the problem solving meaning

Problem-solving therapy can help people feel more empowered to deal with the problems they face in their lives. Rather than feeling overwhelmed when stressors begin to take a toll, this therapy introduces new coping skills that can boost self-efficacy and resilience .

Other Types of Therapy

Other similar types of therapy include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) . While these therapies work to change thinking and behaviors, they work a bit differently. Both CBT and SFBT are less structured than problem-solving therapy and may focus on broader issues. CBT focuses on identifying and changing maladaptive thoughts, and SFBT works to help people look for solutions and build self-efficacy based on strengths.

This form of therapy was initially developed to help people combat stress through effective problem-solving, and it was later adapted to address clinical depression specifically. Today, much of the research on problem-solving therapy deals with its effectiveness in treating depression.

Problem-solving therapy has been shown to help depression in: 

• Older adults
• People coping with serious illnesses like cancer

Problem-solving therapy also appears to be effective as a brief treatment for depression, offering benefits in as little as six to eight sessions with a therapist or another healthcare professional. This may make it a good option for someone unable to commit to a lengthier treatment for depression.

Problem-solving therapy is not a good fit for everyone. It may not be effective at addressing issues that don't have clear solutions, like seeking meaning or purpose in life. Problem-solving therapy is also intended to treat specific problems, not general habits or thought patterns .

In general, it's also important to remember that problem-solving therapy is not a primary treatment for mental disorders. If you are living with the symptoms of a serious mental illness such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia , you may need additional treatment with evidence-based approaches for your particular concern.

Problem-solving therapy is best aimed at someone who has a mental or physical issue that is being treated separately, but who also has life issues that go along with that problem that has yet to be addressed.

For example, it could help if you can't clean your house or pay your bills because of your depression, or if a cancer diagnosis is interfering with your quality of life.

Your doctor may be able to recommend therapists in your area who utilize this approach, or they may offer it themselves as part of their practice. You can also search for a problem-solving therapist with help from the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Society of Clinical Psychology .

If receiving problem-solving therapy from a doctor or mental healthcare professional is not an option for you, you could also consider implementing it as a self-help strategy using a workbook designed to help you learn problem-solving skills on your own.

During your first session, your therapist may spend some time explaining their process and approach. They may ask you to identify the problem you’re currently facing, and they’ll likely discuss your goals for therapy .

Keep In Mind

Problem-solving therapy may be a short-term intervention that's focused on solving a specific issue in your life. If you need further help with something more pervasive, it can also become a longer-term treatment option.

Get Help Now

We've tried, tested, and written unbiased reviews of the best online therapy programs including Talkspace, BetterHelp, and ReGain. Find out which option is the best for you.

Shang P, Cao X, You S, Feng X, Li N, Jia Y. Problem-solving therapy for major depressive disorders in older adults: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials .  Aging Clin Exp Res . 2021;33(6):1465-1475. doi:10.1007/s40520-020-01672-3

Cuijpers P, Wit L de, Kleiboer A, Karyotaki E, Ebert DD. Problem-solving therapy for adult depression: An updated meta-analysis . Eur Psychiatry . 2018;48(1):27-37. doi:10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.11.006

Nezu AM, Nezu CM, D'Zurilla TJ. Problem-Solving Therapy: A Treatment Manual . New York; 2013. doi:10.1891/9780826109415.0001

Owens D, Wright-Hughes A, Graham L, et al. Problem-solving therapy rather than treatment as usual for adults after self-harm: a pragmatic, feasibility, randomised controlled trial (the MIDSHIPS trial) .  Pilot Feasibility Stud . 2020;6:119. doi:10.1186/s40814-020-00668-0

Sorsdahl K, Stein DJ, Corrigall J, et al. The efficacy of a blended motivational interviewing and problem solving therapy intervention to reduce substance use among patients presenting for emergency services in South Africa: A randomized controlled trial . Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy . 2015;10(1):46. doi:doi.org/10.1186/s13011-015-0042-1

Margolis SA, Osborne P, Gonzalez JS. Problem solving . In: Gellman MD, ed. Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine . Springer International Publishing; 2020:1745-1747. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_208

Kirkham JG, Choi N, Seitz DP. Meta-analysis of problem solving therapy for the treatment of major depressive disorder in older adults . Int J Geriatr Psychiatry . 2016;31(5):526-535. doi:10.1002/gps.4358

Garand L, Rinaldo DE, Alberth MM, et al. Effects of problem solving therapy on mental health outcomes in family caregivers of persons with a new diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or early dementia: A randomized controlled trial . Am J Geriatr Psychiatry . 2014;22(8):771-781. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2013.07.007

Noyes K, Zapf AL, Depner RM, et al. Problem-solving skills training in adult cancer survivors: Bright IDEAS-AC pilot study .  Cancer Treat Res Commun . 2022;31:100552. doi:10.1016/j.ctarc.2022.100552

Albert SM, King J, Anderson S, et al. Depression agency-based collaborative: effect of problem-solving therapy on risk of common mental disorders in older adults with home care needs . The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry . 2019;27(6):619-624. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2019.01.002

By Arlin Cuncic, MA Arlin Cuncic, MA, is the author of The Anxiety Workbook and founder of the website About Social Anxiety. She has a Master's degree in clinical psychology.

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The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process

Design thinking is a methodology which provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It’s extremely useful when used to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown—because it serves to understand the human needs involved, reframe the problem in human-centric ways, create numerous ideas in brainstorming sessions and adopt a hands-on approach to prototyping and testing. When you know how to apply the five stages of design thinking you will be impowered because you can apply the methodology to solve complex problems that occur in our companies, our countries, and across the world.

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that can have anywhere from three to seven phases, depending on whom you talk to. We focus on the five-stage design thinking model proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.school) because they are world-renowned for the way they teach and apply design thinking.

What are the 5 Stages of the Design Thinking Process

The five stages of design thinking, according to the d.school, are:

Empathize : research your users' needs .

Define : state your users' needs and problems.

Ideate : challenge assumptions and create ideas.

Prototype : start to create solutions.

Test : try your solutions out.

Let’s dive into each stage of the design thinking process.

