Check your PC now — before it’s too late
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Interesting times for Microsoft users. The ever-popular Windows 10 retired almost a month ago, yet 4 out of every 10 PCs have not upgraded to Windows 11. Data suggests 500 million users could be at risk this week, with just 24 hours left to update PCs.
Here’s the reality check. Oct. 14 wasn’t really a Windows 10 deadline — despite the many headlines. The deadline is really this week, with Microsoft’s first security update not generally available for Windows 10 PCs not enrolled in its ESU. That all happens tomorrow, when November’s Patch Tuesday vulnerabilities are made public.
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The ESU is an essentially free 12-month extension ensuring you continue to install critical patches for new vulnerabilities identified and reported by Microsoft. The first of these post Windows 10’s retirement will come out this week. It’s more than likely some of these will be serious and will need to be patched immediately.
As has been reported accurately, we’ve never seen an event like this before. So many hundreds of millions of users potentially falling off support at the same time. We don’t know how many of those have enrolled in the ESU, but we can assume many have not. Hackers will be rubbing their hands, ready to probe PCs for weaknesses.
Windows 10 Vs Windows 11 — the latest data
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And on that note there’s bad news for some users in Europe. Windows Latest warns, “Windows 10 ESU won’t work on some PCs, leaving Windows 11 as the only update path.” When users try to secure ESU updates, they see a message that: “Enrollment for Windows 10 Extended Security Updates is temporarily unavailable in your region.”
You can get around this by “performing an in-place upgrade to Windows 10. This will 100% fix issues with Windows 10 ESU and allow you to sign up.” But as with most workarounds and bypasses, it requires relatively green-fingered users and most won’t. This simply inflates the numbers of users that will be left at risk this week.
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“Modern cyberattacks rarely go straight for the crown jewels,” Microsoft warns users. “Instead, they probe for weak points in the systems that hold the keys: outdated operating systems, legacy infrastructure, and unsupported endpoints.”
“If it continues,” XDA-Developers says, “the only way people can stay within the Microsoft ecosystem and stay safe is to upgrade to Windows 11.”
This issue is distinct from the “something went wrong” messages that wrongly warn PC users that they have not secured the ESU. Those users may be alarmed, but their PCs should update as planned. If your PC can upgrade to Windows 11, do that instead.