Fusion ‘unsupports’ Windows 10

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

The latest Fusion upgrade on my old laptop terminated with the message that Windows 10 is an unsupported operating system. It still works OK, but there will no longer be any support for Win10 problems.

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Unfortunately, not surprising really since Microsoft no longer supports W10 with security updates.  There seems to be quite a lot of chatter that the corporate world is not very happy with W11.  Perhaps Autodesk needs to consider a Linux version of Fusion.

Rod

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

There’s always a bit of panic when it is announced that a piece of software is no longer supported, but a good test is to ask yourself “When last did I actually contact the software company for support?”. If the answer is “Never”, then what’s the likelihood you would want to going forward?

Rob

[IanTParticipant @iant]

All this means in practice, is that the company will no longer provide commercial support to its (paying) customers and the reason in this case is fairly clear, in that they will not (in turn) be able to get support for Win 10 from Microsoft.

Doesn’t mean anything will stop working, although given that Fusion is effectively a ‘cloud’ product and will be updated from to time to time (a process over which Fusion users have no control as I understand it) then I suspect eventually there will probably be some issues with Fusion running on Win 10 based PCs.

Whether these are just small ‘niggles’ or something more serious remains to be seen. I doubt Autodesk will do anything to hurry this process but if they do come up with any major product changes/improvements – then (bottom line) they will do whatever is best for them and their commercial clients.

 

IanT

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I think I have been getting that message for several months and all still working OK after several updates.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

When an operating system goes out of support risk of trouble increases:

1. Upgrades and bug fixes stop. Tolerable provided the user does not change anything, and accepts the disadvantages.
2. Advice stops, or becomes “you have to upgrade“.   Again tolerable provided nothing is changed or breaks.  Broken hardware becomes risky because new parts might come with an incompatible up-to-date device driver.  Risk increases over time.
3. Applications cannot be upgraded once they move to to the next version and change something in the code base that depends on a new feature.
4. Security becomes a growing problem/  Vulnerabilities aren’t fixed and as AVM products drop away, the system does not receive the signatures used to identify threats, making the computer a soft target.   Can managed in three stages:
   1. Stop using the machine to spend money, access bank accounts or share private data.
   2. For a short time, allow safe browsing and emails, (ie trusted connections).  The longer the computer stays on the air, the worse the risk.  Much depends on what the user does:  be careful out there!
   3. Best to disconnect the machine from the internet.  (Often acceptable for a workshop computer, except inconvenient the internet cannot be searched or otherwise used to get help)

Cloud products are more likely to fail early because they are continually updated.  Fusion being a developing program that updates clients on the fly, makes it more likely to fail sooner than later.  If AutoCAD add a new feature, or improve an old one by utilising something new in Windows 11, then Fusion will misbehave on Windows 10.   Here today gone tomorrow. Unless the policy has changed, Fusion works off-line for less than a month, Then it times out until it gets a fresh login – it has to “phone home”.

There’s hope Fusion 360 will be OK on W10 for a good while yet.  Microsoft are getting complaints about Windows 11 from the big customers who sign multi-million $ cheques.  Microsoft want to go ‘agentic’ with W11 – big changes in the pipeline – but many customers, large and small, don’t like what they’ve had so far, and particularly don’t like being forced to upgrade fleets of serviceable machines to get an operating system that reduces productivity.  I expect AutoCAD are having their ears bent for the same reason – customers keen to stay on W10.

Siemens are also warn that SolidEdge isn’t supported on W10, but I confirm it still works.  And like Alibre and other locally installed programs, SE does not have to be connected to the internet.  I’m safe for 3 years, provided I manage the security problem.  After that…

In the long run, Windows 10 will wither and die.  For users, it’s an exercise in risk management.  What’s our appetite for living with the risk  the computer and Fusion might stop working, and our appetite for the hassle caused when risks turn into issues: that is what to do when Fusion360 actually fails one day, smack.  Options:

• Stay with W10 as described above, and replace with W11 when the computer conks out.  Cheap but more likely to go wrong and cause migration problems.   Fusion being in the cloud should make migration straightforward, but the owner has to sort everything else on the machine out!  How painful is that?
• Upgrade now if the computer supports W11.
• If the old computer doesn’t support W11, buy a new one. Issue is the cost.

