There’s gold in them thar…PCs? Old Windows 10 devices could be holding billions of dollars worth of gold

• 400 million PCs will need to be replaced to support Windows 11
• $2.42 billion in gold could be recovered from waste PCs
• PC shipments rise due to Windows 10 EOS

New research has looked into the possible environmental impacts of the upcoming Windows 10 end of life^[1], which will see millions of devices needing to be upgraded.

With 400 million PCs globally set to retire due to a lack of hardware support for Windows 11^[2] (and 14.4 million PCs in the UK alone), we could face huge challenges to recover 12.8 million kg of recoverable metals, including gold, copper, silver, platinum, palladium and indium.

As a result, an estimated £1.809 billion ($2.42 billion) could be recovered from just the core recycled metals, figures from Business Waste’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) researchers claims.

Windows 10 end of life costs

Business Waste claims a staggering £1.68 billion worth of gold could be recovered from retired devices, as well as £98.8 million in copper and £32.9 million in silver.

However, while some schemes exist to support responsible recycling (like the UK’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive), it’s unclear how many devices are actually getting recycled.

Regardless, Business Waste noted the need to upgrade to divert the blame away from consumers and enterprises. With older devices losing support, they’ll become more vulnerable to viruses and software glitches. Unsupported software will also become more of a problem as vendors adapt to newer OS versions.

Although some reluctance to upgrade remains, IDC^[3] tracked a 9.4% year-over-year increase in PC shipments during the third quarter of 2025 in readiness for Microsoft^[4]’s OS changes.

Senior Research Manager Maciek Gornicki also noted the end of a device refresh cycle from pre-pandemic purchases, propping up a proportion of sales.

More broadly, with the EEA gaining an extra year’s extended security updates (ESU), device upgrades and PC shipments could continue to grow for months to come.

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