---
title: "Windows 10 still runs 41% of India's Windows PCs a year after its end; world 28%"
summary: "Windows 10's share of Windows desktops in India and worldwide, September 2024 to September 2026, and what the second paid year of security updates costs from November."
url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/windows-10-one-year-on-india-41-percent
format: Analysis
desk: "Endpoints & devices"
published: 2026-10-14
facts_checked: 2026-10-14
author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal)
tags: ["Windows 10","Windows 11","Extended Security Updates","Windows 365","Microsoft","Statcounter","PC refresh","RBI","CERT-In","DPDP"]
cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/windows-10-one-year-on-india-41-percent.png
---

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

*Windows 10's share of Windows desktops in India and worldwide, September 2024 to September 2026, and what the second paid year of security updates costs from November.*

Analysis · Endpoints & devices · By TechBag · Published 2026-10-14 · Facts checked 2026-10-14 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/windows-10-one-year-on-india-41-percent

The short version

- A year after Microsoft stopped patching it for free, Windows 10 still accounted for 41.2% of Windows desktop page views in India in September 2026, against 27.8% worldwide. India today sits where the world stood in October 2025, the month support ended.[1][2]
- The gap opened before the deadline, not after it. In the last year of support the world’s Windows 10 share fell 19 points and India’s fell 9; in the year since, both fell by 15 to 16 points, so India has not caught up.[1][2]
- The second paid year of Extended Security Updates starts in November at US$122 a PC, or US$183 for a PC joining now, because the years are cumulative. Upgrading an eligible PC to Windows 11 is free. Pay for ESU only on PCs that fail Windows 11’s hardware test and already have a replacement date.[5][7]

Windows 10 reached end of support on 14 October 2025. Since then a Windows 10 PC has received security fixes only if its owner enrolled it in Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates (ESU) programme.[5] One year on, far more of India’s Windows PCs are still on the old system than the world’s, and the second paid year begins next month. The question for anyone running a fleet is no longer whether to move. It is which PCs to pay for in November, which to upgrade this quarter, and which to retire. The answer depends on how far behind you are, what each route costs, and which machines can take Windows 11 at all.

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

41.2%

of Windows desktop page views in India came from Windows 10 in September 2026

Worldwide, the figure was 27.8%. Statcounter.[1][2]

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%.[1][2] 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.

**Figure: India's Windows 10 share fell half as fast as the world's in the year before support ended, and has not caught up since**

*Windows 10 as a share of Windows desktop page views, India and worldwide, monthly, September 2024 to September 2026, %*

|  | India | Worldwide |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sep 2024 | 65.7 | 62.8 |
| Oct 2024 | 64.6 | 61 |
| Nov 2024 | 63.2 | 61.8 |
| Dec 2024 | 63.5 | 62.7 |
| Jan 2025 | 62.7 | 60.3 |
| Feb 2025 | 62.9 | 58.7 |
| Mar 2025 | 62.1 | 54.2 |
| Apr 2025 | 60.5 | 52.9 |
| May 2025 | 59.4 | 53.2 |
| Jun 2025 | 58.5 | 48.8 |
| Jul 2025 | 57.9 | 42.9 |
| Aug 2025 | 57.2 | 46.2 |
| Sep 2025 | 56.4 | 43.8 |
| Oct 2025 | 54.5 | 41.7 |
| Nov 2025 | 53.7 | 42.7 |
| Dec 2025 | 53.2 | 44.7 |
| Jan 2026 | 48.2 | 35.8 |
| Feb 2026 | 35.5 | 26.5 |
| Mar 2026 | 44 | 31.3 |
| Apr 2026 | 41.3 | 28.5 |
| May 2026 | 36 | 26.2 |
| Jun 2026 | 40.2 | 28.2 |
| Jul 2026 | 43.4 | 29.9 |
| Aug 2026 | 41.1 | 30.2 |
| Sep 2026 | 41.2 | 27.8 |

Source: Statcounter Global Stats, Windows version market share, desktop: India and worldwide · as of 14 October 2026 · Statcounter measures page views, not installed PCs. Single months are noisy (India read 35.5% in February 2026 and 44.0% in March), so read the trend, not one month.

TechBag countHow far behind, in months

The world’s Windows 10 share was 41.7% in October 2025, within half a point of India’s 41.2% in September 2026. At the pace India set over the past year, 15.2 points a year, the 13.4-point gap is about eleven months of migration. Both figures are our arithmetic on Statcounter’s monthly series, not a forecast.