Though going W11 solves the problem, it’s time and money.  And have to say I find W11 to be a nuisance compared with W10.  Not awful, but a lot of negatives, including what Microsoft are planning next.

Dave

 

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Despite some of the above comments, Microsoft is continuing to provide Windows 10 with security updates for at least another year; No feature improvements etc, security only.
Described here; ESU program
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/extended-security-updates?r=1

It offers several options; I went for the free one.
I’ve kept my W10 PC, but relegated it to the upstairs clean workshop, to replace the previous one.
Yes it works fine for me, though I’ve upgraded my main PC to a new one from Mesh, mainly for photographic reasons.
I needed W11, with a reasonably powerful graphics card, to explore AI options in DxO Photolab.

There’s lots of videos explaining how to do enrol in ESU, as well a some decent text descriptions.
Off the top I can’t remember which guide I used, but you certainly don’t need to enable full backups to OneDrive.

This seems to cover it, though I’ve not checked fine details; Yes you can force W10 to upgrade to W11 on a non compatible PC as an alternative, but I didn’t want to go down that route as it may later get disabled following some security upgrade.

Bill

[Wink HackmanParticipant @winkhackman25989]

I wouldn’t be too bothered. Windows 7 has been much more enjoyable since they ceased supporting it – I’ve had eleven years without the incessant demands to download updates and security fixes. Only when apps actually stop working is it time to update.

[MacolmParticipant @macolm]

Yes, much less prone to inadequately debugged updates!

[Wink Hackman]

On Wink Hackman Said:

I wouldn’t be too bothered. … Only when apps actually stop working is it time to update.

Much depends on what the machine is used for.  Can Wink explain please?  He may not be too bothered, but the rest of us might be.

What to do about an out-of-support operating system depends on how the machine is used and the risk the owner is prepared to take.  It’s not black and white simple.  No problem running Windows 7 in isolation for as long as the computer lasts, but anything beyond that is shades of grey.

Saying “I did it, and it’s OK” of anything does not mean it’s safe for others to do the same. Don’t confuse luck with judgement. There were millions of security intrusions when Windows 7 was current and the loopholes haven’t magically disappeared. Worry about what the other guy is doing when connecting to the internet.  Hackers specifically look for out-of-date computers because they are associated with sloppy security and exploitable weakness.   Don’t make it easy for them to empty your bank account!

Easy to slip into a false sense of security just because nothing has happened yet.  Doesn’t mean it can’t. Despite never having an accident I always wear a seat belt.

Wink’s advice doesn’t fix the subject of this topic, which is what Fusion360 users with W10 machines should do now that AutoCAD are warning their product isn’t supported.   Those relying on F360 and W10 to host important CAD projects have to think about it.

Dave

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

A powercut kiilled my main computer, which uses win11. Whilst it was being repaired I resorted to my old laptop, which is still on win10. When I started it it did a Windows update and when I started Fusion it to wanted to do an update. The update got as far as 75% and froze – not responding. When I tried taskmanager to terminate it, taskmanager itself froze, not responding. To cut a long story short it turned out that a Windows security update had affected the Nvidia graphics card driver, which caused the freeze. Switching the driver off allowed Fusion to run normally, but it now gives two messages when it starts; Windows 10 is an unsupported operating system, and the graphics driver is switched off. Whose responsibility is it, Autodesk, Microsoft, or Nvidia?

Will it ever be fixed?

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I have twice been hit with problems where apps required OS updates for security which meant I couldn’t use the apps.  One was Barclays Bank, the other Microsoft Outlook admittedly this was on tablets and phones but at some point you may find that Fusion depends on a new Win11 feature not available in Win 10.  This happened with Mach3 where a plugin to support a particular bit of hardware depended in an ActiveX feature was omitted from a later Windows version.

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