Microsoft ended free support for Windows 10 in October 2025. The machines did not stop working, which is exactly what makes this dangerous: nothing visible happened, so nothing feels urgent.
What changed is that new vulnerabilities found in Windows 10 from that date onward do not get fixed. Not slowly — not at all. Every month that passes adds to the list of known ways in that will never be closed.
Why an unsupported machine is different from an old one
An old computer is slow and annoying. An unsupported computer is a permanent opening. Vulnerabilities are published constantly, and attack tooling picks them up within days. On a supported system that is a patching cycle. On Windows 10 it is now a standing invitation.
The knock-on effects arrive quickly too:
- Cyber insurance applications ask whether you run unsupported operating systems, and the answer affects cover and price
- Client security questionnaires ask the same question
- Compliance frameworks generally treat unsupported software as an unacceptable finding
- Software vendors drop support for the platform, so your line-of-business applications stop being certified on it
One unpatchable machine also undermines the rest of your network, because it becomes the foothold from which everything else is reachable.
Your actual options
Upgrade the machine to Windows 11. Free where the hardware qualifies, which mostly comes down to processor generation and a security chip called TPM 2.0. Machines bought in the last four or five years usually qualify.
Replace the hardware. For machines that do not qualify, this is the honest answer. It is also the moment to ask whether that user needs a desktop at all, or whether the workload has moved somewhere else.
Buy Extended Security Updates. Microsoft sells paid security updates for a limited period. This is a bridge, not a destination: it buys scheduling room for a large estate, at a price that rises each year.
Isolate what genuinely cannot move. Sometimes a machine has to stay because it drives a piece of equipment or runs software with no successor. That machine can be segmented off the main network, stripped of internet access, and tightly controlled. It is a containment strategy, and it needs to be deliberate rather than accidental.
Start with an inventory, not a purchase
The first question is not what to buy. It is how many machines are affected, which of them qualify for the free upgrade, and which are running software that will not survive the move. Most businesses guess this number and most guess low, because the forgotten machines — the one in the workshop, the one running the label printer — are exactly the ones nobody counts.
Once the list exists, the plan usually sorts itself: upgrade what qualifies, replace what does not on a schedule you control, and isolate the handful of genuine exceptions.
We do this as a fixed piece of work — inventory, eligibility, application compatibility, and a replacement schedule with costs. If you are not sure where you stand, ask us for the audit, or read more about how our managed support keeps this from creeping up again.