As of Tuesday 14th October 2025, Windows 10 will no longer be officially supported as standard by Microsoft, which brings with it the end of an era in home and small business computing and IT support.
However, over a third of all desktop computers were still running Windows 10 at the time of this end of support, and whilst that is less than the new operating system, it still amounts to hundreds of millions of computers that have not taken the upgrade.
The reasons for this are quite interesting, and range from an inability to run the new OS on existing hardware, concerns about compatibility and ongoing support, or a dislike of the new version of Windows and some of its more controversial features.
Whilst all new versions of Windows have some teething issues, the need for a Trusted Platform Module meant that a lot of existing hardware that had worked very well for years using Windows 10 now could not install Windows 11, even if it was technically capable of running it.
This locked out a lot of new users in a similar way to the much higher specifications required to run Windows Vista, which caused a lot of users to stick with Windows XP and upgrade instead to Windows 7 when it became available.
Similarly, whilst most major pieces of software are cross-platform or have received updates to work effectively using Windows 11, some small businesses with bespoke requirements may not want to risk compatibility modes using Windows 11, particularly if they do not see any outward benefits to doing so.
Finally and somewhat ironically, there are some of the security concerns associated with the aggressive pivot to AI integration found in both Windows itself through CoPilot and in newer versions of Microsoft Office 365.
The rather excessive use of telemetry and tools such as CoPilot and Recall having access to significant amounts of private data are of particular concern to small businesses, which could face significant penalties under data protection guidelines.
Many of these systems can be turned off, and updates will likely fix other issues that people have had, but given that working IT is the lifeblood of many businesses, it is understandable that they may choose to stick with the devil they know.