## India'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]

**Figure: Germany cut its Windows 10 share by 32 points in a year; India cut 15 and ended level with China**

*Windows 10 as a share of Windows desktop page views, September 2025 and September 2026, ten markets, %*

|  | September 2025 | September 2026 | Change |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Indonesia | 66.8 | 53.2 | -13.7 pts |
| Pakistan | 67 | 48.2 | -18.8 pts |
| China | 51 | 41.2 | -9.8 pts |
| India | 56.4 | 41.2 | -15.2 pts |
| Worldwide | 43.8 | 27.8 | -16 pts |
| Bangladesh | 41.3 | 25.8 | -15.5 pts |
| Japan | 42.6 | 21 | -21.6 pts |
| Germany | 51.2 | 19.5 | -31.6 pts |
| United States | 35.4 | 18.9 | -16.5 pts |
| United Kingdom | 35.6 | 15.4 | -20.2 pts |

Source: Statcounter Global Stats, Windows version market share, desktop, by country and worldwide · as of 14 October 2026 · Ordered by the September 2026 share. Page views, not installed PCs; country samples differ in size.

Our view

Our view: the likeliest causes are longer PC lifetimes, the cost of new hardware and the share of PCs nobody manages centrally. A Windows 10 PC that no console can see never gets upgraded. Statcounter cannot test any of these causes, and one fact cuts against the income explanation: Bangladesh, a poorer market, ended the year at 25.8%, well below India. We read the gap as a management problem as much as a money problem.

## The 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](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/patch-management-101-from-chaos-control); 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]

**Figure: The commercial ESU bill doubles each November until the programme ends in October 2028**

*Windows 10 end-of-support and Extended Security Updates milestones, October 2025 to October 2028*

| Date | Event | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Oct 2025 | Windows 10 support ends | 14 October 2025: free security updates stop |
| Nov 2025 | ESU year one: US$61 | per device, volume licensing |
| Oct 2026 | One year on | 41.2% of India's Windows desktop page views still on Windows 10 |
| Nov 2026 | ESU year two: US$122 | US$183 for a PC joining now, as year one is owed |
| Oct 2027 | Consumer ESU ends | home PCs only |
| Nov 2027 | ESU year three: US$244 | the last year Microsoft sells |
| Oct 2028 | Commercial ESU ends | three years after end of support |

Source: Microsoft Learn, Extended Security Updates program for Windows 10; Microsoft, Windows 10 consumer ESU page · as of 14 October 2026 · Commercial ESU runs for at most three years after end of support. The consumer programme ends earlier and cannot be used on business PCs.

TechBag countA 200-PC company at India's average

Take a company with 200 Windows PCs whose fleet matches India’s September share: 82 of them run Windows 10. If all 82 were enrolled last November, year two costs US$10,004. If none were, enrolling them now costs US$15,006, because year one is billed as well. Both are list prices before GST and partner margin, on the reading that every one of the 82 needs ESU. The next section explains why most should not.

## Four 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.

**Figure: For one PC, the next twelve months cost nothing to upgrade, US$122 to US$183 on ESU, and US$432 on Windows 365**

*List price per PC for the twelve months from November 2026, by route, US$, before tax*

Upgrade an eligible PC to Windows 11

US$0

ESU year two, PC enrolled in year one

US$122

ESU, PC joining now (year one owed too)

US$183

Windows 365 Business, 2 vCPU, 8 GB, twelve months

US$432

|  | Value (US$) |
| --- | --- |
| Upgrade an eligible PC to Windows 11 | 0 |
| ESU year two, PC enrolled in year one | 122 |
| ESU, PC joining now (year one owed too) | 183 |
| Windows 365 Business, 2 vCPU, 8 GB, twelve months | 432 |

Source: Microsoft Learn, ESU program for Windows 10; Microsoft Support, Windows 10 end of support; Microsoft, Windows 365 Business plans and pricing (US) · as of 14 October 2026 · Excludes labour, testing, partner margin and the price of a replacement PC. The Windows 365 figure includes ESU for the Windows 10 PC that connects to it.

Our viewThe triage we would run this month

Our view: sort every Windows 10 PC into one of three lists before the November invoice. If it passes Windows 11’s hardware test, upgrade it this quarter and buy no ESU for it. If it fails and has a replacement date within twelve months, pay for year two. If it fails and has no replacement date, it is the real problem: give it a date or retire it. ESU on a PC with no exit plan is rent on a machine that the November 2027 price, US$244, makes dearer still. Windows 365 belongs in the plan for users whose work fits a Cloud PC, not as a patch subscription.

If you are buying this in India

**Price in rupees.** Commercial ESU is bought through a Microsoft volume-licensing partner, invoiced in INR against the US dollar list with 18% GST. Microsoft’s India page lists Windows 365 Business at ₹2,515, ₹3,235 and ₹5,030 a user a month for the Basic, Standard and Premium configurations, GST extra.[10] The Standard configuration, comparable to the US$36 plan above, comes to ₹38,820 a user a year, or ₹45,808 with 18% GST.

**Banks now have it in writing.** RBI’s Commercial Banks Cybersecurity, Technology: Risk, Resilience and Assurance Framework Directions, dated 31 July 2026 and in force on issue, tell a bank to “avoid using outdated and unsupported hardware or software”, to monitor end-of-support dates, and to keep “a technology refresh plan” for replacing hardware and software before they reach end of support (paragraphs 37 and 38).[11] A Windows 10 PC in a commercial bank without ESU and without a replacement date is now a finding against a written rule.