• Transcript loading…

Hasso-Platner Institute Panorama

Ludwig Wilhelm Wall, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Stage 1: Empathize—Research Your Users' Needs

Empathize: the first phase of design thinking, where you gain real insight into users and their needs.

© Teo Yu Siang and the Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

The first stage of the design thinking process focuses on user-centric research . You want to gain an empathic understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. Consult experts to find out more about the area of concern and conduct observations to engage and empathize with your users. You may also want to immerse yourself in your users’ physical environment to gain a deeper, personal understanding of the issues involved—as well as their experiences and motivations . Empathy is crucial to problem solving and a human-centered design process as it allows design thinkers to set aside their own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users and their needs.

Depending on time constraints, you will gather a substantial amount of information to use during the next stage. The main aim of the Empathize stage is to develop the best possible understanding of your users, their needs and the problems that underlie the development of the product or service you want to create.

Stage 2: Define—State Your Users' Needs and Problems

Define: the second phase of design thinking, where you define the problem statement in a human-centered manner.

In the Define stage, you will organize the information you have gathered during the Empathize stage. You’ll analyze your observations to define the core problems you and your team have identified up to this point. Defining the problem and problem statement must be done in a human-centered manner .

For example, you should not define the problem as your own wish or need of the company: “We need to increase our food-product market share among young teenage girls by 5%.”

You should pitch the problem statement from your perception of the users’ needs: “Teenage girls need to eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow.”

The Define stage will help the design team collect great ideas to establish features, functions and other elements to solve the problem at hand—or, at the very least, allow real users to resolve issues themselves with minimal difficulty. In this stage, you will start to progress to the third stage, the ideation phase, where you ask questions to help you look for solutions: “How might we encourage teenage girls to perform an action that benefits them and also involves your company’s food-related product or service?” for instance.

Stage 3: Ideate—Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Ideate: the third phase of design thinking, where you identify innovative solutions to the problem statement you’ve created.

During the third stage of the design thinking process, designers are ready to generate ideas. You’ve grown to understand your users and their needs in the Empathize stage, and you’ve analyzed your observations in the Define stage to create a user centric problem statement. With this solid background, you and your team members can start to look at the problem from different perspectives and ideate innovative solutions to your problem statement .

There are hundreds of ideation techniques you can use—such as Brainstorm, Brainwrite , Worst Possible Idea and SCAMPER . Brainstorm and Worst Possible Idea techniques are typically used at the start of the ideation stage to stimulate free thinking and expand the problem space. This allows you to generate as many ideas as possible at the start of ideation. You should pick other ideation techniques towards the end of this stage to help you investigate and test your ideas, and choose the best ones to move forward with—either because they seem to solve the problem or provide the elements required to circumvent it.

Stage 4: Prototype—Start to Create Solutions

Prototype: the fourth phase of design thinking, where you identify the best possible solution.

The design team will now produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the product (or specific features found within the product) to investigate the key solutions generated in the ideation phase. These prototypes can be shared and tested within the team itself, in other departments or on a small group of people outside the design team.

This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the problems identified during the first three stages . The solutions are implemented within the prototypes and, one by one, they are investigated and then accepted, improved or rejected based on the users’ experiences.

By the end of the Prototype stage, the design team will have a better idea of the product’s limitations and the problems it faces. They’ll also have a clearer view of how real users would behave, think and feel when they interact with the end product.

Stage 5: Test—Try Your Solutions Out

Test: the fifth and final phase of the design thinking process, where you test solutions to derive a deep understanding of the product and its users.

Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best solutions identified in the Prototype stage. This is the final stage of the five-stage model; however, in an iterative process such as design thinking, the results generated are often used to redefine one or more further problems. This increased level of understanding may help you investigate the conditions of use and how people think, behave and feel towards the product, and even lead you to loop back to a previous stage in the design thinking process. You can then proceed with further iterations and make alterations and refinements to rule out alternative solutions. The ultimate goal is to get as deep an understanding of the product and its users as possible.

Did You Know Design Thinking is a Non-Linear Process?

We’ve outlined a direct and linear design thinking process here, in which one stage seemingly leads to the next with a logical conclusion at user testing . However, in practice, the process is carried out in a more flexible and non-linear fashion . For example, different groups within the design team may conduct more than one stage concurrently, or designers may collect information and prototype throughout each stage of the project to bring their ideas to life and visualize the problem solutions as they go. What’s more, results from the Test stage may reveal new insights about users which lead to another brainstorming session (Ideate) or the development of new prototypes (Prototype).

It is important to note the five stages of design thinking are not always sequential. They do not have to follow a specific order, and they can often occur in parallel or be repeated iteratively. The stages should be understood as different modes which contribute to the entire design project, rather than sequential steps.

The design thinking process should not be seen as a concrete and inflexible approach to design; the component stages identified should serve as a guide to the activities you carry out. The stages might be switched, conducted concurrently or repeated several times to gain the most informative insights about your users, expand the solution space and hone in on innovative solutions.

This is one of the main benefits of the five-stage model. Knowledge acquired in the latter stages of the process can inform repeats of earlier stages . Information is continually used to inform the understanding of the problem and solution spaces, and to redefine the problem itself. This creates a perpetual loop, in which the designers continue to gain new insights, develop new ways to view the product (or service) and its possible uses and develop a far more profound understanding of their real users and the problems they face.

The Take Away

Design thinking is an iterative, non-linear process which focuses on a collaboration between designers and users. It brings innovative solutions to life based on how real users think, feel and behave.

This human-centered design process consists of five core stages Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

It’s important to note that these stages are a guide. The iterative, non-linear nature of design thinking means you and your design team can carry these stages out simultaneously, repeat them and even circle back to previous stages at any point in the design thinking process.

References & Where to Learn More

Take our Design Thinking course which is the ultimate guide when you want to learn how to you can apply design thinking methods throughout a design thinking process. Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial (3rd Edition), 1996.

d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE , 2010.

Gerd Waloszek, Introduction to Design Thinking , 2012.

Hero Image: © the Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Design Thinking: The Ultimate Guide

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Critical thinking: definition and how to improve its skills

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Critical thinking is based on the observation and analysis of facts and evidences to return rational, skeptical and unbiased judgments.   

