SUMMARYWindows 10 still runs on 16.9% of Windows devices monitored by Lansweeper, with adoption falling more slowly after Microsoft ended standard support. Small and medium-sized businesses show the highest exposure at 21.4%, while healthcare, pharmaceutical, consumer, and retail systems also remain heavily on the older operating system. Lansweeper estimated that Windows 10 machines average 1,903 active CVEs versus 652 on Windows 11, and some specialized devices cannot yet move to Windows 11 because certified versions are unavailable.
Windows 10 still runs on 16.9% of the Windows devices monitored by asset-tracking service Lansweeper. That's more than one in six, The Register points out.
A year ago, the operating system accounted for about half of the machines in its dataset, falling to the low-to-mid 40% range by the time Microsoft ended standard support. The decline continued after that, reaching 18.6% in June, but Lansweeper says migration has now slowed to a crawl... Small and medium-sized businesses are particularly exposed. Lansweeper reckons that 21.4% of machines at small and medium-sized business still run Windows 10, with cost usually being the constraint that keeps the legacy operating system running. The exposure is greater in some sectors, with 23% of healthcare and pharmaceutical systems sticking with Windows 10, while consumer and retail devices hover at 22.7%.
According to Lansweeper's data, "a Windows 10 device carries an average of 1,903 active CVEs against 652 on Windows 11. That's a 2.9x gap." Esben Dochy, principal technical evangelist at the company, told The Register that "the Windows 10 average also includes devices that have Extended Security Update patches applied." [According to Lansweeper's figures, 14% of Windows 10 assets have applied Extended Security Update patches.] Part of the problem, according to Lansweeper, is "patch diffing," in which Windows 11 fixes can be reverse-engineered to find flaws in Windows 10. "The supported OS effectively hands attackers a map into the unsupported one," Lansweeper said...
Looking at other market share measures such as Statcounter, there was little change in the share of Windows 10 and its successor over the last few months after a surge following the end of support. As Lansweeper noted: "The easy migrations are done. What's left is the hard core: devices that haven't moved because they can't or won't."
Lansweeper's evangelist noted that in some cases there is no Windows 11-certified version yet for many medical devices and industrial or retail systems.