Windows 10 Is No Longer As Safe As It Used To Be - So Why Aren't More People Updating?

Officially, Windows 10 support ended on October 14, 2025. Feature updates are no longer available for it, and neither is technical assistance through customer support channels. But Microsoft offered an Extended Security Updates program that moves the true expiration to October 12, 2027. If you you enroll in the program, your Windows 10 operating system will stay mostly secure from malware and cybersecurity attacks until that date. And if you haven't upgraded yet, you're not alone: Over a quarter of PCs still run Windows 10. 

With the deadline growing closer, 10 is conventionally considered less and less safe, and the Windows 11 upgrade is free, so why would someone be holding off? There are a few reasons. For starters, Windows 11 is a broken mess, and Microsoft absolutely knows it. The development team has been gradually improving the experience, including adding the option to uninstall AI from Copilot+ models, but for some, it's not enough. Beyond AI and bugs, some people are running unsupported hardware. You can find ways around this, but those methods don't always work, especially after big Windows 11 updates. Given computer hardware shortages and price hikes, there's also less incentive for many to upgrade to new machines.

While many users are holding off on the update, the numbers have gone down from when Microsoft originally discontinued Windows 10 support. According to StatCounter, Windows 10 users decreased from about 42% in October 2025 to 26% as of May 2026.

As long as you're part of the extended support program, and you stay current on software updates, your Windows 10 should remain safe. But there are some things to know. The biggest concern is that security certificates are expiring. They were originally issued in 2011 and expire after 15 years, which is June, July, or October of 2026. They must be renewed so Secure Boot can continue to function in the affected machines.

To put it simply, Secure Boot protects your Windows system from running unauthorized apps and code, particularly malware that can be used to hold your computer hostage when it boots up. It checks a digital signature for each app or piece of software and runs it by a list of trusted signatures. When something unrecognized is detected, Windows simply won't boot. You can turn Secure Boot off, but that puts your PC at risk, and some apps — including select games — won't work if it's disabled. The security certificates, the ones that are expiring, are needed to run this feature.

Thanks to the extended support, Microsoft is renewing these expired certificates through Windows software updates, which will be available to eligible Windows 10 machines. But that won't last forever. While the new certificates are from 2023, there's no information on when they'll expire. 

Not everything will work perfectly, either. Some older machines may run into issues with the new certificates — Microsoft temporarily paused updates for select models — and others may need BIOS updates, while PCs with Secure Boot disabled may exhibit problems. Then there's the matter of third-party app and developer support. Other companies may stop supporting their software on Windows 10. Slack, for example, warns users to upgrade through periodic messages.

Switching to another platform is always an option for those who don't want to upgrade to the latest version of Windows. Mac is the obvious choice, which would require buying one of Apple's machines and potentially ditching PC. Besides Mac, there's also Linux, which is seeing a popularity surge because of this scenario. Linux's global market share surpassed 4.7% in 2025, and 5% in the United States alone. Considering that it was only at 2.76% worldwide in July 2022, that's a big jump — over half a million Windows users switching platforms. 

If you're considering the swap, comparing Linux versus Windows will reveal it's mostly down to a matter of preference. There are as many things they do similarly as they do differently. Plus, you can find versions, or "distros," of Linux that are designed to look and function like Windows; popular examples are Zorin OS, Linux Mint, and Kubuntu. Yet another alternative is ChromeOS or ChromeOS Flex, which you can easily download to a USB drive to install on desktop and laptop computers.