This type of thinking involves a series of skills that can be created but also improved, as we will see throughout this article in which we will begin by defining the concept and end with tips to build and improve the skills related to critical thinking.

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is a discipline based on the ability of people to observe, elucidate and analyze information, facts and evidences in order to judge or decide if it is right or wrong.

It goes beyond mere curiosity, simple knowledge or analysis of any kind of fact or information.

People who develop this type of outlook are able to logically connect ideas and defend them with weighty opinions that ultimately help them make better decisions.

How to build and improve critical thinking skills?

Building and improving critical thinking skills involves focusing on a number of abilities and capacities .

To begin the critical thinking process all ideas must be open and all options must be understood as much as possible.

Even the dumbest or craziest idea can end up being the gateway to the most intelligent and successful conclusion.

The problem with having an open mind is that it is the most difficult path and often involves a greater challenge and effort. It is well known that the easy thing to do is to go with the obvious and the commonly accepted but this has no place in critical thinking.

By contrast, it is helpful not to make hasty decisions and to weigh the problem in its entirety after a first moment of awareness.

Finally, practicing active listening will help you to receive feedback from others and to understand other points of view that may help you as a reference.

Impartiality

An important point in the critical thinking process is the development of the ability to identify biases and maintain an impartial view in evaluations.

To improve this aspect it is advisable to have tools to be able to identify and recognize the prejudices and biases you have and try to leave them completely aside when thinking about the solution.

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Observation

Observation allows you to see each and every detail , no matter how small, subtle or inconsequential they may be or seem to be.

Behind the superficial information hides a universe of data, sources and experiences that help you make the best decision.

One of the pillars of critical thinking is objectivity. This forces you to base your value judgments on established facts that you will have gathered after a correct research process. 

At this point in the process you should also be clear about the influencing factors to be taken into account and those that can be left out.

Remember that your research is not only about gathering a good amount of information that puts the maximum number of options, variables or situations on the table. 

For the information to be of quality, it must be based on reliable and trustworthy sources.

If the information you have to collect is based on the comments and opinions of third parties, try to exercise quality control but without interference. 

To do this, ask open-ended questions that bring all the nuances to the table and at the same time serve to sift out possible biases.

With the research process completed, it is time to analyze the sources and information gathered.

At this point, your analytical skills will help you to discard what does not conform to unconventional thinking, to prioritize among the information that is of value, to identify possible trends and to draw your own conclusions.

One of the skills that characterize a person with critical thinking is their ability to recognize patterns and connections between all the pieces of information they handle in their research.

This allows them to draw conclusions of great relevance on which to base their predictions with weighty foundations.

Analytical thinking is sometimes confused with critical thinking. The former only uses facts and data, while the latter incorporates other nuances such as emotions, experiences or opinions.

One of the problems with critical thinking is that it can be developed to infinity and beyond. You can always keep looking for new avenues of investigation and new lines of argument by stretching inference to limits that may not be necessary.

At this point it is important to clarify that inference is the process of drawing conclusions from initial premises or hypotheses.

Knowing when to stop the research and thinking process and move on to the next stage in which you put into practice the actions considered appropriate is necessary.

Communication

The information you collect in your research is not top secret material. On the contrary, your knowledge sharing with other people who are involved in the next steps of the process is so important.

Think that your analytical ability to extract the information and your conclusions can serve to guide others .

Problem solving

It is important to note at this point that critical thinking can be aimed at solving a problem but can also be used to simply answer questions or even to identify areas for improvement in certain situations. 

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How to think like a designer: solving problems with creative design

Table of Contents

What is design thinking.

Step by Step: From Idea to Solution

• Product Development : Designing and improving products
• Usability : Developing and optimizing services
• Strategy Development : Creating and refining business models
• Education : Designing learning environments and tackling social challenges
• Organizational Development : Shaping corporate culture and benefits
• Marketing : Developing and launching campaigns

Step 1: Understand and Observe

• Who is the target audience?
• What do the users want?
• What needs does the software meet for them?
• What goals do they have when using the software?

Step 2: Define

Step 3: Generate Ideas

Step 4: build prototypes, step 5: test and learn.

Two Practical Design Thinking Methods

• Clearly define your objectives
• Select representative individuals from your target group
• Transparently explain the purpose of shadowing to participants
• Document their activities, interactions, problems, and challenges

User Journey Mapping

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Microsoft has a big Windows 10 problem, and only one year to solve it

Windows 10 is about to expire.

In just over one year, Microsoft's most successful operating system release ever will reach its end-of-support date. Like Monty Python's Norwegian Blue , it will be pushing up the daisies. It will have shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain, and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!

Also: How to upgrade your 'incompatible' Windows 10 PC to Windows 11

How is this even possible? It feels like only yesterday, but in fact, Windows 10 was officially released to the public more than nine years ago, in July 2015. Following on the heels of the ill-fated Windows 8, it became an unqualified success among consumers and business customers alike.

That's good news, right? Well, not exactly.

Microsoft has a big challenge on its hands in the runup to that end-of-support date: convincing its enormous installed base to leave their beloved Windows 10 behind and make the move to its successor operating system, Windows 11.

I wrote the original version of this post in July 2023. Now, as that end date draws uncomfortably closer, I decided to revisit the topic and answer some burning questions.

When does Windows 10 support end, and what does that mean for Windows 10 users?

Like every version of Windows in the modern era, Windows 10 adheres to a 10-year support lifecycle. That means that most Windows 10 editions -- Home, Pro, Pro Workstation, Enterprise, and Education -- reach their end-of support date on October 14, 2025. (For the nerdy details on how that date is calculated, see  "When will Microsoft end support for your version of Windows or Office?" )

So, what happens when that day arrives? Nothing. Seriously, absolutely nothing happens on that date. PCs running Windows 10 continue to work just as they always have, and they will do so indefinitely. 

Also:  Still have a Windows 10 PC? You have 5 options before support ends next year

From that date forward, however, those PCs will no longer receive security fixes through Windows Update unless their owners pay Microsoft for an Extended Security Updates (ESU) subscription . On Windows 10 PCs without an ESU subscription, however, any security flaws found from that day forward will remain unpatched, making those PCs increasingly vulnerable to online attacks.

