OFFBEAT
The new extreme sport: Windows Updates
BORK!BORK!BORK! Windows 10 is lingering on after its friends have gone home, plaintively flickering out an update notification on a digital sign at London’s O2 arena.
The sign was advertising the venue and some of the activities available inside, including an indoor skydiving experience. We’d recommend indoor skydiving as an alternative to jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft for those minded to give it a go, although the sight of Windows 10 making its presence felt is less than ideal when considering undertaking an extreme sport.
Indeed, a device bleating about a restart is not something one wants to think about just before you go inside and rely on the center’s tech to safely blast you toward the ceiling using a fan mounted below the floor. Certainly, mid-air acrobatics would take on an entirely new frisson if there was the added danger of Microsoft’s finest abruptly turning off the hardware to give itself a jolly good update.
We’ve all been in that meeting when Windows decides a restart is needed mid-presentation. It’s not great, and even less so when you’re dressed in a jumpsuit, helmet, and about to venture into a column of air.
Not that this hardware was part of the indoor skydiving activity, of course. The digital sign was showing an advertisement for the company beneath the notification. Rather, it’s a very visible reminder of how much Windows 11 still has to do before it stamps its predecessor out of significance. According to Statcounter (not the most reliable source, but in the absence of official data from Microsoft, a useful indicator), Windows 11 currently enjoys a market share of just under 70 percent, while Windows 10 stubbornly hangs on at 30 percent.
Windows 10 left support last year, although the security update lights can be kept burning for a few extra years via Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. In June 2026, Microsoft quietly extended the updates for consumers to 2027. Up to three years are on offer for commercial users. For a fee, of course.
Microsoft’s extension and the notification on O2’s digital sign suggest Windows 10 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Then again, considering how well things have gone for Windows 11 since release, perhaps it too would benefit from a blast of air from below to lift it convincingly above its predecessor. ®
