Eight months after Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 10 support, roughly 21% of Windows devices are still running the obsolete operating system, according to new inventory data from Lansweeper. That’s millions of PCs that no longer receive monthly security patches—but the headline number obscures a more troubling reality: these holdouts are clustered in healthcare facilities, factory floors, and small businesses where upgrading isn’t just a matter of clicking “Install.”

What the Latest Numbers Actually Show

Lansweeper’s data, first reported by Computer Weekly and drawn from millions of assets across tens of thousands of customer sites, puts Windows 11 adoption at 78.8% of observed Windows endpoints. The remaining 21.2% still run Windows 10—an OS that hit end of support on October 14, 2025.

The finding isn’t a universal census of every PC on the planet. It reflects the environments Lansweeper’s customers actively inventory: a mix of enterprises, mid-sized organizations, and public-sector bodies. But it’s one of the most concrete snapshots available of how the post-support landscape is actually shaking out, and it confirms that the October 2025 deadline didn’t produce a clean break.

What’s more illuminating than the 21% figure is where those devices live. Lansweeper says healthcare accounts for 23% of organizations in its Windows 10 holdout group, while manufacturing represents 18%. These aren’t industries that forgot to upgrade; they’re environments where a PC isn’t just a PC.

A hospital workstation tied to a validated medical application can’t simply be swapped out. A production-line PC connected to a 15-year-old CNC machine may run only on a specific Windows 10 build and carry certification requirements that make an OS change a multi-vendor, multi-department project. Retail point-of-sale terminals, kiosks, and scanners often sit under restrictive warranty or support agreements that block independent upgrades. In each case, “still on Windows 10” isn’t negligence—it’s a logistical and financial trap.

Small and medium-sized businesses make up the majority of organizations with remaining Windows 10 devices. For a 40-person company, the cost of a fleet-wide PC refresh to meet Windows 11’s hardware requirements—TPM 2.0, supported processors, Secure Boot, compatible drivers—can rival payroll for a month. Many chose to ride out the deadline and are now grappling with the consequences.

What This Means for You

If You’re a Home User

Check whether your PC is still on Windows 10. If it is, you have two immediate concerns: security and time.

Microsoft offers a consumer Extended Security Update (ESU) program for personal Windows 10 22H2 devices. It provides critical and important security patches through October 13, 2026—one year from the end of standard support, not a two-year blanket. Enrollment can be free for users who sync PC settings with a Microsoft account, or it may be available through Microsoft Rewards or a one-time payment. The details matter: this program is for genuine personal devices only. If your PC is joined to a work domain, managed by your company, or running in kiosk mode, it doesn’t qualify.

That one-year clock is tight. Before it expires, you’ll need to either upgrade to Windows 11 (if your hardware supports it) or buy a new PC. Microsoft’s PC Health Check tool can tell you if your current machine meets the requirements. If it doesn’t, start budgeting now. Unsupported, unpatched PCs connected to the internet are a risk not just to you, but to everyone on your network.

If You Run a Business or Manage IT

The situation is more complex, but the decision tree is clear: inventory, classify, protect, and plan.

Microsoft’s commercial ESU program covers Windows 10 22H2 devices for up to three years—until October 10, 2028—but it’s deliberately designed as a bridge, not a destination. The first year costs $61 per device, and that price doubles each subsequent year. You can’t skip year one and jump in later; the licensing is cumulative. For a fleet of 500 legacy machines, Year 1 alone will run $30,500. By Year 3, the per-device cost hits $244, totaling $122,000 for the same fleet—money that could cover a decent chunk of a hardware refresh.

ESU doesn’t bring new features, non-security fixes, or technical support. It’s a lifeline to keep critical vulnerabilities at bay while you execute a migration plan. Treat it as a controlled risk-reduction measure with a fixed expiration date.

Healthcare, manufacturing, and retail organizations face a harder road. Those legacy systems often require application vendor recertification, hardware replacement, and downtime windows that can stretch into weeks. For a CT scanner console or a steel mill control station, you can’t just push a feature update. In these cases, compensating controls become essential: network segmentation, strict least-privilege access, application whitelisting, and disabling internet-facing services on those endpoints.

How We Got Here

The Windows 11 launch in October 2021 set firm hardware boundaries: an 8th-gen Intel or AMD Ryzen 2000 processor or newer, TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and 4GB of RAM. Microsoft framed these as security imperatives, and the rationale was sound. But the pandemic had already stretched PC lifecycles; organizations that bought fleets in 2018–2019 weren’t due for a refresh. Supply chain chaos and inflation further delayed upgrades.

Many businesses and consumers waited until the last moment. The October 14, 2025 deadline triggered a surge in upgrades and hardware purchases, but the easiest devices—modern office desktops and laptops—moved first. What’s left now, in mid-2026, is a concentrate of the hardest cases: old hardware, specialized software dependencies, tight budgets, and regulated environments.

Omdia analysts Greg Davis and Kieren Jessop expect SMB migration activity to continue well into 2027. Meanwhile, commercial PC buyers are increasingly opting for premium hardware with longer service lives, signaling that the market is bifurcating: new, secure devices on one side, and aging, isolated systems on the other.

Your Move: A 4-Step Plan for the Windows 10 Endgame

  1. Inventory everything, no exceptions. Use a network scanning tool or IT asset management platform to identify every Windows 10 device still active on your network. Record make, model, processor, TPM version, installed applications, and whether it’s domain-joined or standalone.

  2. Classify each device into one of four buckets:
    - Able to upgrade: Can run Windows 11. Schedule the upgrade immediately.
    - ESU-eligible but not upgradeable: Must stay on Win10 for now. Enroll in commercial ESU, document the reason, and set a retirement date no later than October 10, 2028.
    - Specialized/certified: Med-tech, industrial, or retail systems that can’t be changed without vendor approval. Work with the application vendor to map a compatibility path; until then, isolate these devices on a segmented VLAN with zero trust and no direct internet access.
    - Can’t be secured: No ESU eligibility, no upgrade path, no vendor support. Remove from the network, virtualize the critical application if possible, or replace the device.

  3. Apply immediate protections. For any Windows 10 device that must remain online, enable Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (if licensed), apply all available ESU patches, disable unnecessary services, and enforce multi-factor authentication for any remote access. Monitor these devices closely for anomalous activity.

  4. Set deadlines and budgets now. ESU costs rise fast. Compare the cumulative ESU expense against the cost of replacement hardware plus migration labor. For many organizations, buying new PCs will be cheaper by Year 2. Lock in a migration timeline and communicate it clearly to stakeholders.

For home users, the plan is simpler: run PC Health Check, decide between a free upgrade or a new PC, and back up your files before making any change. If you can’t upgrade, enroll in the consumer ESU program immediately—but remember it ends October 2026, and there’s no extension beyond that.

What Comes Next

The Windows 10 holdout population is now on an irreversible clock. Consumer ESU expires in October 2026. Commercial ESU prices double annually, making it economically unsustainable for most organizations by 2027 or 2028. The remaining unsupported devices will eventually become too risky to connect to corporate networks, and insurers and auditors will start asking harder questions.

Expect to see a slow, grinding attrition rather than a sudden cliff. But the message is clear: if you’re still running Windows 10, every week you wait adds to your exposure. The upgrade rush is over. Now comes the hard part—and it’s time to get to work.