TL;DR: Windows 10 stopped receiving security updates on 14 October 2025. If you bought Extended Security Updates to buy breathing room, that first year runs out on 13 October 2026. A second year is available, but it costs roughly double and still only buys you patches. If you have Windows 10 machines left, the next few weeks are when you decide: upgrade, replace, or pay again.
Where we actually are
Windows 10 reached end of support on 14 October 2025. The machines did not stop working, which is precisely why so many are still sat on desks. They boot, they open Outlook, they print. Nothing visibly broke.
What changed is invisible. Microsoft stopped publishing security fixes for Windows 10, so every flaw found in it since that date stays open permanently. It is less like a car that stops running and more like one where nobody services the brakes any more. You find out on the day it matters.
A lot of businesses bridged the gap by buying Extended Security Updates, and that was a sensible move at the time. The catch is that ESU was always a rental rather than a repair, and the first year's rent is nearly up.
What happens on 13 October 2026
Extended Security Updates for business run in one-year blocks, up to three years in total. Year one covers you to 13 October 2026. After that you either buy year two or the updates stop.
Two things are worth knowing before you sign up for another year:
- The price doubles each year. Microsoft's published list price is 61 US dollars per device for year one, and it doubles for each year after that: roughly 122 dollars for year two and 244 for year three. Because it is priced in dollars, what you actually pay depends on your reseller and the exchange rate, but year one has worked out around £45 to £50 a machine for most businesses. The escalator is deliberate: it is designed to make staying put more expensive than moving. Microsoft's own documentation is on its Extended Security Updates programme page. One detail worth knowing: cover is cumulative, so if you skip year two and come back later, you pay for the year you missed as well as the one you want.
- You get patches and nothing else. No feature updates, no fixes for non-security bugs, and no general technical support from Microsoft. Software vendors are also steadily dropping Windows 10 from their supported list, so the risk of something in your line-of-business software quietly breaking goes up each month.
The consumer route, and why it does not apply to you
There is a second, cheaper ESU programme for personal Windows 10 devices, and it runs longer than the business one. Microsoft has extended it so that home users are covered until 12 October 2027, and enrolling is free if you sync your PC settings to a Microsoft account, free for 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or a one-off payment of 30 US dollars or the local equivalent.
On paper that looks like the obvious answer, which is exactly why it comes up. It is not available to you. Microsoft's own Extended Security Updates page states plainly that the consumer programme "can't be used in commercial scenarios". Business machines need the commercial programme, on the commercial dates and the commercial pricing. If someone has told you your work PCs are covered by the cheap route, they are wrong, and the gap only shows up when the updates do not arrive.
The Cyber Essentials problem got worse
If you hold or want Cyber Essentials, unsupported operating systems have always been an automatic fail. Windows 10 without ESU falls straight into that bucket.
The April 2026 update to the scheme tightened things further, and two of the new rules now fail you outright rather than costing you points. If certification matters to your contracts, an ageing Windows 10 estate is no longer a "we will sort it next year" item. We covered the detail in what the Danzell update changed.
Your three options
Option 1: Upgrade the machines that can take Windows 11
Windows 11 needs a TPM 2.0 chip, Secure Boot capable firmware, 4GB of RAM as a bare minimum (8GB or more in practice) and 64GB of storage. Most business machines bought from around 2018 onwards clear that bar.
This is the cheapest route by a distance. The licence usually carries over, and the work is mostly time: back up, upgrade, test, hand back. The part people underestimate is testing whatever niche software runs the business, so start with one machine from each department rather than doing the lot in a weekend.
Option 2: Replace what cannot be upgraded
If a machine is seven or eight years old and fails the Windows 11 check, ESU is money spent propping up hardware that is near the end anyway. A new business laptop arrives with Windows 11 Pro, a multi-year onsite warranty and hardware that will not need this conversation again for years. Our hardware procurement page covers what we specify and why.
Allow a few weeks between ordering and having the machine on someone's desk with their data on it. That lead time is the reason to decide now rather than in October.
Option 3: Buy year two of ESU, on purpose
Sometimes this is genuinely the right answer. A machine bolted to a piece of production equipment, a workstation running software that has no Windows 11 version yet, a site with a capital freeze until the new financial year. Those are real constraints and paying for another year is a reasonable response to them.
What makes it the wrong answer is drift: paying again because nobody made a decision. If you buy year two, buy it for named machines with a written reason and a date by which they will be gone. Otherwise you will have the identical conversation next October at double the price.
What to do in the next few weeks
- Count them. You cannot plan around a number you do not have. Get an accurate list of every Windows 10 device, including the forgotten ones: the reception machine, the spare laptop in the cupboard, the PC driving the label printer.
- Sort the list into three piles. Upgradeable, needs replacing, genuinely stuck. Most estates split more favourably than owners expect.
- Price all three piles. Compare the cost of ESU year two against the cost of replacing the machines it would cover. For older hardware the replacement often wins on a two-year view, before you count the productivity difference.
- Order early. Hardware lead times and the work of migrating people are what actually determine whether you make the date.
- Check your certification and insurance position. If you hold Cyber Essentials, or your cyber insurance asks about supported software, unsupported machines are a question you do not want to answer badly.
The honest summary
ESU did its job. It gave businesses a year to plan instead of a panic in October 2025. But it was a bridge, and bridges are meant to be crossed rather than lived on.
If your Windows 10 machines can take Windows 11, upgrade them. If they cannot and they are old, replace them. If they cannot and there is a real reason, pay for year two deliberately and put an end date on it.
If you want a straight answer on which of your machines fall into which pile, and what each route would actually cost, get in touch or call us on 01584 517234. We will do the audit and give you the numbers without the sales pitch.