Still Running Windows 10? The First Grace Year Just Ended. Here's What Your Business Should Do Now

Microsoft officially ended Windows 10 support in October 2025, then offered a one-year bridge of paid security updates for anyone not ready to move. That first year ended on October 13, 2026. It's one of the most searched tech questions this month, and in almost every small business we talk to, the answer to "are you still on Windows 10?" is "mostly not... except for that one PC in the back office."

That one PC is usually the one running payroll, the label printer, or the old accounting software. Here's how to think about it, without the scare tactics.

What actually changed on October 13

Windows 10 doesn't stop working. It boots, opens files, and runs your programs exactly as it did last week. What changes is security. A PC that isn't covered by an extended update plan no longer gets fixes when new security holes are found, and attackers know exactly which holes those are. Every month that passes, an uncovered Windows 10 PC gets a little easier to break into.

For a business, there's a second, quieter problem: cyber insurance and compliance questionnaires now routinely ask whether you run unsupported operating systems. "Yes" on that form can mean a higher premium or a denied claim, which is often a bigger cost than the PC itself.

Step one: find out what you actually have

Before you spend a dollar, take ten minutes and make a simple list. For every computer that still runs Windows 10, write down who uses it, what it's used for, and whether it can run Windows 11. Microsoft's free PC Health Check app answers that last question.

Here's the part most people miss: a lot of "this PC can't run Windows 11" results are just a setting. Two of Windows 11's requirements, a security chip called TPM 2.0 and a feature called Secure Boot, are built into many PCs from the last several years but turned off in the BIOS by default. Switching them on takes a few minutes and costs nothing. Get help with this if you've never been in a BIOS menu, but check before you assume you need new hardware.

Your four real options

• Upgrade for free. If the PC passes the check, the Windows 11 upgrade is free. Back up first, schedule it for a slow afternoon, and confirm your important programs and printers work afterward. This is the right answer for most machines.
• Replace it. If the PC is old enough to fail the check even with the right settings, it's probably slow and near the end of its life anyway. Fold it into your normal replacement budget instead of treating it as an emergency.
• Pay for another year of updates, for the stragglers only. Businesses can buy Extended Security Updates per device, per year, for up to three years in total. The years stack, so a PC that skipped year one has to be covered for it before year two. Microsoft designed the price to go up each year on purpose. It's a bridge for a specific machine with a specific reason to stay, like software that can't move yet, not a plan for the whole office.
• Give it a different job. A PC that's only used for web browsing and email can often be turned into a perfectly good machine with a free operating system like ChromeOS Flex. It's not right for every workload, but for a front-desk or kiosk computer it's worth a look before you buy anything.

One trap to avoid

Microsoft also runs a cheap or free extended update program for home PCs, and it's tempting to enroll your work computers the same way. Don't. That program is meant for personal devices, and Microsoft excludes computers managed by an organization. If a business PC needs more time, use the business program, or better, use the time to move it.

If a PC has to stay on Windows 10 for a while

Sometimes there's a real reason, like a piece of equipment whose software only runs on Windows 10. If so, make that PC as boring a target as possible:

• Don't use it for email, banking, or general web browsing. Let it do its one job and nothing else.
• Take away admin rights from the everyday account, so a bad download can't install itself.
• Back it up somewhere it can't reach. Our cloud vs. local backup guide covers the simple version.
• Write down an exit date and who owns it. "We'll deal with it later" is how one PC turns into three years of risk.

Bottom line

October 13 wasn't a cliff, but it was a real deadline. Most businesses can solve this with a free upgrade, a setting change, and one or two planned replacements, without signing up for anything. If you'd like someone to look at your list and tell you honestly which machines to upgrade, replace, or leave alone, that's exactly what an IT Clarity Session is for. No vendor commissions, so the cheapest answer that's actually safe is the one we'll recommend.

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