If some of your office PCs still run Windows 10, you are not alone, and you are not out of options. But the clock keeps moving. Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. For businesses that bought a year of paid security updates, that first year runs out on October 13, 2026, and each PC needs a decision: pay for a second year, upgrade it, or replace it.
Here is where things stand as of September 2026. The advice holds after October 13, too: the same choice comes around every October until 2028.
Where things stand (as of September 2026)
According to Microsoft’s end-of-support page, Windows 10 PCs keep working, but they no longer receive security updates, fixes or technical support unless they are enrolled in Extended Security Updates (ESU). ESU is a paid subscription that delivers only critical and important security fixes. It adds no new features and no general support.
For organizations, Microsoft’s lifecycle FAQ lists three one-year ESU periods:
| ESU period | Coverage ends |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | October 13, 2026 |
| Year 2 | October 12, 2027 |
| Year 3 (final) | October 10, 2028 |
Microsoft calls ESU “a last resort” and “a temporary bridge”. There is no fourth year.
One 2026 change has caused confusion. Microsoft extended its separate consumer ESU program to October 12, 2027. That program is for home users: Microsoft states it cannot be used commercially and is not offered on PCs joined to a company domain or managed by an organization. Business PCs follow the commercial dates above.
How commercial ESU works
Businesses buy ESU through Microsoft volume licensing, one year at a time, per device. On its ESU program page, Microsoft lists Year 1 at $61 USD per device and says the price doubles each following year. ESU is cumulative: a business that joins in Year 2 pays for Year 1 as well.
Enabling it takes some work on each PC. Per Microsoft’s setup instructions, the PC must run Windows 10 version 22H2 with specific prerequisite updates installed. You then add a Multiple Activation Key (a license key shared across many devices) and activate the correct year’s license. Each year needs its own activation. A PC that has only Year 1 activated stops receiving security updates after October 13, 2026, even though nothing on screen changes.
Also worth knowing, from Microsoft’s pages:
- Windows 10 LTSC editions (found on specialized equipment and some thin clients) have their own support dates and are not part of this ESU program.
- Windows 10 PCs used to connect to Windows 365 Cloud PCs are entitled to ESU for up to three years with an active Windows 365 license.
- Security updates for Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 continue until October 10, 2028. That covers Office, not Windows itself.
Can the PC run Windows 11?
This is the question that decides most of the budget. Microsoft’s Windows 11 specifications have not changed, and still require, among other things:
- TPM 2.0: a small security chip (Trusted Platform Module) that stores encryption keys. Many older PCs have it but ship with it switched off.
- A supported processor: Microsoft publishes lists of approved chips. For mainstream business PCs, the Intel list generally starts at 8th-generation Core processors, and the AMD list at Ryzen 2000-series.
- UEFI with Secure Boot: modern startup firmware that checks the system has not been tampered with before Windows loads.
- 4 GB of memory and 64 GB of storage at minimum. For business use, we plan well above those minimums.
Two version notes as of September 2026, from Microsoft’s Windows 11 release information. Upgrade to version 25H2, the current release for existing PCs. And if you already have Windows 11 Pro PCs on the older version 24H2, they also stop getting updates on October 13, 2026, so move them to 25H2 at the same time. (Version 26H1 comes only on certain new PCs; Microsoft does not offer it as an upgrade.)
Your options, in order of preference
- Upgrade eligible PCs to Windows 11 now. For a PC in good shape, an in-place upgrade is usually the cheapest path. Test your line-of-business software first.
- Replace PCs that cannot upgrade. A PC with an unsupported processor will not become eligible, and retrofitting old hardware rarely pays.
- Buy Year 2 only where you must. ESU makes sense for a PC that runs one stubborn application, or when replacement hardware is on order. Because the price doubles each year, the math favors replacing sooner. If you skipped Year 1 and need ESU now, expect to pay for both years.
- Consider moving the desktop off the PC. For some roles, a thin client connecting to a centrally managed Windows desktop, on your own server, a hosted server or a cloud service such as Windows 365, avoids replacing full PCs. See our article on thin clients with Windows RDS.
Shipping times to Alaska, and the cost of getting a technician to a remote site, are good reasons not to leave replacements to the last week. If October 13 has already passed, the plan is the same; just make sure no PC is quietly running without coverage.
The risk of doing nothing
An unpatched Windows 10 PC does not stop working, and that is exactly the problem. It looks fine while newly found weaknesses pile up with no fixes coming. Attackers know which systems no longer get patches.
Software vendors steadily drop support for Windows 10, cyber insurance questionnaires ask about unsupported systems, and one unpatched PC is a weak point for every other device on the network. If your industry has regulatory requirements, ask us how an unsupported operating system affects them.
How FTI helps
Our managed IT service, built on Kaseya, keeps an inventory of every PC we manage, and our AI-assisted operations put that picture in front of our engineers: which machines are Windows 11 ready, which need replacing, which have the right ESU year activated, and which have drifted. Engineers make the calls. We handle ESU activation, keep enrolled PCs patched on our tested schedule (see timely, not rushed), and plan replacements to spread the cost across your budget.
After 36 years as a technology company in Alaska, we have learned that the transitions that go smoothly are planned, not rushed.
