Windows 10 is fully supported until October 2027 as part of Extended Security Updates (ESU), which makes sense given that 3 in 10 PCs still run the “retired” OS. But it’ll eventually become difficult to keep using it, specifically for gaming, as Nvidia is the first major company to confirm it won’t extend support for another year. Others may follow soon.
Windows 10 reached the end of support on October 14, 2025, but Microsoft initially extended security updates for another year, until October 2026. Those Extended Security Updates were originally set to expire in about a month from today, but Microsoft decided to give Windows 10 another extension until October 2027.
Microsoft did not have a change of heart, but rather ultimately realized that some Windows 10 holdouts simply do not want to move to Windows 11.
However, Microsoft’s extended support does not mean its partners will follow and give another year of support to Windows 10 users. Nvidia is one of the first companies to confirm that it won’t participate in Microsoft’s second round of extended support, and it’s pulling the plug on Game Ready Driver updates.
Nvidia will stop releasing Windows 10 Game Ready Drivers in October 2026
Nvidia previously said that a large number of GeForce users still use Windows 10, so it made sense for the company to extend support for an additional year. But that does not warrant another extension.
According to an updated support document, Nvidia will release the final Game Ready Driver that supports Windows 10 in October 2026. Starting in November 2026, you won’t get game-related fixes or optimizations if you continue using Windows 10.
Of course, you’ll still get security fixes, which are guaranteed until at least October 2029.
Is this a big deal? From a security perspective, it’s not, because Nvidia drivers will remain supported with security fixes for another three years. But you should now seriously consider moving to Windows 11 if you use Windows 10 for gaming.
While it’s true that existing games should continue to work fine, newer bugs may never get patched, and Nvidia won’t add optimizations or support for newer game titles. That will become a bigger problem over time, particularly as major new games, including Fable, start arriving on PC.
And we’ve witnessed something similar with Windows 7, Windows 8, and 8.1. In October 2021, Nvidia finally stopped making GeForce Game Ready Drivers for these three versions of Windows, and major new game titles started running into performance issues, bugs, or outright blocks in the coming years.
Nvidia continued to offer security-only drivers for Windows 7 all the way through September 2024, but that did not make gaming on the OS practical.
Windows 10 is going to witness a similar fate, so if you use it for gaming, it’s time to move on.
And it’s also important to understand that Nvidia is setting an example here, so other OEMs and chipmakers may follow its lead. As for these tech companies, the only thing that matters is greed, not consumers.
How many people still use Windows 10?
Microsoft officially celebrates Windows 11 as a success with 1.6 billion users, but that does not mean nobody is using Windows 10. In fact, it’s quite obvious that millions are still running Windows 10, and the number is significantly higher than it was during Windows 7’s end-of-support days.
Microsoft did not roll out Windows 7 ESU to consumers because its market share was not sufficient to warrant one.
In the case of Windows 10, it’s different, and our analysis suggests that Microsoft has come to the conclusion that it simply cannot convince the remaining holdouts to embrace Windows 11 for the sake of it.
According to HP, 30% of PCs still run Windows 10, and it hopes the holdouts will eventually move to Windows 11 or buy a new PC.
“We did see good growth in both EMEA and APJ this quarter. And some of that was driven by the expected tailwinds from Win 11. And I would say, at this point, we have roughly 30% of the installed base still on Windows 10,” Karen L. Parkhill, HP’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, told investors in late May 2026.
Later, Microsoft itself admitted that Windows 11 growth was mostly driven by Windows 10’s end of life, and it’s now slowing.
“Windows OEM and Devices revenue decreased 7%, and Windows OEM decreased 5% driven by lower PC market demand and a high prior-year comparable that benefited from Windows 10 end of support,” Microsoft noted during the earnings call published in July 2026.
Microsoft does not appear to be planning any new dark patterns to target the remaining Windows 10 holdouts. Instead, it’s making Windows 11 a better operating system by making it faster, reducing ads, making the Start menu resizable, and more.
The company hopes these changes might convince Windows 10 users to consider switching, but if anything, AI PCs are definitely not going to work. And this is also in line with Nvidia’s new marketing strategy for RTX Spark, which drops Copilot+ PC branding.
