Windows 10 Still Runs on 1 Billion PCs — A Major Upgrade Headache for Microsoft

Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. However, a staggering number of users are reportedly still on the decade-old OS. That’s according to Dell’s latest earnings call, giving us an idea that Microsoft has a much tougher road ahead than expected.

During the company’s Q3 call, Dell COO Jeffrey Clarke said that “about 500 million” Windows PCs are capable of running Windows 11 but haven’t migrated yet. Whereas, another “500 million” are over four years have failed to meet Windows 11’s strict hardware requirements.

Clarke also added that these systems represent “rich opportunities to upgrade towards Windows 11 and modern technology.” Just to be clear, Clarke’s estimates encompass all Windows devices, not just Dell’s own lineup. But they do offer one of the clearest pictures of how slowly the transition is going.

A few months back, around half of all PCs were still on Windows 10. It was very recently, in June, that Windows 11 finally surpassed Windows 10 in global desktop share. That being said, Microsoft’s move to offer extended Windows 10 security updates for one year at no cost is also delaying the migration in a way.

As pointed out by Clarke, hardware limitations are another major hurdle that has caused millions of PCs to fail to meet Windows 11’s TPM and CPU requirements. Many still love Windows 10 and aren’t moving because of Microsoft’s vision to make Windows an agentic OS.

At this point, you’d find AI in every corner of Windows 11, and many people are unhappy about it. Even so that Microsoft AI CEO has to intervene lately and took a jab at critics, saying, “It cracks me up when I hear people call AI underwhelming…The fact that people are unimpressed that we can have a fluent conversation with a super smart AI that can generate any image/video is mindblowing to me.”

via: The Register