In a not-so-surprising turn of events, HP recently revealed that 3 out of 10 of its installed user base is still running Windows 10, despite Microsoft unceremoniously pulling support for the operating system on October 14, 2025. The move left approximately 400 million PCs in the lurch because they didn't meet Microsoft's stringent hardware requirements to upgrade to Windows 11.
Notably, the number of Windows 10 holdouts has slightly decreased from September 2025, when HP and Dell indicated that up to 50% of PCs were still running on the operating system, prompting the PC makers to suggest that users won't upgrade to Windows 11 overnight, and the process could even be expected to roll over into 2026.
While recently speaking to investors, Ketan Patel, president of personal systems, claimed the slow transition to Windows 11 from Windows 10 was giving HP a financial boost (via The Register):
"Windows 11: 30 percent of the installed base is still to be refreshed. That's one tailwind which we see as an opportunity in the short run."
HP's CFO, Karen Parkhill, reiterated the same sentiments while indicating that the trend was regional and particularly strong in EMEA and APJ for the company's FY26Q2, which ended on April 30. For context, the company's revenue grew 9% year-on-year to $14.41 billion.
"We have roughly 30 percent of the installed base still on Windows 10, so we still have some more to go. The Win 11 refresh that we've driven now in EMEA and APJ is now on par with North America."
Despite pleas and petitions from users asking the company to extend support for the operating system, it turned a deaf ear to the requests. It extended Windows 10's lifeline through its Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, which users can enroll in for free by syncing their PC settings to the cloud via a Microsoft Account, or pay $30 or 1,000 Microsoft Reward points. It's worth noting that the company later backtracked on the move, making access to Windows 10's extended support updates free for regions in the European Economic Area that do not meet the cloud backup requirement.
Still, groups like The Restart Project group, which helped co-develop the "End of 10" toolkit to support Windows 10 users who can't upgrade to Windows 11, said Microsoft's move to continue pushing security updates to Windows 10 beyond its end-of-support feels like a last-minute snooze button, which only acts as a band-aid on a bleeding system.
andCritics have branded Windows 10's end of support as programmed obsolescence by Microsoft, as the move practically forced millions of working PCs into early retirement because they didn't meet the stringent hardware requirements to upgrade to Windows 11.
The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) warned that Microsoft's pulling the plug on Windows 10 will have a major impact on older devices, widening the digital divide.
In the interim, groups like End of 10 have been pushing users to transition to Linux following Windows 10's end-of-life. The campaign encourages steadfast Windows 10 users to ditch the Windows ecosystem entirely and switch to a version of Linux on any outdated devices, using a lack of ads and telemetry tracking as the key selling points to get users to switch camps.
Between the dwindling hype behind sophisticated AI PCs and limited spending power to get new devices, it makes sense that there would be a significant number of Windows 10 holdouts.
Microsoft has made blatant attempts to get users to upgrade to Windows 11, including full-screen multi-page pop-up ads awnd even using Copilot+ PCs and its next-gen AI features to make its point with bold statements like "Windows 11 PCs are up to 2.3x faster than Windows 10 PCs."
It remains unclear whether users still running Windows 1o on their devices enrolled for the ESU program or are just using the operating system without security updates.
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