There is at least one exception to this cutoff date, which applies to PCs running Windows 10 Enterprise Long Term Servicing editions. In all, Microsoft has released four of these editions. The 2015 Long Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) ends support on October 14, 2025, along with the editions described earlier. The 2016 LTSB release ends support a year later, on October 13, 2026. Beginning in 2019, the name changed to Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC). For Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019, the end date is January 9, 2029. 

Confusingly, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 has only a five-year support lifecycle, which means it ends support on January 12, 2027.

How many PCs are running Windows 10 today?

If anyone tells you they know the answer to this one, maybe stop listening to them?

Microsoft can probably make a solid estimate based on its telemetry, but the rest of us are forced to guess based on fragmentary third-party metrics.

Also:  How to install Windows 11 the way you want (and sneak by Microsoft's restrictions)

One of the sources I have relied on over the years is the United States Government's Digital Analytics Program (DAP) , which has a well-organized repository of information about traffic to official websites run by agencies like the Postal Service, the National Institutes of Health, the National Weather Service, the IRS, and NASA.

When I visited DAP last week, I retrieved data for the 30 days ending August 31, 2024, summarizing more than 1.6 billion visits to those websites from people using computers and mobile devices from all around the world. Here's what the data told me about the visits from PCs and Macs:

Windows 11 is still having trouble overtaking Windows 10. Microsoft's compatibility requirements aren't helping. 

That's an improvement over the numbers I found last year, which were unable to distinguish between visits from Windows 10 and Windows 11. One bit of good news is that other versions of Windows represent a trivial share of visits, being outnumbered by every alternative desktop platform, including ChromeOS .

But if you extrapolate those numbers to the worldwide population of Windows PCs, you can see the problem. According to those numbers, roughly 60% of Windows PCs are still running Windows 10, which adds up to more than 700 million PCs that will be running an outdated, unsupported operating system a year from now. Yikes.

Also: Why 'debloating' Windows is a bad idea (and what to do instead)

For people who are concerned about the security of the internet at large, that thought is ... well, let's call it unnerving .

Another widely used measure of web traffic, StatCounter, offers its own estimates of traffic from PCs running Microsoft Windows. Here's its graph of web traffic from Windows PCs in their network over the past year.

The top line is Windows 10. The slowly climbing line far below it is Windows 11.

That purple line at the top of the chart is Windows 10, and the blue line far below it is Windows 11. Now, I have my issues with StatCounter's metrics, a topic I have not been shy about discussing over the years. But I think the broad strokes of this data are probably accurate. 

The current installed base of Windows PCs consists of about twice as many PCs running Windows 10 compared to its successor. (That's an improvement over last year's number, at least, where the ratio was more than three to one.)

How many PCs will still be running Windows 10 at the end of 2025?

That's the real question, isn't it?

Despite predictions of the imminent demise of the PC market, OEMs continue to sell more than 200 million new Windows computers each year. The most optimistic scenario is that every one of those new PCs sold in the next year replaces a Windows 10 device that is then retired, with another 100 million or so older PCs replaced by Chromebooks, iPads, and Macs. Maybe some old PCs are simply put out to pasture and not replaced at all, as consumers decide to use their phones or tablets instead.

Also:  The best computers: Comparing laptops, Macs, PCs and more

That best-case scenario still leaves hundreds of millions of people running Windows 10 when the October 2025 end-of-support date rolls around. Who owns those PCs?

Those who don't qualify for an automatic upgrade.  Some people own older hardware that doesn't meet the minimum hardware compatibility standards for Windows 11. Basically, that means any PC that was designed in 2018 or earlier. Note that this category includes many budget PCs that used older designs and unsupported CPUs but were sold as new in 2019 and 2020.

Corporate PCs that are standardized on Windows 10.  A nontrivial number of enterprise IT managers have just finished their Windows 10 migrations in the last year or two and probably aren't anxious to do it again.

Windows 10 diehards.  From my time spent reading support forums, I know there's a large population of longtime Windows users who are unhappy about the changes in Windows 11. Some of them will reluctantly upgrade, but others won't.

Will Microsoft extend the support deadline for Windows 10?

That's certainly a possibility, and there's precedent for it in the experience of Windows XP, which ended support in April 2014, more than 12 years after it was first released. Windows XP users even received emergency security updates well after that official end date, to address the WannaCry vulnerability in 2017 and a similar flaw in 2019. Likewise, Microsoft issued emergency security updates for Windows 7 in 2021  after its support had officially ended.

Also: For Windows 11 setup, which user account type should you choose? How to decide

But it's more likely that Microsoft will tell Windows 10 holdouts to pay for Extended Security Updates rather than giving them away for free.

Of course, in both cases, the customers running the soon-to-be-obsolete Windows version had the option to upgrade to a new version. Indeed, that's the recommendation from Microsoft's  official Product End of Support page :

Once a product reaches the end of support, or a service retires, there will be no new security updates, non-security updates, or assisted support. Customers are encouraged to migrate to the latest version of the product or service.

For Windows 10, though, that alternative might not be available. Devices that don't meet the hardware compatibility requirements will have no Microsoft-supported migration path to a newer version. As I pointed out  the last time I looked at this issue , the owners of those perfectly functional PCs, some only five or six years old, will instead have the following options:

Install a non-Microsoft operating system.  Maybe 2026 will be the year when desktop Linux finally takes hold , although that's unlikely. ChromeOS Flex might be another option, but it has its own  hardware compatibility requirements  that probably make it unsuitable for older hardware.

Ignore Microsoft's warnings and upgrade to Windows 11 anyway.  There are options to  install Windows 11 on "incompatible" hardware , but they require a fair amount of technical experience. People who are clinging to old PCs because they can't afford a new one likely don't have those specialized skills and may not even realize that the option is available. I doubt that many businesses would be willing to risk the support issues that come with that approach.

Keep running Windows 10 and hope for the best.  History suggests that this is the most likely option.

