{"id":240,"date":"2026-10-05T23:59:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T23:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/windows-10-in-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T23:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T23:59:24","slug":"windows-10-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/windows-10-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 10 in 2026: what to do if you still have it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>In brief, and urgent:<\/strong> support for Windows 10 ended on 14 October 2025. Companies still running it pay for extended updates, and <strong>the first year of coverage expires on 13 October 2026<\/strong>. To be protected from 14 October, year two has to be bought, and it cannot be bought without year one. If you still have Windows 10 computers, this is the week to check where you stand.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where things stand<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Windows 10 computers keep working. Nothing shuts down and no lock screen appears. What stopped are the security updates, and the only legitimate way to keep receiving them is the Extended Security Updates programme, which Microsoft calls ESU.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For organisations the programme runs for at most three years after the end of support.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Coverage year<\/th><th>Period<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody>\n<tr><td>Year 1<\/td><td>15 October 2025 \u2013 13 October 2026<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td>Year 2<\/td><td>14 October 2026 \u2013 12 October 2027<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td>Year 3<\/td><td>13 October 2027 \u2013 10 October 2028<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After 10 October 2028 there is no option left. That is the end of the road for Windows 10, whatever you are willing to pay.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The rules that catch buyers out<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>It is licensed per device<\/strong>, not per user, with a minimum of one licence.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It is sold by whole year only.<\/strong> There are no partial periods, whenever you join the programme.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It is cumulative.<\/strong> To buy year two you must have bought year one. You cannot skip it to save money.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It requires Windows 10 version 22H2.<\/strong> Devices left on older versions have to be updated first.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The LTSC and LTSB editions are not covered<\/strong> by this programme, they have their own lifecycles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Activation uses a key<\/strong> taken from the admin centre and applied to each device after some preparatory updates are installed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The list price Microsoft published for the first year was 61 US dollars per device, with the statement that it <strong>doubles each consecutive year<\/strong>. What you actually pay comes from the partner you buy through, not from the public list. By that doubling rule the third year costs four times the first, which usually settles the calculation in favour of replacing the equipment.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What the money does not buy<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ESU means strictly security updates rated as critical and important. You get no new features, no fixes on request and no technical support. Assistance covers only licence activation and problems caused by the ESU updates themselves, and only if you hold an active support contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words, you are paying to buy time, not to carry on as normal. The time bought is worth it only if you use it to migrate.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The cheap option is not for your company<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is also a programme for home users, with a small one-off fee or even free, and it runs until 12 October 2027. You will hear about it and be tempted to use it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You cannot. Microsoft explicitly excludes devices joined to Active Directory or managed through a device management solution. In practice, exactly the computers of an organised company. If someone tells you there is a cheap way out, ask them first whether your workstations are domain joined.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What happens to Office<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Microsoft 365 apps installed on Windows 10 receive security updates until 10 October 2028, so you are not suddenly left without Word and Excel. But new features stop at a certain version, and from there the applications stand still.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The consequence that matters for many companies: <a href=\"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/microsoft-copilot-readiness\/\">Copilot<\/a> does not continue on Windows 10. If you plan to use the assistant in Word, Excel or Outlook, migration stops being a security discussion and becomes a condition of it working at all.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Computers that cannot run Windows 11<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Microsoft documents three options and none of them is a shortcut.<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Stay on Windows 10 with ESU<\/strong>, paying yearly, at a price that doubles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Replace the equipment<\/strong> with something compatible.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Move the session to the cloud<\/strong>, through a Cloud PC. Windows 11 runs remotely and the old computer becomes a terminal. The quiet advantage is that devices connecting to a Cloud PC receive ESU at no extra cost.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is a fourth option circulating online: modifying the system so it accepts Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. Microsoft does not support it and recommends rolling back to Windows 10 if you have already done it. On company computers it is not worth discussing, because you lose support in precisely the situation where you need it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also at no extra cost, ESU is included for Windows 10 virtual machines hosted in Azure and the related services. If you have terminal servers or virtual desktops there, check, you may already be covered.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What to do in the next few days<\/h2>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Count.<\/strong> How many devices are on Windows 10, which edition, which version, and which of them meet the Windows 11 requirements.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check your current coverage.<\/strong> If you are already in ESU, confirm that year two is ordered before 13 October.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Split the estate into three groups:<\/strong> migrate now, replace over the coming months, and special cases tied to an application or a piece of production equipment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Put the budget on paper<\/strong>, comparing two years of ESU against the cost of replacement. The third year makes the comparison simple.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Leave no device uncovered and unreplaced.<\/strong> A computer without updates, connected to the company network, is a way in.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What we do<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PRO IT inventories the estate, checks Windows 11 compatibility, orders the ESU licences through the Cloud Solution Provider programme, applies the keys to the devices and plans the migration in groups so work does not stop. The equipment side we cover as a <a href=\"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/dell-hardware\/\">Dell Technologies Gold Partner<\/a>, and day-to-day administration through the <a href=\"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/it-maintenance\/\">IT maintenance<\/a> service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you do not know how many Windows 10 computers you have right now, that is the first thing to establish, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/it-audit\/\">IT audit<\/a> settles it within days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first year of extended updates expires on 13 October 2026, and year two cannot be bought without it. The full calendar, the licensing rules, what ESU does not include and the options for incompatible computers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Windows 10 in 2026: ESU, deadlines and options for companies | PRO IT","_seopress_titles_desc":"The Extended Security Updates calendar for Windows 10, the purchasing rules, what ESU does not cover and what to do with machines that cannot run Windows 11.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"Windows 10 ESU firme","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infrastructure-maintenance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proit-romania.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}