The arrival of the end of official support for Windows 10 has not increased the adoption of the next generation, Windows 11, immediately and There are still about 500 million computers running with the obsolete version.
On October 14, Microsoft withdrew support for Windows 10, leaving computers that ran on it automatically obsolete and unprotected, by withdrawing software, security and technical support updates.
Switching to Windows 11 is not always possible. Not all computers with Windows 10 meet the minimum technical requirements to be able to upgrade to the most recent version, and not all users can afford to buy a new device that already has it installed as standard.
This situation has led to the fact that there are still some 500 million computers in the world that, although they can be updated, have not yet been done so, as shared by Dell’s Director of Operations, Jeffrey Clarke, on the occasion of the financial results for the third quarter. There are also “another 500 million who are four years old and cannot run Windows 11,” he added.
These figures are part of the global market for Windows computers, which the manager has highlighted as “rich opportunities to upgrade to Windows 11 and modern technology,” such as computers with artificial intelligence. Clarke sees them as opportunities to convince users to purchase new Dell equipment.
He has also pointed out that “the installed base is approximately 1.5 billion units.” In mid-November, during the Microsoft Ignite 2025 event, Windows president Pavan Davuluri indicated that “about a billion people trust Windows 11,” a fact that made it unclear how many computers have this version installed.