Microsoft and its OEM partners would prefer that the owners of those devices dump them in a landfill and buy a new PC running Windows 11. However, my experience with PC owners, especially older people on a fixed income, is that they will use those devices until they stop working. Those PCs will be sitting ducks for a cyberattack like  WannaCry , which was brutally effective against the large population of Windows 7 PCs that were still in use three years after its support ended.

Also: This secret Windows 11 setting lets you kill unresponsive apps much faster

That incident was a PR nightmare for Microsoft, and a repeat would be even more devastating to the company's reputation. That's why Microsoft has offered paid options to extend support for Windows 10 by three years. Customers in enterprise and education deployments are likely to take advantage of those options.

Consumers, though, will apparently be on their own.

This article was originally published in July 2023. The most recent update was in September 2024.

Windows 11 finally outscores Windows 10 among PC gamers

Still have a windows 10 pc you have 5 options before support ends next year, the windows 10 clock is ticking: here are 5 ways to save your old pc in 2025 (most are free).

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Environmental Factor

Your online source for niehs news, september 2024, chemical contamination reduced by grantee’s innovative technology.

I spoke with Upal Ghosh, Ph.D., about how effective environmental remediation requires rigorous exposure science, engineering.

By Rick Woychik

Environmental contamination is a pressing challenge in parts of the U.S. and in many places around the world, affecting ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. From legacy pollutants like PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) to emerging contaminants such as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), the complexity and scale of exposures is often daunting. But within these challenges lies opportunity for innovation, where it is possible to harness scientific and engineering breakthroughs to clean up contamination and protect public health. Recently, I had the privilege of speaking with someone who has dedicated his career to doing just that.

NIEHS grant recipient Upal Ghosh, Ph.D. , is a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who has developed practical, scalable solutions to some of the toughest contamination problems we face. Much of his work focuses on reducing the bioavailability of pollutants — preventing them from entering the food web and reaching humans — in bodies of water such as lakes and rivers. SediMite, a technology he helped to create and commercialize, offers a sustainable solution to environmental cleanup of PCBs.

Beyond his efforts in the lab, Dr. Ghosh works closely with communities disproportionately affected by contamination. His projects in places like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Delaware have demonstrated the benefits of his remediation technology, helping to reduce fish consumption advisories, restore wetlands, and strengthen resiliency among residents.

In our conversation, Dr. Ghosh shared insights into the scale of environmental contamination globally and the evolving landscape of remediation technologies. He discussed the importance of understanding how exposures in a water body can lead to exposures in humans, as that knowledge is crucial to developing effective cleanup approaches. Dr. Ghosh also described his early interest in science and what inspired him to pursue a research career.

Economy and environment

Rick Woychik : Thank you, Dr. Ghosh, for taking the time to speak with me. Can you provide an overview of the scale of environmental contamination problems, both in the U.S. and globally?

Upal Ghosh : Sure. The way I think about it, the scale of environmental problems is related to the scale of the economy. A lot of the problems we discuss — from Superfund sites such as Love Canal to current challenges around PFAS contamination — are tied to how productive an economy is, and how production and usage practices have caused leakages.

The U.S. was the largest manufacturing center for many products, and we’re seeing the footprint of that. Love Canal is a prime example. All of these Superfund sites are remnants of an era where laws weren’t in place to internalize costs and reduce externalities, and now we’re realizing that.

I also travel internationally, and I see the same trends in developing countries. In India, they're ramping up production, and China has already reached high levels of industrial production. They’re starting to face challenges associated with manufacturing, transporting, and using large volumes of chemicals to provide their populations with a quality of life they expect and deserve.

In pharmaceutical production, we’re seeing leakages of pharmaceuticals, and with large-volume chemicals like petroleum and pesticides, every functioning economy creates this footprint. So, in short, the scale of the problem has often been tied to the scale of the economy. But I believe that new technologies will help to create a better dynamic, allowing for both strong economic growth and strong environmental health.

To solve the problem, first define it

RW : How do you go about developing remediation approaches?

UG : Environmental contamination poses an interesting challenge for scientists and engineers because the problem is often poorly defined. If I put PCB molecules in a beaker of clean water, as a scientist, I can describe the behavior accurately. But when I deal with a river, lake, or coastal bay, the matrix is much more complicated. For a variety of reasons, such as complex geochemistry, hydrodynamics, air-water exchange, and so forth, the attributes of contamination are not uniform. The behavior of compounds in that matrix becomes much more difficult to describe.

For example, in the PCB cases I’ve worked on, we have to try to understand not just what’s happening in a complex body of water, but also a complex ecological system that ultimately leads to human exposure via the food web. So, defining the problem is the first part of effective technology development, and in fact I think that’s where many technology needs lie: accurately defining exposure. We can’t solve the problem unless we do so.

A lot of my work, and much of my colleagues’ work, falls under this category of accurately defining exposure, of understanding the bioavailability of pollutants in the soil or sediment environment. Once we understand the exposure — and the dominant exposure pathways — then I can bring in engineers, communities, and policymakers to create effective solutions.

Discovering black carbon’s key role

RW : This is very interesting. If I’m understanding you correctly, the goal is to not just determine PCB levels in the soil of a riverbed, for example, but also to assess how much PCB in the soil of the riverbed will make it into the water and be ingested by fish, or absorbed through their gills, and eventually consumed by humans. Is that what you’re getting at?

UG : That’s exactly right. It’s not just about measuring contamination in sediments but understanding how it moves through the aquatic environment and enters the food web. Once we can accurately define the dominant exposure pathways, we can tailor our remediation efforts to address the most critical sources of exposure. To that end, we’ve adopted passive sampling techniques and environmental modeling methods to better assess the movement and exposures.

Early in my research, when I was at Stanford working with my colleague and mentor Dr. Dick Luthy, we were studying the bioavailability of pollutants, looking specifically at PAHs [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons] and PCBs in sediments. The question we were asking was: Why is the bioavailability so different across sites? For example, when I took sediments from the Baltimore harbor versus sediments from the Milwaukee harbor, they didn’t behave the same.

