Microsoft will end support for its most popular OS in less than a week. Here’s what to do with your Windows 10 PCs that fail Microsoft’s Windows 11 compatibility tests.
Windows 10 support ends on Oct. 14, 2025.
You have free and paid options for extended updates.
Doing nothing is not a safe option.
Have you decided what to do with your old Windows 10 PCs when they reach their official end-of-support date next week?
The official deadline is Oct. 14, 2025. Microsoft is not going to back down at the last minute and offer an extension. The hardware requirements aren’t going to change, either. So, if you have a laptop or desktop PC that doesn’t pass the compatibility checks, Microsoft will block you from upgrading through Windows Update, and they will encourage you to buy a new PC instead.
But you have other alternatives, including some new ways to continue getting security updates for an extra year at no cost. Don’t procrastinate, though — if you’re responsible for one or more Windows 10 PCs that fail Microsoft’s Windows 11 compatibility tests, you need to choose one of these five options soon.
Even if you and your business aren’t affected by this deadline, it’s likely that you have friends and family members who own older PCs that are still perfectly functional but can’t be upgraded to Windows 11. They’ve probably been ignoring warning messages for a few months now, but those messages are going to get more insistent as the deadline approaches. You can help them out by sending them a link to this article. 1. Sign up for extended security updates
Microsoft will continue developing security updates for Windows 10, but they won’t be free for everyone. Extended Security Updates (ESUs) for Windows 10 will be available on a subscription basis for up to three years.
How much are these paid-for updates going to cost? That depends.
Consumers have the option to receive security updates for one additional year after the end-of-support date, with the deadline pushing out to October 2026. The list price for that subscription is $30 a year, but you can cut the cost to zero by using Microsoft Rewards points earned by using the Bing search engine. You can also qualify for free updates by using the Windows Backup tool. (For details, see How to get Windows 10 extended security updates for free.) That’s the obvious choice if you simply want to postpone the decision. Just be aware that the consumer ESU subscription is only good for one year. At the end of that year, you’ll have an unsupported PC once again, so make sure you use that time to figure out your exit strategy for October 2026.
If you’re an administrator at an educational institution with a deployment of Windows 10 Education edition, you’re in luck. You can purchase extended updates for up to three years, and the cost will be a mere pittance: $1 per machine for the first year, $2 for the second year, and $4 for the third and final year, taking you all the way to October 2028.
IT pros who manage a fleet of business PCs aren’t so lucky and will need to pay dearly to stick with Windows 10. A license for the Extended Security Updates program is sold as a per-device subscription. For the first year, the cost is $61 per PC. For year two, the price doubles, and it doubles again for year three. Do the math, and the cost is staggering: a three-year ESU subscription will cost $61 + $122 + $244, for a total of $427. 2. Buy a new PC (or rent a virtual PC)
Microsoft and its partners would like you to replace that unsupported hardware with a new PC. You might even be tempted by one of the shiny new Copilot+ PCs, with their dedicated neural processing units, or maybe a powerful gaming PC. But throwing away a perfectly good computer seems wasteful, and it’s not an option if you’re hanging on to Windows 10 because you have mission-critical software or an expensive hardware device that’s incompatible with Windows 11.
You also have the option to rent a new virtual PC by signing up for Windows 365, which allows you to connect remotely to your own Windows 11-powered virtual PC in Microsoft’s cloud.
