The biggest event of 2025 in the PC market was the end of support for Windows 10. It was positioned as the last major version of the Windows operating system that would be updated via Windows Over-the-Air Updates. But when Windows 11 was released in 2021, Microsoft set the end of support date for Windows 10 to October 5, 2025.
Microsoft's decision to release a new version of Windows didn't come as a big shock to the industry. Installing a new operating system allows IT departments to clean up their computers and ensure that devices are running a core set of applications. Some may use the update to purchase new computers, but Windows is only certified to run on any computer with TPM 2 (Trusted Platform Module), which provides the secure boot feature.
While Windows OS provides backward compatibility, Microsoft's security stance means that as PCs age, there comes a point where the device driver software needed to keep those PCs functional offers too large an attack surface to continue supporting them.
Microsoft is unwilling to endlessly coordinate the efforts required to support device drivers, meaning perfectly good peripherals will eventually lose support; they may still work using older (legacy) device drivers, but there will be no newer versions.
To prevent Windows from running on older computers, Microsoft uses signed device drivers. This means that only certified driver software can be installed on Windows when it is Secure Boot. There will always be workarounds to get devices working, but they violate Microsoft's security model and potentially expose corporate IT departments to cybersecurity attacks.
Although the transition to Windows 11 has eventually begun, many enterprise IT departments have found it more difficult to migrate to the latest version of Windows, so an extended support option is available. Home users have until October 26, after Microsoft acknowledged that many consumers are still using Windows 10. Consumers who sign up for extended support and back up their computers to Microsoft's cloud will be able to receive free security updates until October 2026. Enterprise PCs and Active Directory-joined devices will only receive Windows 10 security updates if they are enrolled in an Extended Security Update (ESU) subscription.
A potential enticement to migration are new Neural Processing Unit (NPU) PCs designed to run artificial intelligence (AI) workloads locally rather than take advantage of cloud AI acceleration. Among the interesting developments in the AI PC space is that Microsoft initially only certified ARM-based devices based on Qualcomm chips, but now supports Intel and AMD-based PCs.
Running AI inference workloads locally gives application developers and hardware vendors the ability to leverage the embedded NPU to bring intelligence to their products, with noise-canceling webcam microphones among the first use cases. This can also help improve background display during video conferences. However, this doesn't seem to be a good enough reason to upgrade to an AI-powered PC.
Its annual Build 2025 conference gave Microsoft a chance to convince developers that building artificial intelligence capabilities into their apps is the way forward for Windows software. Without compelling use cases, IT departments have no reason to pay the current premium for NPU-enabled PCs that offer local AI acceleration.
Microsoft offers an AI inference engine, Windows ML, in Windows 11 that can be accessed through an application programming interface (API) and, importantly, can be trained on user data. It's unclear how this will evolve, but these capabilities are now built into Windows 11, meaning it's highly likely that more AI-powered computer apps will come online in 2026.
Here are Computer Weekly's 10 best artificial intelligence stories in 2025.
While the end of support has stimulated PC purchases, there also appears to have been an increase PC is updated in preparation for new US tariffs. In April, analyst Canalys reported that PC shipments rose sharply in the first quarter of 2025 (Q1 2025), driven by U.S. manufacturers increasing their pace of shipments in anticipation of the first tariff announcements.
Google Gemma, Meta Llama, Mistral and DeepSeek All of them are free to download for use on your personal computer without paying for online services or transferring your data to the cloud. In this article, we evaluate the technical feasibility of doing this on a personal machine and the quality of the output given the available resources.
With Windows 10 no longer supported, IT leaders need to consider how manage devices that haven't yet been updated to Windows 11. This is because faulty Windows 10 devices and outdated apps will be tempting targets for hackers. This requires mitigation measures, such as removing as much outdated software as possible or separating devices that cannot be updated.
Before the Internet allowed companies like Facebook and Google to flourish, there were traditional computers. Until the late 1970s, with the advent of the home-built computing era, computers were viewed as complex, expensive machines operated in specialized businesses. But on April 4, 1975, Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded Microsoft. the company that defined the PC era and opened computers to everyone.
The traditional way of solving IT problems is through support tickets tends to provide a poor user experience, and Toyota is committed to fixing that. Instead of waiting for IT issues to be resolved manually, Toyota's 100,000 employees now benefit from IT using Nexthink DEX technology to proactively detect, diagnose and resolve IT issues at the endpoint, resulting in an improved employee digital experience.
Widespread warranty fraud is not only costing companies billions, but is also creating a breeding ground for advanced hardware exploits, warned hardware hacker and researcher Bunny Huang on Black Hat Asia 2025.
In Shenzhen, China, there is a vibrant market of hardware repairers who repair and repurpose old devices, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of hardware vulnerabilities. According to Huang, these specialists are well trained to identify and correct manufacturing defects.
When Windows 10 ends on October 14, organizations will need to purchase extended support (ESU) to receive Microsoft hotfixes.
“There will be no more bug fixes or performance improvements,” said Gartner analyst Ranjit Atwal.
Enterprises can buy ESU, but Atwal expects only a small number of organizations will pay for it to provide a “support” bridge that allows them to continue to receive support from Microsoft after the transition from Windows 10 is complete.
Range PCs based on AMD, Intel and ARM processors with the help of neural processors they strive to increase office productivity. Dell Leading PC makers HP and Lenovo showcased their latest AI-enabled PC offerings. These devices have massive amounts of memory to run local AI workloads, as well as powerful hardware to accelerate AI.
Gartner explains how IT leaders can manage the transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 with Microsoft ESU Program. However, customers experiencing technical issues with Windows 10 not related to ESU updates are advised to upgrade to Windows 11 as ESU does not provide full fixes. Vulnerabilities rated as “moderate” or “low” will not be addressed.
Businesses and consumers alike may not feel the need to upgrade to Windows 11 as its predecessor nears the end of its lifespan, but they are putting their own safety is at riskThis is reported by the NCSC.
NCSC has released updated recommended configuration packages for Windows 10, part of the set of recommended configurations it supports for major operating systems, to help organizations quickly deploy recommended baselines.
