- 400 million PCs need to be replaced to support Windows 11
- 2.42 billion dollars in gold could be recovered from waste -PCs
- PC shippings are rising due to Windows 10 EOS
New research has investigated the possible environmental impacts of the upcoming Windows 10 end of life, which will see millions of devices to be upgraded.
With 400 million PCs globally set to retire due to a shortage of hardware support for Windows 11 (and 14.4 million PCs in Britain alone), we could face huge challenges to restore 12.8 million kg of recovering metals, including gold, copper, silver, platinum, palladium and indium.
As a result, an estimated £ 1,809 billion ($ 2.42 billion) could be recovered from only the central recycled metals, claims figures from Business Waste’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) researchers.
Windows 10 End of Life costs
Business waste claims that a staggering £ 1.68 billion gold value could be recovered from retired units as well as £ 98.8 million in copper and £ 32.9 million in silver.
While there are some schemes to support responsible recycling (such as Britain’s Waste’s Electric and Electronic Equipment Directive), it is unclear how many devices are actually recycled.
Either way, business waste noticed the need to upgrade to divert blame away from consumers and businesses. With older devices that lose support, they become more vulnerable to viruses and software errors. Non -supported software also becomes more of a problem when suppliers adapt to newer us versions.
Although some reluctance to upgrade is back, IDC asked an increase of 9.4% over the year over the year in PC shipments during the third quarter of 2025 in the preparedness of Microsoft’s OS changes.
Senior Research Manager Maciek Gornicki also noted the end of a unit update cycle from pre-pandemic purchases, supporting part of the sale.
More broadly, with EEA, which has received an extra year of extended security updates (ESU), device upgrades and PC shipments could continue to grow for months to come.
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