Windows fleets falling behind
A new study finds millions of business and education Windows laptops are lagging on critical updates, creating reliability headaches and bigger attack surfaces—Windows installs updates far slower than macOS in many workplaces. Recent telemetry also shows Windows endpoints suffer more app freezes and crashes, making total-cost-of-ownership a bigger factor in refresh decisions for schools. (techradar.com) (me.pcmag.com)
Omnissa’s State of Digital Workspace 2026 report draws on telemetry from millions of Omnissa‑managed enterprise endpoints collected between January and December 2025. (secure.businesswire.com) Across that 2025 dataset, Omnissa reports Windows devices logged 3.1× more forced shutdowns, 2.2× more application crashes and 7.5× more application hangs than macOS devices. (secure.businesswire.com) The company measured lifecycle differences and found 90% of Windows machines in its fleet were under three years old versus 65% of Macs, with only 2% of Windows devices reaching year six compared with 11.5% of Macs — Omnissa says customers treat Macs as six‑year assets and Windows PCs as three‑year assets. (theregister.com) Omnissa flags security gaps specific to regulated and education sectors: more than 50% of Windows and Android devices in healthcare and pharma were five major OS updates behind, and the firm found more than 50% of education desktops and mobile devices were unencrypted. (publicnow.com) The report quantifies productivity loss from instability, noting employees take almost 24 minutes on average to refocus after a digital disruption. (publicnow.com) Omnissa recommends end‑to‑end IT observability and unified DEX/management telemetry to close blind spots quickly, a point Hemant Sahani, Omnissa VP of Product Management, emphasized in the company’s release. (secure.businesswire.com)
