The countdown to the demise of Windows 10 is now well underway with this ageing operating system being consigned to the history books next October. Despite that end of support date looming, millions remain addicted to this hugely popular platform with recent stats suggesting it’s still the most dominant operating system by some considerable margin. In fact, Stat Counter says Windows 10 accounts for a staggering 69.89 percent share of the market compared to Windows 11‘s pretty measly 26.19 percent share.
That news doesn’t appear to be worrying Microsoft too much. In a recent interview with Express.co.uk, Aaron Woodman, Vice President, Windows Marketing at Microsoft explained that Microsoft isn’t surprised that millions haven’t yet switched with the firm expecting many to leave it to the last minute to jump over to Windows 11.
Although there’s still plenty of time before Windows 10 support ends, Microsoft is continuing to push out more alerts warning that millions of PCs will soon be unsupported with these warnings even targeting specific devices.
As reported by Windows Latest, those who have Windows 10 PCs that can upgrade to Windows 11 are now seeing full screen messages with advice on how to install the upgrade.
“It’s time to upgrade your PC before end of support,” the huge pop-up says.
“End of support for Windows 10 arrives of October 14th 2025. This means your PC won’t receive technical support or security updates after that date.”
For those with much older laptops that are compatible with Windows 11, Microsoft is offering different advice that includes help on how to switch to a newer model that can run this operating system. “A new journey with Windows 10. Your PC is not eligible to upgrade to Windows 11. Learn more about how you can prepare for the transition to Windows 11,” the second message reads.
Those who don’t want to buy a new laptop may be offered a lifeline thanks to Microsoft’s ESU (Extended Security Updates) plan which will offer extended support until 2028.
“While we strongly recommend moving to Windows 11, we understand there are circumstances that could prevent you from replacing Windows 10 devices before the EOS date. Therefore, Microsoft will offer Extended Security Updates,” Microsoft recently announced.
Right now we know this will be available for business users at a price of around £48 per year. Microsoft is yet to confirm consumer costs but hopefully, an update will be announced soon.
As a quick reminder, here’s what your PC needs to run Windows 11.
FULL SPECS FOR RUNNING WINDOWS 11
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with two or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or system on a chip (SoC).
RAM: 4 gigabytes (GB) or greater.
Storage: 64 GB or greater available storage is required to install Windows 11.
Graphics card: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later, with a WDDM 2.0 driver.
TPM: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0.
The official end-of-support date has been set for October 2024. Although it will still work beyond that deadline, using it is not recommended after that date as Microsoft won’t be pushing out any updates for security patches.
As the latest full screen warnings confirm you now have three options. Firstly, if you have a compatible PC you can simply update it. If your PC is too old for Windows 11 you’ll consider ditching it for something new.
Finally, there will hopefully be more news soon on how much consumers can pay for extended support. We’ll bring you news on that as soon as we hear more.