Are you now at risk?
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Republished on October 8 with a new user survey and warning about the staggering scale of the Windows 10 risk that’s now less than a week away.
Microsoft has a “security disaster” on its hands. Some 400 million Windows users must now brace for a “uniquely troubling” threat that leaves their PCs suddenly at risk. If this warning affects you, you’re running out of time to act. Do not leave it too late.
New data suggests Windows 10 is still running on 41% of all PCs. That’s a sharp drop from the 46% market share at the end of September. But it’s too little too late late. In 10 days, security updates will end for users not enrolled in Microsoft’s extended support option. This means paying $30 or ticking the right boxes to snag an extension for free.
That 41% equates to almost 600 million PCs. Of that, it is assumed up to 400 million cannot upgrade to Windows 11 given mandatory hardware hurdles. Older PCs without the right components can’t upgrade. Not without a green-fingered workaround.
“By contrast,” advocacy group PIRG says in its warning, “when support for Windows 8 ended in January 2016, only 3.7% of Windows users were still using it. Only 2.2% of Windows users were still using Windows 8.1 when support ended in January 2023.”
This follows similar warnings from Consumer Reports and EuroConsumers, with the latter pointing out Microsoft is “phasing out Windows 10 on a much shorter timeline than in the past.” Just four years after the launch of Windows 11.”
PIRG describes the scale of the impact here as “staggering,” and says it “can be traced to the popularity of Windows 10 and Microsoft’s decisions to impose strict hardware requirements in order to upgrade to Windows 11.”
PIRG’s original focus was the e-waste of hundreds of millions of PCs rendered useless. Although enterprising secondary marketeers are pushing Linux and Chromebook OS alternatives for otherwise good-enough hardware for which Windows is closed.
PIRG echoes warnings from the cybersecurity community. “When there are no more updates, quickly-addressed exploits become open doors.” Which means “ransomware gangs and other malicious actors will be rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of millions of unpatched – and unpatchable endpoints – after October 14.”
I’m going to assume this is a blip in the data, but the latest Windows breakdown also suggests a surge in Windows 7 usage just ahead of Windows 10’s decline. StatCounter reports almost 140 million PCs now running an OS that was retired in 2020.
If you’re running Windows 10, whether at work or at home, you must act before Oct. 14 — if you have not done so already. You are now at risk from security updates ending.
Enroll in the free ESU, which requires a Microsoft and a OneDrive account. Or accept the inevitable and upgrade to Windows 11. This has not proven a popular OS, and it has taken this deadline to move the needle on its install base. But it is what it is. Don’t take the risk with your own PC and data security.
Meanwhile, Windows Central reports that “calls to extend Windows 10 support are piling up for Microsoft.” This relates to the European carve-out not being extended to other regions, as much as the more acute issue of support ending and such a large number of users being cut off just one week from now.
“While users in the European Economic Area will have access to Microsoft’s ESU program due to their law, users in the U.S. and other regions weren’t as lucky. Repair.eu’s campaigner Cristina Ganapini says Microsoft’s move is a step forward, and proves that it’s possible to extend support for Windows 10 beyond the set cutoff date.”
Windows 10 deadline is almost here.
StatCounter
According to this latest report, “the Restart Project, which helped co-develop the End of 10 Toolkit to help support Windows 10 users after Microsoft pulls the plug on the OS, seemingly echoed these sentiments, indicating that the ESU program feels like a last-minute snooze button, which only acts as a band-aid on a bleeding system.”
Hardly surprising, then, that Environment America has issued an Oct. 7 release, echoing other warnings that Microsoft’s “unnecessary action could adversely affect environment, consumers, up to 400 million computers.”
The advocacy group warns that “although Microsoft is offering ways to pay for ongoing Windows 10 support, or sign up for other Microsoft services to qualify for support, the percentage of consumers who will opt to pay for updates will likely be fairly marginal.”
That is the great unknown — just how many of those 400 million Windows 10 users who can’t upgrade to Windows 11 have enrolled in the ESU.
Meanwhile, consumer advocacy group Which has surveyed the U.K. market to better understand the scale of the Windows 10 problem that’s about to hit. “The results suggest huge numbers will be affected when support is withdrawn – we estimate that around 21 million people in the U.K. still own and use a laptop or desktop computer running Windows 10.” That’s a staggering number for a country with just 70 million citizens.
Which says “worryingly, a quarter of Windows 10 users (26%) told us they plan to keep using the operating system after updates stop, leaving them exposed to potential security threats and scams if they don’t take action.”
And while 39% “said they plan to upgrade their existing device to a newer version of Windows,” and “one in seven (14%) said they’d replace their computer,” there remain 40% of users who don’t have a plan, and so will likely fall off support.
Looking at this data, Which’s Lisa Barber warns their research “suggests millions of people may be unprepared for the phasing out of Windows 10. If you have a home laptop or PC running Windows, now is the time to check which version you’re using and if it’s Windows 10 or older, make a plan of action. If you don’t act, you could become more vulnerable to hackers and scams.”
Again to provide some sense of the scale of the problem, The Register looked at the numbers on the potential e-waste in that same U.K. market, but from the perspective of the value of precious metals that could be recovered.
“There’s gold in them thar piles of old Windows 10 PCs. Quite literally, according to recyclers. Gold worth more than £1.6 billion could be recovered from U.K. devices obsoleted when Microsoft discontinues free support on October 14.”
The data was sourced from business waste specialists, and doesn’t account for users opting for the ESU and keeping their PCs running.
The issue flagged by PIRG and others is that with people being people, more PCs will head for landfill dumps than recycling centers. But before either, they will more than likely run unsupported software, bracing for the wave of cyber threats as criminals assess this once in a lifetime opportunity to reek mayhem.
And so all roads lead back to the ESU. “The last day of support for Windows 10 is October 14, 2025,” Microsoft confirms. “If you need more time to move to Windows 11, we recommend you enroll your Windows 10 device in ESU. You can enroll in ESU any time until the program ends on October 13, 2026.”
Microsoft also reminds users that while “the ESU program helps reduce the risk of malware and cybersecurity attacks by providing access to critical and important security updates,” you should remember that “it does not provide other types of fixes, feature improvements, or product enhancements. It also does not come with technical support.”
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