Possible solution to TurboTax dropping Windows 10 support?

[Solar Eclipse]

Hi Folks,

Given the dreadful decision by TurboTax to drop WIndows 10 support for 2025 onward, I wanted to share a thought for any techies on the forum as a possible solution for us Win10 desktop users...

What about creating a portable Windows 11 USB drive?  From what I've read, it seems possible to simply buy a USB drive and use a readily available free 3rd party product to create a bootable, portable Win11 drive that can be plugged into an existing Win10 PC and run Win11.  Then install TurboTax on that Win11 platform.  This would leave us Win10 PC users intact for another year  (or more) without having to purchase new PC's or risk upgrading existing machines to Win11, as Microsoft will continue to support security updates for Win10.

Thoughts?

SE

[robtm]

I'm not a techie so this is just my opinion. I don't think this would work. Windows 11 is more than a software upgrade. It depends on hardware features that most Windows 10 computers don't have. If your Windows 10 computer supports Windows 11 then you can just install it. Otherwise you can use online TT for 2025 taxes on your Windows 10 system. If you try installing Windows 11 on a flash drive, reply back to this thread and let us know how your idea works or not.

[Mike9241]

it might work but the caveat is that hacking the registry probably is needed so the check for TPM 2.0, CPU model and OS version are not checked.  another potential issue is that apps installed under w10 may fail to work while running w11.   Another option is dual boot drives one drive w10 one w11 but the w11 registry will need to be hacked if the system does not meet w11 requirements. 

[Solar Eclipse]

Yes, dual boot approach yields similar outcome, but the Win11 on USB approach is much easier and less invasive, and almost any user could do it, not much technical ability required.  I'd post a link to an article I found on how to do it, but I'm not sure if the forum rules allow?

Ultimately I hope TurboTax comes to it's senses and allows the 2025 product to run on Win10. Between no longer including a CD with the product, jacking up prices in recent years, changing parts of the UI to look like a phone app and now dropping Win10, all this is going to negatively impact the bottom line as customers leave, never to return.  At the present rate I suspect we'll soon encounter the ultimate ignorant decision to drop desktop support, leaving the online version as the only option.

[JohnQT]

A Windows 11 bootable USB drive will work on hardware that is not "Windows 11 ready".  I've done this before using "Rufus" freeware to burn a "Windows To Go" image that is automatically tweaked by Rufus to run on older hardware.  Here's an example on how to do that:

https://www.intowindows.com/rufus-to-create-windows-to-go-usb-drive/

However this is just another variation on "dual boot" which IMHO is needlessly clunky...

I suggest that you instead install free "Oracle VirtualBox" software and create a Windows 11 virtual machine.  This is basically just an app running in your current Windows 10 operating system, but the virtual machine perfectly emulates a Windows 11 PC.  You can even grant the VM access to the physical hard drives on your PC.

I've done this for years with a Windows 10 VM.  The VM resides on a physical data partition on my PC.  It contains all of my financial apps (like TurboTax, WillMaker, etc.), but the data files themselves (*.tax, etc.) also reside on the physical data drive.  That way I can access the data files directly from my PC, or from within the emulated environment in the VM...

So whenever Micro$oft truly forces me to upgrade my physical PC to a new OS, I can completely wipe the system drive containing Windows and install a fresh OS using Microsoft's own Setup DVD images (not a vendor's "Recovery CD" with all its bloatware).  Or better yet, finally migrate to Linux and be done with being led by the nose by software vendors (you can also create a Linux virtual machine to test drive that environment).  All of my important data (like the financial VM and data files) reside on a different partition that is not disturbed during the OS install.

Anyway, VirtualBox is great for testing out new OSes and concepts.  You don't need to get that deep into the weeds with it, but it should be a great tool to meet Intuit's misguided requirements for "Windows 11" without actually polluting your real PC with that bloatware.