Just looking at the organic matter content, mineral content, and particle size wasn’t explaining the differences, which were sometimes more than an order of magnitude. In some sediments, pollutants like PAHs and PCBs were bound up much more strongly than we would predict. So, we started looking at that more carefully and discovered that in sediments where pollutants were strongly bound and less bioavailable, black carbon was present. Black carbon, the graphitic form of carbon, occurs naturally and can also come from things like forest fires, coal coke, and soot.

We showed that these naturally present black carbon particles were binding PAHs and PCBs with affinities two orders of magnitude stronger than organic materials of plant origin. That was interesting because we could now explain the difference across our study sites. Some of our early papers focused on these natural differences in organic matter geochemistry, explaining the differences in bioavailability. Of course, we didn’t stop at just understanding the science — we wanted to use that knowledge to develop remediation technology.

Pellets pack a punch

RW : And this is where the product you helped to develop, SediMite, comes into play. Can you explain the technology behind it?

UG : SediMite works by binding contaminants in sediments, reducing their availability to organisms in the food web. The product consists of activated carbon packaged into pellets, which makes it easy to handle and apply in the field. Once dispersed in sediments, the activated carbon binds to hydrophobic pollutants like PCBs, making them less bioavailable to aquatic organisms. It can apply to a whole range of hydrophobic chemicals — pesticides, dioxins, and even PFAS. It works for some metals, too. We have done some work with mercury, and it binds strongly.

What sets this technology apart from traditional methods like dredging is that it minimizes environmental disruption. Dredging can release buried contaminants into the water, potentially exacerbating the problem. With SediMite, we’re able to stabilize contaminants in place, reducing the risk of exposure without disturbing the ecosystem. Additionally, this method is often more cost-effective than large-scale dredging and landfill disposal. SediMite can also be adjusted, so we can blend new formulations of absorbents in our pellets to target different pollutants.

Targeting contamination hotspots

RW : It sounds like this technology has the potential to significantly improve remediation efforts. How scalable is it? Could it be applied to larger bodies of water, like Lake Michigan?

UG : Scaling is always a consideration, and while SediMite can be successfully applied to larger areas, it’s often most effective in targeted locations where contamination levels are highest. With targeted dispersal, we have been able to reduce PCB bioavailability by 80% or more. We’ve successfully applied this technology in places like Mirror Lake in Delaware, where it helped to reduce concentrations in fish to levels below consumption advisory guidelines.

The broader notion of introducing activated carbon in a contaminated site, demonstrated successfully through our research, has now become mainstream technology. For example, the technique has been applied at multiple Superfund sites, such as the Passaic River in New Jersey.

In a large body of water like Lake Michigan, the focus would likely be on contaminated hotspots near industrial sites rather than attempting to treat the entire lake. This targeted approach allows for more efficient use of resources while still achieving significant risk reduction.

Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency used our product in Minnesota’s Scanlon Reservoir to clean up dioxins, and they covered about 15 acres. They used SediMite to reduce bioavailability in shoreline areas with wetlands without destroying the wetlands.

Using microbes to degrade contaminants

RW : One intriguing aspect of your work involves microbial degradation of contaminants. Can you tell us more about that?

UG : Absolutely. Microbial degradation is the ultimate solution — finding ways to not only bind contaminants but also break them down over time. In the case of PCBs, there are naturally occurring microorganisms that can dechlorinate these compounds, making them less harmful. We’ve worked with my microbiologist colleague Dr. Kevin Sowers to isolate these organisms, grow them in the lab, and then reintroduce them into contaminated environments as microbial catalysts. This process enhances the natural degradation of contaminants, further reducing their impact over time.

For the benefit of communities

RW : It’s inspiring to see remediation technologies applied in the real world. Could you share some examples of how your work has benefited communities disproportionately affected by environmental contamination?

UG : One project that stands out is the Middle Branch Resiliency Initiative in Southwest Baltimore, a community that faces multiple environmental challenges, including contaminated sediments and coastal flooding. By using SediMite to treat nearby sediments and creating elevated wetlands, we’re not only improving environmental conditions but also helping to protect the community from future flooding events. This project shows how environmental remediation can be integrated with broader resilience and restoration efforts, ultimately enhancing the quality of life for residents.

(Rick Woychik, Ph.D., directs NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program.)

Path to environmental engineering

Rick Woychik : What inspired you to pursue a research career?

Upal Ghosh : If I go back and think about it, my early childhood played a big role. My father worked in a research institute in a coal mining town called Dhanbad in Bihar, India. He was the head of the Health Division at the Mining Research Institute.

My father was a chemist by training, and he was researching the correlation between air pollution and cardiovascular disease in miners. I remember he had a jar with a preserved lung of a coal miner, and it was black from the coal dust. Seeing that black lung left a big imprint on me.

I watched my father on local rooftops, conducting air sampling, and then going to hospitals to collect data on cardiovascular disease to correlate with mining activities. I’m sure that had an impact on how I viewed the relationship between environmental health and human health. That interest grew over time.

I went on to study chemical engineering in Bombay. I’m an undergraduate chemical engineer by training, but I didn’t want to work in industry. I became more interested in the environment and nature, and I joined the nature club. My experiences led me to pursue environmental engineering.

I completed my master’s and Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Then I spent a few years at Stanford University with Dick Luthy, who was one of my greatest mentors, before being hired here at UMBC to start our environmental engineering program. We’ve made great strides over the past 22 years, and we have built a strong program here.

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Transversal governance for the fulfilment of NDC targets in Colombia: the missing link

Aim and main message.

Climate financing in developing countries faces challenges for massive resource mobilization because of market and coordination failures. Improving transversal governance through an institutional triplet can solve these challenges by providing a sense of direction and facilitating the construction of attractive portfolios for the abundant financing available worldwide, especially from institutional investors.

Context and problem

Since 2015, Colombia has not reduced its GHG emissions, and its 2020 NDC commitments are more ambitious than the previous ones. Between 2014 and 2018, GHG emissions increased by 17.3%, equivalent to an annual homogeneous growth rate of 4.1%. To achieve a 51% reduction in emissions by 2030, the annual homogeneous compound reduction rate will need to be -2.22% from now on.

