Windows 10 end of life has been and gone - but millions of people are still using it, despite the serious risks

• Windows 10 is still installed on millions of devices, Statcounter finds
• Windows 7 dropped in popularity far more quickly
• One in five said they’ll continue to use Windows 10

We’re closing in on a whole month after the official Windows 10 end of life, but the effects have apparently been far from what Microsoft might have desired in the runup to ended support.

In October 2025, the month of Windows 10 EOS, it was still installed on 41.7% of Windows machines (per Statcounter analysis), only slightly behind Windows 11 at 55.2%.

A broader look over the course of the past five years shows Windows 11 adoption climbing steadily, but Windows 10 remained users’ first choice right up until July 2025, when the flagship OS finally overtook its predecessor.

Will Windows 10 finally go to bed?

That same five-year period in Statcounter analysis allows us to see that Windows 7’s market share was 24.9% in its final supported month, suggesting users were far happier then to upgrade than they were at the point of Windows 10 EOS.

Taking a look at previous trends, it took around three years for Windows 7 to finally level off at minimal market share after support was cut, but Microsoft may have to prepare for it to take even long for the same to happen to Windows 10.

That’s because the popular OS has been somewhat of an anomaly over the long term, climbing pretty quickly to prime position in late 2017 and passing Windows 7 in popularity around two years before it was axed.

Over the years, we’ve seen that Windows 10 has been favored for its stability and familiarity, but also its enterprise readiness. On the flip side, Windows 11 presented consumers and enterprises alike with upgrade barriers, particularly around hardware requirements.

In the runup to Windows 10’s end of support, Omdia Research Director Ishan Dutt noted, “a significant portion of the global Windows installed base remains either on Windows 10 or on a PC that is five or more years old.”

Nearly one-fifth (18%) of channel partners said they’d continue to use Windows 10 after support ends.

TechRadar Pro has asked Microsoft whether it had carried out any research into the effects of Windows 10 EOS on the market share of different Windows OSs – we did not receive an immediate response.

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