**Everyone else.** CERT-In’s Directions of 28 April 2022 require incidents to be reported within six hours and logs to be kept for 180 days, whatever operating system the incident began on.[12] The DPDP Rules, notified on 13 November 2025, bring the duty to take reasonable security safeguards for personal data into force on 13 May 2027.[13] An unpatched PC that holds customer data is hard to defend as a reasonable safeguard. Indian figures for how many PCs are enrolled in ESU do not exist in public; Microsoft does not publish enrolment by country.

How we did this

Figures as of 14 October 2026

Shares are Statcounter’s monthly desktop Windows-version series for India, the world, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, from Statcounter’s CSV export. Statcounter counts page views on more than one million sites that use its tracker, not unique users or installed PCs, applies no weighting, and revises figures for 45 days after publication.[4] We picked the comparison markets as the largest PC markets plus India’s neighbours. We left Brazil out because its series rose over the year (17.3% to 24.1%), which looks like sample noise rather than migration. Point changes and the months-behind estimate are our arithmetic, rounded to one decimal. ESU terms and prices come from Microsoft’s own pages. The 200-PC example applies India’s share to a notional fleet and is not a measured company. Excluded: the cost of a replacement PC, labour, partner margin, the INR rate a reseller sets on the day of the quote, and any ESU discount for cloud-managed devices, which Microsoft’s ESU page does not state.

Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece.

Sources

1. [Statcounter Global Stats, Desktop Windows version market share, India (monthly; Windows 10 41.19% in September 2026)](https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/india) — monthly series, September 2024 to September 2026
2. [Statcounter Global Stats, Desktop Windows version market share, worldwide (monthly; Windows 10 27.77% in September 2026)](https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/worldwide) — monthly series, September 2024 to September 2026
3. [Statcounter Global Stats, Desktop Windows version market share by country: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh](https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/) — September 2025 and September 2026
4. [Statcounter Global Stats, FAQ: methodology (page views on more than one million sites; 45-day revision window)](https://gs.statcounter.com/faq) — undated methodology page
5. [Microsoft Learn, Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10 (US$61 year one, doubling, three years, cumulative; free routes)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/extended-security-updates) — page dated 17 November 2025
6. [Microsoft, Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (consumer programme to 12 October 2027; not for commercial scenarios)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/extended-security-updates) — undated product page, as published before 14 October 2026
7. [Microsoft Support, Windows 10 support has ended on October 14, 2025 ("How much does it cost to upgrade to Windows 11? It's free.")](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-support-has-ended-on-october-14-2025-2ca8b313-1946-43d3-b55c-2b95b107f281) — page dated 25 June 2026
8. [Microsoft Learn, Windows 11 requirements](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/windows-11-requirements) — page dated 14 July 2026
9. [Microsoft, Windows 365 Business plans and pricing, US (2 vCPU, 8 GB, 128 GB at US$36 a user a month)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-365/business/compare-plans-pricing) — undated price page, as listed before 14 October 2026
10. [Microsoft India, Windows 365 Business plans and pricing (₹2,515, ₹3,235 and ₹5,030 a user a month, GST extra)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-365/business/compare-plans-pricing) — undated price page, as listed in July 2026
11. [RBI, Commercial Banks – Cybersecurity, Technology: Risk, Resilience and Assurance Framework Directions, 2026 (RBI/DoS/2026-27/410), paragraphs 37–38, text as reproduced by TaxGuru](https://taxguru.in/rbi/rbi-issues-commercial-banks-cybersecurity-technology-risk-resilience-framework-directions-2026.html) — 31 July 2026 RBI PDF not fetched; paragraph text as reproduced.
12. [CERT-In, Directions under section 70B(6) of the IT Act (six-hour reporting, 180-day logs)](https://www.cert-in.org.in/Directions70B.jsp) — 28 April 2022
13. [MeitY, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and DPDP Rules, 2025](https://www.meity.gov.in/data-protection-framework) — Rules notified 13 November 2025

Related on TechBag: the [RMM and patch management guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/endpoint-management/rmm-patch) compares the tools that find and patch Windows 10 PCs, the [UEM and MDM guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/endpoint-management/uem-mdm) covers the consoles that push the Windows 11 upgrade, and the [Microsoft Intune page](https://www.thetechbag.com/microsoft/microsoft-intune) covers Microsoft’s own.

**Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view.

Go deeper on TechBag

- [RMM & patch management guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/endpoint-management/rmm-patch) — the tools that find and patch the Windows 10 PCs still in the fleet
- [UEM & MDM guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/endpoint-management/uem-mdm) — the consoles that push a fleet-wide Windows 11 upgrade
- [Microsoft Intune](https://www.thetechbag.com/microsoft/microsoft-intune) — one of the two consoles Microsoft names for upgrading eligible PCs to Windows 11