The slow progress in reducing GHG emissions is due partly to the large climate financing gaps the country faces because of (i) market failures (gap between financing supply and demand); and (ii) coordination failures within the state, and between the state and the rest of the actors. In mitigation, the identification and prioritization of interventions, project structuring and risk management are very weak and are disintegrated. In adaptation, the country is just beginning to outline national risk allocation and management policies in conditions of deep uncertainty. In general, ministries have no expertise in climate financing, nor do they have the resources to build prioritized portfolios of mitigation projects or adaptation plans.

Fedesarrollo findings

Increasing climate financing will require greater coordination and additional institutional capacities focused on implementation. A solution is to structure an institutional triplet to tackle these problems composed of:

• First component: NDC Mission

A mission is a set of coordinated decisions to solve a complex and specific high-impact social challenge. Missions serve to align transversal efforts in the public sector and to deliver tangible outcomes. Missions must trigger relevant R&D+i, do not replace private sector initiatives, and cross sectors and actors. An NDC Mission must ensure that the following functions are carried out by the delegated government instances:

• Definition and follow-up of measurable goals (e.g. mobilized money, emission reduction, reduced risk).
• Alignment of investment priorities and actions by hierarchical coordination at the highest level of the state.
• Regulation of goal reaching (system of prizes and penalties).
• Knowledge management in mitigation and adaptation.
• Second component: Public agency to structure complex projects 

This facility gathers scarce public resource to fund socially profitable projects that do not have positive private profitability. In adaptation, it allows approaching territorial entities to co-finance interventions and to generate regional economies of scale.

• Third component: Blended finance fund

Blended financing funds improve the risk profile of projects and attract heterogeneous investors in amount, term, risk appetite, and purpose. They are not designed to carry out the bulk of the financing. The main result of the fund's transactions is to attract institutional investors who, worldwide, have investment resources in climate finance of the same order of magnitude as those of commercial banks.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: define the public climate financing model for mitigation and adaptation.

Public financing must be guided by the principles of efficiency, equity, transparency, and catalytic impact. Public climate financing must be included in medium and long-term fiscal allocations, assign ratios to mitigation and adaptation, and define eligible interventions. Public financing for mitigation must be based on constantly updated marginal abatement cost curves (MACC) to identify the projects in which it is necessary for the State to intervene.

Recommendation 2: Prioritize the construction of portfolios in projects with a high mitigation impact and establish conditions to invest in highly complex adaptation projects.

There is an appetite for financing that does not meet sound, structured projects to invest. Negative carry risk of sovereign and green bonds due to the absence of projects will be mitigated by having prioritized portfolios, aligned with a green taxonomy, and supplemented by certification systems. The areas with the greatest mitigation impact include energy efficiency, green buildings, the electrification of urban mass transportation, sustainable agriculture, and the conservation and restoration of forests and other carbon storage ecosystems.

Recommendation 3: Adopt a national policy for managing adaptation risks.

Developing countries are required to define an adaptation policy in a decision-making framework under deep uncertainty that strengthens existing sectoral and territorial initiatives. The four strategic lines of work in adaptation are: (i) cost-efficient investment in preserving the continuity of the service of vital networks; (ii) investment in ecosystem services and protection of biodiversity; (iii) protection of the built environment; and (iv) R&D+i in new technologies and business models that transform the economy and occupation of the territory.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank UNEP through the NDC Action Project that has funded this research agenda.

Publication details: Benavides, J. & Garcia, H. Transversal governance for the fulfilment of NDC targets in Colombia: the missing link (2024).

Disclaimer : The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and should not be attributed to Fedesarrollo.

The NDC Action Project is a UNEP project supporting 10 partner countries worldwide to translate their NDCs into concrete strategies and actions, ready for implementation and financing.

© United Nations Environment Programme

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How to Fix the "Driver Is Unavailable" Error on Your Printer

Are you seeing a driver is unavailable error? Like all PC hardware, printers need updated drivers to function smoothly, and they won’t work until the issue is resolved. We'll take you through all the ways to fix your printer if the driver is unavailable, and show you how to easily keep your drivers updated with the help of an automated driver updater tool.

What is the "Driver is Unavailable" error?

The “Driver is Unavailable” error means Windows is unable to locate the right driver required for issuing commands to your printer. This could be due to having incorrect, corrupted, or outdated drivers installed, or due to your system not having the necessary access permissions.

For your system to interact with a printer, dedicated software known as drivers are needed to act as an intermediary between the PC and the printer. The drivers translate requests from the operating system into commands that the printer’s specific make and model can understand and execute. But if there’s a problem with the driver, communication breaks down, causing the “Driver is unavailable” error to occur.

The same is true for other hardware components, although you may not always receive a driver unavailable message. For example, faulty graphics drivers can slow down your streaming and cause your games to lag or crash. If you're experiencing slowdowns, check your computer specs and be sure to update your graphics drivers .

Common causes of driver errors

There are many reasons why you might be encountering a printer driver error, including problems with the driver itself or issues with your operating system. That’s why it’s important to learn how to hunt down drivers to boost PC performance and fix common driver problems in Windows .

Here are some common causes why your printer driver is unavailable:

Faulty drivers: Occasionally, manufacturers accidentally release driver updates containing bugs or glitches — particularly if they’re rushing to patch up a security exploit . In this case, fixing the issue simply requires rolling back your driver to the previous version.

Outdated drivers: If you don’t keep your drivers updated, as well as causing performance issues, they may eventually become incompatible with your devices. The best driver update software keeps track of driver updates for all your hardware and makes sure you never miss a new release.

Corrupted drivers: Like other files stored on your PC, drivers can become corrupted due to malware , hardware bugs, unexpected shutdowns, or interference from other software. Reinstalling the driver with AVG Driver Updater will repair the corrupted files as well as perform a malware and compatibility check.

Outdated operating system: Even if all your drivers are fully functional and updated, if you’re not running the latest version of your operating system, compatibility problems can result in a driver unavailable error.

Windows updates: Drivers are written specifically to integrate with a particular operating system, so changes to your system via Windows updates can cause compatibility issues. Until a driver update is released to fix the problem, roll back Windows by uninstalling the latest update.

