OSs do not become vulnerable when support ends. Use good virus scanner, firewall, and common sense and you're good.

I didn't miss the point. Just pointing out MS is not our only threat.

This is why I like the recommendation made above you, in post #12. To generate some seperation between one's activities and minimise any potential losses of personal information. Even when removing the end of life portion of the original question, it still seems like a sensible response. Privacy can be pitted against convenience, and regardless of a given persons preference, recommendations like this allow the user to make a more deliberate choice where on that spectrum they wish to be at a given moment.

If someone is clicking on some trash links or is downloading crap files and even clicking on their EXE... there is not a single safe OS out there... it can rip even the most up to date OS apart.

So, the highest security issue is not the OS... it is the user.

As long as a OS is working for the software intended... it is a good OS. Win 10 may slowly become unable to play the newest games at some point, probably around 2030. At this point it can only truly serve as a classic OS; however... many PCs using Win 10 could already be "out of service" in 5 more years, so not much to worry.

Win 11 will not magically become good anymore. This was never the intention, as its main focus was to become a good portable OS... not a desktop OS... so the entire design does not suit a desktop nor its programs. Currently Win 11 can play lesser games than Win 10 properly because some games got certain issues with. No one was in need of Win 11 at this point but MS was in need of the money, nothing new.

Most likely i will keep my old Win 10 PC running as a classic PC with all the old games (up to this point) installed. However, no new games might become added anymore, it simply will be my classic-backup and game-system. If i plan to continue adding new games... i simply will build a new system with a new OS at this point and basically continue the "heritage" with a second "chapter" of fresh games. Totally possible even Win 12 could slowly appear on the horizon, in the year 2030, but not any sooner. The PC will already be 7-8 years of age at this point, so its minimum lifetime would be over at this point. Nonetheless, as a backup classic system with very low usage, it may extend a lot more years of service.

If any launcher is stopping supporting a old OS, i could not care less, because all my games will work without a launcher.

I appreciate all of the answers and suggestions!

Just here to say +1 to Heroic Games Launcher if you end up going to Linux (as it is amazing).
You can even use it (Heroic) just to download your games from Epic, Amazon and GOG and backup as many of us do.
You are by no means required to keep it running to play them.

I switched to Linux Mint initially after learning about all the "features" Win11 would come with.
Now I maintain a Linux for normal use and a completely offline Win10 just for gaming.
If you're quick to adapt, the change wont be that hard, but yes, you will need to learn many new things.
Getting used to CLI programs is a good start I'd say, because the way it worked for me was through installing 'Termux' on my Android phone back then and learning how to use Linux commands before committing my notebook to it.

Is it just me, or does HGL not work well with Nvidia GPUs? I'm still experiencing issues with HGL; the latest problem is that none of my games will run anymore with HGL. I'm done troubleshooting for now.

Hm... sorry, I can't help as I don't have a Nvidia GPU.
But here are some possible solutions a quick search gave:

Using an older Wine version:
https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher/issues/2457

Using Gamescope(?)?
https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher/issues/4083

Forcing system to use GPU:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/1183ouy/heroic_launcher_not_using_gpu/

Reinstalling with correct configs:
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/games-not-working-nvidia-gpu/44862/21?page=2

Did all these but the using Gamescope. Might try it later. Thanks

I think that most launchers will keep support for Windows 10, it's currently the most used system in the world and no many will update to Windows 11 (it's an awful OS, I don't know what they do but each update fix something and break other 10). Linux is an awesome system, but could be extremely complex for people that aren't big tech enthusiast. Windows is the most interface friendly OS without a doubt and most people are too used to use it, it's difficult that people change their preference at certain point of their life and not many have time learn to use a new OS. The majority of programs are designed for Windows, it's to difficult to migrate to another OS when you are used to install a program, make double click and the program launch without peoblems. That is why Windows has 96% of the market share and the rest is distibuted among Mac OS and all the variants of Linux (but it's true that Linux it's growing faster, some years ago was less that 1% and now it's 2.5%). Let's wait and see

PEBCAK

Actually, before buying a new computer I would recommend trying Linux on a Virtual Machine. That would provide a quick, cheap and simple way to test out the waters. Try different distributions of Linux. Check the difference between KDE, Gnome, XFCE, LXQt. See what kind of applications you need to use and what options exist in the Linux world.

Another option would be to try a Live distribution. You copy it to an USB drive and boot your PC from it. That gives you Linux on "bare metal" (but running from USB is slower, it uses RAM as disk storage and it won't remember any configuration changes you make to it).

Thus, there are some ways to "test the waters" and see if this Linux thing is the right option for you. Consider it like buying a car: there are multiple options available in the market. Maybe you want an urban car, or a van is better for your needs, or a 4x4, or a sports car. Would you like an electric vehicle or a gas or an hybrid? Often times it is easier to recognize what you don't want or don't like. So take them for a spin before deciding or committing!

There's also the Linux Subsystem for Windows.

And yes, the desktop environment is important, but given you can install a new one without changing distros *(unlike what Ubuntu has tricked thousands of people into thinking)*, I'd place more priority on the packaging philosophy and ease of use of the distro as (initially) presented.

Do you want updates literally all the time? Only some of the time? Do you want to watch tortured as you watch everyone else get updates whole you get a notice from the maintainers stating this is the final release for your distro until the 22.28 upgrade?

Sure, there's things like Flatpaks, but do you really want 2.2 gigabytes of runtime libraries among other quirky features just to run a few apps?