On January 26, 2026, cybersecurity firm ESET released a report indicating that, despite the cessation of Windows 10 support in October 2025, around 21 million personal computers—representing 48% of the German market—still operate on this system. Windows 11 has just edged past Windows 10, securing a 49.5% market share (roughly 21.5 million devices) and emerging as the most popular operating system in Germany's private computer sector. However, the rate of users upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 has significantly underperformed expectations. Since August 2025, the phase-out of older operating systems has sped up, leading to a sharp decline in the user base for "legacy" systems like Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows XP, with their combined user count now standing at approximately 840,000. Despite this, the shift from Windows 10 to Windows 11 has hit a major snag, creating a market scenario where the old and new systems are in a neck-and-neck competition, as German users generally exhibit a low inclination to upgrade. Microsoft had earlier announced that, post the end of support, users could opt for the Extended Security Updates (ESU) service to receive an additional year of security updates. Nevertheless, during the registration process for this service within the European Economic Area, issues cropped up, hindering some users from obtaining timely security patches.