Microsoft has left behind nearly 1 billion PCs on Windows 10

Microsoft went through with the severing process from Windows 10 in October, meaning the company no longer provides security updates to the now out-of-date operating system, leaving PCs running Windows 10 to be at exponentially greater risk of compromise.

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With Windows 10 now in the rear-view mirror for Microsoft, the company hoped many users would make the jump to Windows 11. However, Microsoft's latest operating system comes with much stricter requirements than its predecessor, and as always, some people won't upgrade until they absolutely need to. But, it appears the rate at which users upgrade to a new Windows operating system is slowing, as around 1 billion PCs are still running Windows 10.

Those figures come from a recent Dell earnings call where Dell COO Jeffrey Clarke said, "We have about 500 million of them capable of running Windows 11 that haven't been upgraded. And we have another 500 million that are four years old that can't run Windows 11. Those are all rich opportunities to upgrade to Windows 11 and modern technology. Equally important AIPCs."

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Clarke was referring to the entire PC market and not just Dell computers when giving those figures. Notably, the lack of upgrading to Windows 11 could be attributed to Microsoft offering one year of free Windows 10 security updates for PCs that are now out of date. However, that still leaves 500 million that can't be upgraded, presumably due to the hardware within those machines not meeting the requirements of Windows 11.

So, what do the owners of those 500 million PCs do when the free one year of security updates expires? There are a few options: pay Microsoft for continued security updates until the company decides to pull the plug on that, or run the risk of having a machine that is exponentially at risk of compromise. Although Microsoft could change the hardware requirements for Windows 11 to enable those allegedly out-of-date PCs to access the new operating system, I don't see that happening anytime soon.