Incorrect installation: If you manually update your drivers, it’s easy to install the wrong driver. Alternatively, you may have the correct driver, but failed to install it properly, resulting in the printer driver being unavailable.

How to fix the "Driver is Unavailable" error in Windows 10

If your Windows 10 printer driver is unavailable, isolate and fix the problem by working through the following steps until the “Driver is Unavailable” message stops appearing.

Roll back your printer driver

If your printer driver recently updated before the error appeared, an issue with the update is probably to blame. Here’s how to roll it back to the previous version:

Open the Control Panel via the Start menu and click View devices and printers .

Locate the affected printer, right-click it, and select Properties .

Go to the Hardware tab and click Properties .

In the new pop-up window, go to the Driver tab and click Roll Back Driver . If prompted, confirm by clicking Yes or OK .

Update your printer driver

If your printer driver wasn’t recently updated, or if rolling back to a previous version didn’t solve the issue, you should ensure you have the latest driver version installed.

Open the Device Manager via the Start menu.

Locate your printer within the list of devices, right-click it, and select Update driver .

Click Search automatically for drivers and follow the on-screen installation instructions if an update is available.

Update or roll back Windows

Compatibility issues can arise if you’re not using the latest version of Windows or your driver isn’t compatible with the version you’re running.

Here’s how to make sure your operating system is fully updated:

Open Settings through the Start menu, then click Update & Security .

Select Windows Update , then click Check for updates .

If any updates are available, follow the on-screen instructions to install them. If your Windows update gets stuck , check out how to fix Windows update errors .

You shouldn’t use an outdated version of Windows, because this leaves you exposed to potential vulnerabilities and zero-day attacks . But if a recent update coincided with the appearance of the error message, you can try rolling back Windows to see if that solves the problem.

Uninstall your printer driver

In the event that your printer driver has become corrupted, or is incorrectly installed, you’ll need to wipe the slate clean and start again.

Here’s how to uninstall your printer driver:

Open Settings via the Start menu, then click Devices .

Select Printers and Scanners .

Select Print Server Properties .

Click the Drivers tab, select the problematic printer driver in the list of installed drivers, and click Remove .

Select Remove driver and driver package , then click OK — if asked for confirmation, click Delete .

Download and install a new printer driver

After uninstalling your printer driver, it’s time to make sure you have the right one installed for your specific make and model of printer. Here’s how to download and install a new driver:

Open Settings via the Start menu and click Devices .

Select Printers & scanners , then click the name of the printer followed by Remove device .

Now click the + button next to Add a printer or scanner and select the name of the printer.

Follow the on-screen instructions to pair your PC with the printer. Windows should automatically find, download, and install the appropriate driver.

If this doesn’t work for any reason, you’ll need to manually locate the driver on the printer manufacturer’s website, download it, and follow their installation instructions.

How to fix the "Driver is Unavailable" error on HP printers

If your HP printer driver is unavailable, you can either use an HP Drivers Updater tool or do so manually. Locate your printer’s name on the outer shell of your printer, then go to the HP Printer Driver Downloads page . Enter the name of your printer in the search box and choose the appropriate driver.

Here are some other tips for fixing common printer “Driver is unavailable” HP errors:

Check your internet connection: If your HP printer is using HP+, a faulty internet connection could make your printer driver unavailable to HP servers. If you have connection problems, see why your internet is slow and how to fix it .

Use a universal driver: You can also try using one of HP’s universal drivers , which work across several models.

Use HP’s driver diagnostic tool: HP’s Print and Scan doctor can potentially diagnose your printer driver issue and offer a solution.

Roll back HP’s update: If your HP printer worked fine before updating, roll back the driver update using Windows Device Manager.

Other printer driver errors and how to fix them

Likewise, if your Canon printer driver is unavailable or your Epson printer driver is unavailable, visiting Canon’s software driver page or Epson’s printer support page lets you manually search for your specific printer model so you can download and install the right driver.

But sometimes printer driver issues are caused by something else entirely. Here are some other errors which could be causing the problem:

Print spooler needs restarting

Windows’ print spooler orders print jobs and puts them in the printing queue, so a mix-up here could cause the printer driver to show up as unavailable. Try restarting it through the built-in Services app by scrolling down to Print Spooler , right-clicking it, and selecting Restart .

Administrator access

Since drivers have privileged access to the inner workings of your hardware, they might require administrator rights for security reasons. Switch to your administrator account, then check if your printer driver is still unavailable.

Troubleshooting tips

Does your printer still say the driver is unavailable, even after you’ve updated it and tried all the other fixes? Here are a few more troubleshooting options to try:

Windows Troubleshooter: Windows 10 has a built-in printer troubleshooter to help you identify and fix problems. Type troubleshoot settings in the Windows search bar and open it. Click Additional troubleshooters , then Printer , and Run the troubleshooter .

Clean your PC: It’s possible you have a lot of junk on your computer that is getting in your driver’s way. Our ultimate guide to speeding up and cleaning your PC can help you unclog the works.

Unplug and replug the printer: Sometimes, simply unplugging your printer, waiting a minute, and then plugging it back in, can reset your driver issue.

Call support: If all else fails, contact your printer’s customer support center. They’ll be best placed to guide you through potential solutions to your problem.

Keep all your drivers updated

Drivers are crucial to your PC’s performance, but there are millions of drivers across different brands you could have on your computer. AVG Driver Updater removes the hassle and stress of keeping up with updates — it automatically manages all your drivers for improved audio and video quality, enhanced Wi-Fi connectivity, and faster browsing. Refresh your PC today by installing AVG Driver Updater and getting a free scan of your drivers.

Keep Your Drivers Updated Automatically

Get AVG Driver Updater to automatically scan, update, and fix your drivers with a single click. Enjoy optimal PC performance.

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How to Start in Safe Mode and How to Turn It Off (Windows 10 and 11) How to Start in Safe Mode and How to Turn It Off (Windows 10 and 11)

Why Your Android Won’t Connect to Wi-Fi and How to Fix It Why Your Android Won’t Connect to Wi-Fi and How to Fix It

How to Update BIOS on Your Windows PC How to Update BIOS on Your Windows PC

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