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During a Dell earnings call, the company mentioned some staggering numbers regarding the amount of PCs that will not or cannot be upgraded to Windows 11.
"We have about 500 million of them capable of running Windows 11 that haven't been upgraded," said Dell COO Jeffrey Clarke on a Q3 earnings call earlier this week, referring to the overall PC market, not just Dell's slice of machines. "And we have another 500 million that are four years old that can't run Windows 11." He sees this as an opportunity to guide customers towards the latest Windows 11 machines and AI PCs, but warns that the PC market is going to be relatively flat next year.
↫ Tom Warren at The Verge
The monumental scale of the Windows 10 install base that simply won't or cannot upgrade to Windows 11 is massive, and it's absolutely bonkers to me that we're mostly just letting them get away with leaving at least a billion users out in the cold when it comes to security updates and bug fixes. The US government (in better times) and the EU should've 100% forced Microsoft's hand, as leaving this many people on outdated, unsupported operating system installations is several disasters waiting to happen.
Aside from the dangerous position Microsoft is forcing its Windows 10 users into, there's also the massive environmental and public health impact of huge swaths of machines, especially in enterprise environments, becoming obsolete overnight. Many of these will end up in landfills, often shipped to third-world countries so we in the west don't have to deal with our e-waste and its dangerous consequences directly. I can get fined for littering – rightfully so – but when a company like Microsoft makes sweeping decisions which cause untold amounts of dangerous chemicals to be dumped in countless locations all over the globe, governments shrug it off and move on.
At least we will get some cheap eBay hardware out of it, I guess.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Wednesday December 03 2025, @01:02PM (5 children)
I want to get hold of Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021, but I believe it is made deliberately difficult for private individuals to get a legitimate copy. As far as I can tell, it is for sale to businesses, in minimum bundles of 5 or 10 (I forget which) - at least, in my jurisdiction.
I would like to get it for several of my close relatives but how?
Also, 'upgrading' an existing Windows installation to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 while keeping programs and data looks less than trivial.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 03 2025, @03:19PM (2 children)
Does this work for you?
https://digitallicense.shop/windows-10-enterprise-iot-ltsc-2021/ [digitallicense.shop]
https://www.cdw.com/product/ms-win-10-iot-ent-ltsc-2021/7574182 [cdw.com]
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday December 03 2025, @07:08PM (1 child)
Thanks for that. I shall investigate. I need at least 3 licences, possibly 4 or 5, so that link to the Estonian company looks promising.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Whoever on Wednesday December 03 2025, @08:19PM
You might want to check this out:
https://www.keysfan.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=windows+iot [keysfan.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by epitaxial on Wednesday December 03 2025, @03:20PM
Who cares about legit? Just head over to massgrave.dev and run the activation scripts.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday December 03 2025, @08:43PM
Note the difference between "Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021" and "Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021":
( https://massgrave.dev/windows10_eol [massgrave.dev] along with various cons and pros of the different editions and activation scripts if you can't get a copy legitimately / semi-legitimately through an unlicensed dealer )
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