Windows 10 still runs 41% of India's Windows PCs a year after its end; world 28%

01India sits 13 points behind the world, and the gap opened before the deadline

In September 2024, a year before the deadline, the two shares were close: Windows 10 accounted for 65.7% of Windows desktop page views in India and 62.8% worldwide. Over the final year of support the world moved and India mostly did not. The world’s share fell 19.0 points, to 43.8% by September 2025; India’s fell 9.2 points, to 56.4%.¹² The 2.9-point gap became a 12.6-point gap before Microsoft had stopped a single patch.

End of support did not close it. In the twelve months to September 2026 India’s share fell 15.2 points, to 41.2%; the world’s fell 16.0 points, to 27.8%. The gap is now 13.4 points, slightly wider than on the day support ended.

02India's company is China, Indonesia and Pakistan, not the US or Germany

Set beside other large PC markets, India stops looking like an outlier and starts looking like part of a group. China’s Windows 10 share in September 2026 was 41.2%, level with India’s; Indonesia’s was 53.2% and Pakistan’s 48.2%. The rich markets moved much further. Germany went from 51.2% to 19.5% in a year, a fall of 31.7 points and the steepest of the ten markets we read. The United States ended at 18.9%, Japan at 21.0% and the United Kingdom at 15.4%.³

03The second paid year starts in November, at twice the price

Microsoft sells ESU to organisations through volume licensing at US$61 a device for year one. The price doubles each consecutive year, for three years at most. Year one started in November 2025. ESU is sold only by the whole year, and the years are cumulative: an organisation that joins in year two pays for year one too.⁵ From November, then, a PC already enrolled costs US$122 for the second year, and a PC enrolling for the first time costs US$183. What the full three years add up to, per PC and for a small office, is in our patch-management note from June; we do not repeat it here.

The money buys less than many owners assume. ESU delivers Critical and Important security updates only, for PCs on Windows 10 version 22H2. It brings no new features, no non-security fixes and no general technical support.⁵ Microsoft’s cheaper consumer programme now runs until 12 October 2027. It is free if the PC syncs its settings, costs 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or is a one-time purchase of US$30. It is not a loophole for offices: Microsoft says it “can’t be used in commercial scenarios” and does not offer it to PCs that are domain-joined, Entra-joined or enrolled in device management.⁶

04Four routes, priced per PC for the next twelve months

Upgrade. An eligible Windows 10 PC moves to Windows 11 for nothing: “It’s free,” says Microsoft, for PCs on version 22H2 that meet the minimum hardware.⁷ That minimum is a compatible 64-bit processor with two or more cores at 1 GHz, 4 GB of memory, 64 GB of storage, UEFI firmware with Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0.⁸ Every ESU dollar spent on a PC that passes this test buys time the PC did not need.

Pay for ESU. This is the right route for a PC that fails the test and is due to be replaced within the year. It costs US$122, or US$183 for a PC joining now.⁵

Move the desktop to the cloud. Windows 365 Business with 2 virtual CPUs, 8 GB and 128 GB lists at US$36 a user a month in the US, or US$432 a year.⁹ Microsoft includes ESU for Windows 10 PCs that connect to a Windows 365 Cloud PC, for up to three years. It is also free for Windows 10 virtual machines on Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop and Azure.⁵ As a way to buy patches it is 3.5 times the year-two ESU price. It makes sense only when the old PC becomes a screen and keyboard for a Cloud PC that would have been bought anyway.

Replace. We do not put a price on a new PC, because the range is too wide for one number to mean anything. The arithmetic is still simple. ESU defers the purchase; it never removes it, because commercial ESU ends three years after end of support.⁵ Each year of deferral costs more than the last, so the cheapest year to replace an ineligible PC is the earliest one your budget allows.