Healthcare lags in Windows 11 upgrades – and lives may depend on it
- Reference: 1759220833
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/30/windows_11_healthcare/
- Source link:
Working out exactly the proportion of Windows devices running version 11 versus Windows 10 is tricky. Microsoft doesn't share its telemetry, yet Lansweeper's data, which is derived from approximately 8.5 million Windows 10 and 11 devices, can provide insight into the state of the enterprise world.
The figures vary wildly by sector. According to Lansweeper, transport and logistics leads the update wave, with 61.2 percent of devices running Windows 11, compared to 38.8 percent on Windows 10. At the other end of the scale, healthcare has only 33.5 percent of devices on Windows 11, while 66.5 percent remain on Windows 10.
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"In a lot of scenarios, it comes down to regulation, and difficulties with regulation, specific software only being approved for specific operating system versions," Esben Dochy, a principal technical evangelist for SecOps at Lansweeper told The Register .
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"Things like that have to go through a very long change management system where they have to approve the new operating system to test it."
Dochy reckons there is every chance that Windows 11 could account for 70 percent of devices overall by the time October 14 rolls around. In some scenarios, it might dominate. In others, it might not.
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Not that unsupported Windows 10 machines will suddenly stop working on that date. Many administrators won't apply the final patch until it can be thoroughly checked. The quality of code emerging from Redmond in recent years has necessitated a prudent approach. As a result, some organizations might argue they have a few more weeks or even months after the end date.
"You could argue, indeed, that you have another month," said Dochy.
"Yes, you could argue that for the organizations which run on a month delay, or have a few weeks of delay to ensure that their patches don't break anything. So you can start making some excuses, but it's really not ideal to do that."
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Dochy calls the apparent slowness of the healthcare sector "troublesome."
"It's the only industry where you're not just worried about machines being down and revenue being lost, it's where human lives are at stake. They have a lot of catching up to get to Windows 11, or let's hope they all have plans in place to run those Windows 10 systems with an ESU or something similar."
[6]The end of Windows 10 means early Surface Hub hardware will be bricking it
[7]It's the final countdown: Windows 10 hits end of support in less than 30 days
[8]Enterprises sticking with Windows 10 could shell out billions for continued support
[9]Microsoft readies Windows 11 25H2 while Windows 10 circles the drain
Dochy is also concerned about Office, and the impending end of life of some versions "that might fly under the radar." [10]Office 2016 and 2019 are due to reach end of support at the same time as many versions of Windows 10.
The good news for administrators is that Dochy doesn't think that Microsoft will force such a big change on customers in the near future.
"One of the main things that really sets Windows 10 and Windows 11 apart is those additional hardware requirements," he said. "Those barriers will not be in place when it comes to updating to newer versions of Windows 11."
And the future?
Dochy can't see what additional hardware barriers a hypothetical Windows 12 might throw up, based on information available today. Even Microsoft's obsession with all things AI may not translate to specific requirements for Windows. "It's very uncertain," he told us. "It's not certain that there's going to be some sort of requirements for AI going forward." ®
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/16/the_end_of_windows_10/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/16/windows_10_final_countdown/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/windows_10_esu_costs/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/02/windows_11_25h2_preview/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/16/office_2019_2016_support/
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From TFA: "difficulties with regulation, specific software only being approved for specific operating system versions"
This raises the question of whether the specific operating system vrsion is the same specific operating system version after an update has been applied and whether this conflicts with a likely requirement that the operating system be kept up to data.
There are some bits of kit, especially Certified Medical Devices, that you literally cannot patch because then the OS will not be the one that was accredited so the device falls out of Certification and can't be used.
Yes, this does count against us for the out of date OS count
shocked (NOT)
it is common for health care to have out of date IT
the problem has several parts
some diagnostic machines cost huge amounts of money and are supported, but the time and effort required to certify patches and updates , let alone a new OS is huge, so it takes time and money so update / upgrades tend to lag behind consumers versions
some of the smaller machines / systems run embedded OS's with limited space for updates etc so as long as no known vulnerabilities they are left in place until they fail then are replaced
add to that some old equipment may no longer be produced and supported or even the manufacturer has been bought or ceased trading
and with budget cuts so long as no risk to life the hospital etc have to get maximum value out of the equipment rather than keep replacing it every time the manufacturer tries to force an upgrade
welcome to the world of upgrades for the sake of it, not because its needed
Healthcare lags in Windows 11 upgrades
> Healthcare lags in Windows 11 upgrades – and lives may depend on it
Maybe they don't want a functional machine rendered non-functional.
>"It's the only industry where you're not just worried about machines being down and revenue being lost, it's where human lives are at stake. They have a lot of catching up to get to Windows 11, or let's hope they all have plans in place to run those Windows 10 systems with an ESU or something similar."
Given the number of bad updates Win11 has had so far, I would wager that machines being down and lives being at stake is exactly why they have delayed that move as long as possible. Even moreso than most IT folk, healthcare admins (at least the ones I've met) tend to have the mentality of "don't mess with any of it until it's really, truly unavoidable".