provide free updates for Windows 10 until its share falls below 10% of all Windows devices, or to remove hardware restrictions on installation.

In his complaint, he claims that Microsoft is violating California laws on business practices, advertising and consumer protection. According to him, the end of support for Windows 10 comes earlier than usual - just four years after the release of Windows 11, instead of eight years, as was the case with previous versions, reports “The Register”.

Klein emphasizes that when the plans to end support were announced, Windows 10 still had over 50% market share, and now it remains around 43%, which is significantly more than in previous “retired” versions.

The complaint states that the transition to Windows 11 is “forced, artificial and unfavorable to consumers”, and the goal is to increase sales of new devices and impose the integrated AI assistant Copilot, with which Microsoft will overtake its competitors in the field of artificial intelligence. | BGNES