Microsoft has just played its joker card twice in a week, forcing upgrades on millions of Windows PC owners. This will raise serious alarm bells for hundreds of million of users who may now need to upgrade their PCs with no alternative options.
We’re talking Windows 10, and the 850 million users who either can’t or won’t move to Windows 11. Of those, some 400 million likely can’t move given the age of their PCs which do not have the prerequisite hardware security to make the move. The end of support deadline is fast approaching, and the company has shown no signs of relaxing its hurdles.
But in the space of week we have seen confirmation that “starting next month, Microsoft will begin forcibly installing its new Outlook email client on all Windows 10 devices,” as well as reports that “Microsoft has started the forced rollout of Windows 11 24H2 to eligible, non-managed systems running the Home and Pro editions of Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2.”
This follows the company warning last year — as it deployed the KB5001716 patch on Windows 10 PCs — that “when this update is installed, Windows may attempt to download and install feature updates to your device if it is approaching or has reached the end of support for your currently installed Windows version.”
Microsoft explains that “feature updates offer new functionality and help keep your device secure,” and given that the most critical security issue facing hundreds of millions of Windows 10 users is an end to security updates, that seems to qualify.
I have asked Microsoft whether it would force a Windows 11 upgrade, and while there’s no answer on that as yet, the company has warned that “Windows may periodically display a notification informing you of problems that may prevent Windows Update from keeping your device up-to-date and protected against current threats… You may see a notification informing you that your device is currently running a version of Windows that has reached the end of its support lifecycle, or that your device does not meet the minimum hardware requirements for the currently installed version of Windows.”
That second issue affects those 400 million PC owners that face a hardware upgrade cliff edge, either this October or in October 2026, if they opt for the $30, 12-month support extension that Microsoft has confirmed will be available. The company has described 2025 as the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh — it doesn’t want you to wait. It has also confirmed that Microsoft 365 apps will cease to be supported from this October, again the upgrade choice is becoming tighter.
Windows 10 has reversed its gradual decline against Windows 11 in recent months, with users potentially returning to what they love best. It seems increasingly unlikely that all those users will come to the right decision unaided, thus the constant nasa and warnings. Eventually, though, that big red button might be the only option. Windows remains a honeypot for cyber attacks and security vulnerabilities, for half or more of its user base to be off support is simply unthinkable.
