Windows 10 support ends 2025: Microsoft pushes upgrade

The Verge highlights the details. Microsoft is familiar with using full-screen offers in Windows to promote other products. This time, the goal is justified—the company is drawing users' attention to the fact that Windows 10's standard support ends in a year. Although an option to extend support for a fee will be available, Microsoft suggests an upgrade to Windows 11, ideally when purchasing a new laptop.

The end of support for Windows 10 in October 2025 means the end of security updates. Theoretically, from that point on, the system will be unsafe to use or at least more vulnerable to attacks exploiting known vulnerabilities. The most serious ones will likely still be patched for some time, but Microsoft will not be obligated to do so.

The information about the end of support for Windows 10 is significant because a majority of Windows users still use version 10. According to StatCounter data, in October 2024, almost 61 percent of Windows users were using Windows 10, while the newer version 11 had a little over 35 percent. Interestingly, filtering the data to the Polish market results in only a slight adjustment, with 60 and 38 percent of the market, respectively.

The reluctance to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11—even though the process is free—may often result from technical limitations. The newer system requires a TPM 2.0 module, which was not necessarily present on computer motherboards at the time of Windows 11's release. If users have not upgraded to newer computers since then, often due to satisfactory performance, their hardware still does not meet Windows 11's minimum requirements, and its installation is not officially recommended.