Updated on May 13 as Google launches Googlebook to take on Windows.
Microsoft is changing Windows on most PCs. Critical Secure Boot certificates will expire for the first time ever in June. First launched in 2011, this Windows change means new certificates must be installed on all devices before the deadline.
Microsoft says it is “updating the Secure Boot certificates originally issued in 2011 to ensure Windows devices continue to verify trusted boot software.”
If you bought your PC in the last two years, you’re likely already running new certificates. You can check in your Windows Security App. For all other users, the new certificates will be included in the regular monthly security updates. Users may have been updated in April, others will be updated in May.
But post April’s update, Microsoft warned that this process might trigger additional restarts on your PC. And while this will probably happen in May, if not already, it could happen at any point over the coming months as certificates change over.
“With recent and upcoming Windows updates over the next few months,” Microsoft says, some users might experience “one additional restart during installation. This one time restart occurs after a Secure Boot certificate update is applied.”
There are other complexities as well. The Windows Update process and Windows Security App will show a PC’s Secure Boot status, with critical red warnings where user “action is needed” before the Secure Boot deadline.
And Microsoft confirms that this update is only applicable to PCs eligible for security updates. That means hundreds of millions of Windows 10 PCs will not get new Secure Boot certificates and will face additional risks next month. Ensure you enrol in Microsoft’s extended security update (ESU) program if you’re affected.
The expiration of Secure Boot certificates is not the only legacy change now affecting hundreds of millions of Microsoft users. We now know that thirty-year-old code is buried beneath the shiny Windows 11 veneer, and there is new criticism that the OS is being boosted to overcome issues in its “bloat.”
Per Windows Latest, “Low Latency Profile is part of Microsoft’s plan to boost Windows 11 performance, which also includes optimizing legacy code and migrating more UI to WinUI 3.” Cue a “backlash over this new speed boosting trick” that has grown “loud enough ” that Microsoft has responded.
Windows Latest explains that the main complaint “is that temporarily boosting the CPU to open the Start menu is somehow ‘cheating’ or a sign of terrible software engineering.” Microsoft says that isn’t the case, and that macOS and Linux do the same. It how modern day operating systems “make apps feel fast.”
Meanwhile, Google’s push for affected Windows 10 users to switch to ChromeOS has just taken a new twist. “We’re introducing Googlebook, designed for Gemini Intelligence. These new laptops are built with Gemini’s helpfulness at their core, premium hardware and work seamlessly with Android phones.”
The company’s Tuesday announcement will disrupt the laptop market more significantly than any other escape path for aging Windows machines. Ironically, it’s again a 15-year marker that has come into play.
“Over 15 years ago, we introduced the Chromebook, a laptop built for a cloud-first world. Now, as we are moving from an operating system to an intelligence system, we see an opportunity to rethink laptops again.” Google says this is “a new category of laptops” and one with AI at its center,
Google has co-opted the same OEMs driving Windows hardware for this new category. “We are working with industry leading partners like Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo to make the first Googlebooks and they’re just as excited as we are about them. Every Googlebook will be built with premium craftsmanship and materials, coming in a variety of shapes and sizes.”
For Windows 10 users with aged devices staring down an October 14, 2026, deadline before their machines become completely obsolete, this now provides an interesting, cheaper alternative to a Windows PC refresh.
The next move will be Microsoft’’s. It has hundreds of millions of Windows users now in a grey area that are being targeted. October is approaching fast.
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