I’m not sure what to make of Microsoft’s blog post for CES 2024, entitled “The Year of the Windows 11 PC Refresh.” According to StatCounter, as of December 2024, Windows 11 holds a 34.11% market share, as compared to Windows 10 at 62.7%. That puts 11 at around 55% of 10 by those numbers. If indeed 2024 is PC refresh year for Windows 11, as MS says, it’s got a lot of ground to make up.

Why Say: 2025 Is PC Refresh Year?

Indeed, MS concludes the afore-cited blog post with these concluding words:

…we believe that one of the most important pieces of technology people will look to refresh in 2025 isn’t the refrigerator, the television or their mobile phone. It will be their Windows 10 PC, and they will move forward with Windows 11.

The impetus, of course, from the MS POV is that Windows 11 running on a Copilot+ PC provides significant new capabilities in the areas of security and AI-driven content creation, bolstered by faster, more powerful hardware with longer battery life. Given such a compelling combination of features and functions, the case for refresh is too strong for any other outcome to be likely.

Impending End of Service for Windows 10

October 14, 2025 remains the end of the officially supported road for Windows 10, with subsequent yearly payments for extended service after the cut-off date. MS will bump costs annually for up to three years after that time, to allow laggards to pay for the privilege of postponing refreshes instead.

Does this all translate into 2025 as a notable refresh year? It could, provided that consumers and businesses buy into the notion that what Windows 11 24H2 brings to the party is worth the time, cost and effort to push a refresh through sooner rather than later.

IMO, what’s more compelling to consumers and businesses is the age of their PC fleets, and how long it might be until a refresh occurs as per normal 3-5 year cycles. Looking at my modest collection of a dozen units or so, 3 of them date from 2018, and another three pre-date 2022. That would argue for a 60% refresh rate here at Chez Tittel. I suspect many small to mid-size businesses, and even enterprises, are in a similar boat.

Could 2025 be a big year for PC refreshes? Possibly. Will that actually happen? It depends on how appetites for new technology match up with the will and the wherewithal to acquire Copilot+ PCs. I suspect 2025 will see more refresh activity that 2024 did. But I’ll be surprised if Window 10 and 11 marketshare flip-flops — that is, 30-40% Windows 10 versus 50-60% for Windows 11 by the end of the year. That said, stranger things have happened.

My own best guess is that Windows 10 and 11 might reach parity — which currently calculates to ~48% each — by 12/31/2025. But I see that as a stretch target based on current numbers and prior version histories. Of course, only time will tell… Stay tuned!

Every now and then, Microsoft likes to mess with Windows desktop display stuff. Today’s case in point come courtesy of Windows 11 Canary Build 27754, installed two days ago. In this go-round, Canary compresses date/time layout at the far right of the notification area. You can see its incredibly brief form: 10:23 above, and 11/22 below in the lead-in graphic. Does that mean I have to like it — or even want like that? Heck, no. If Canary compresses date/time layout on its own recognizance that gives me cause to report here, and remonstrate elsewhere.

If Canary Compresses Date/Time Layout, Then?

Based on my attempts to reformat the date from its current minimalist form to something a bit more informative, neither Settings > Time & Language > Language and Region nor Control Panel > Region > Date and time formats exercises any obvious effect on its appearance. I filed a Feedback Hub request to ask them to allow the prevailing settings to work rather than changing them independendly. Sheesh!

If you want to upvote my Feedback Hub suggestion, see it at Notification time/date in Canary Build 27754. TIA.

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

I’m not sure why MS rearranges things at its own whim, or for reasons not fully understood, explained, or immediately obvious. But it happens from time to time. Looking at the 27754 announcement, MS has this to say:

You can revert to the long form of the date/time and bell icon visuals by toggling the values in the Settings via Settings > Date and Time under “Show time and day in the system tray” and Settings > System > Notifications under “Notifications”.

Then I found it: there’s a down-caret for a dropdown menu on the “Show time and date in the System Tray” entry in the “Date & time” section. If you open that dropdown, you can switch back to long-form displays. Here’s what that looks like:

As you can see, I clicked the entry “Show seconds…” Once I did that the time then displays as 11:15:27 AM and the date as 2024-11-22, as per my settings. It looks like one must go the long way around to get to the right destination. That’s not a totally unexpected experience in Windows-World, either!

Why didn’t the announcement simply say, switch from Show abbreviated date and time to Show seconds in system tray…? I would’ve understood that immediately, and known exactly what to do. Sigh.