Windows 10 is reaching end-of-life next month, which means Microsoft will no longer issue patches and no longer provide functional enhancements for free.
Those organisations that have yet to migrate PCs off Windows 10 face a hefty bill if they want to continue to receive Windows 10 patches. But this is not something that can be kept in place long term, which means IT leaders must now shift their entire PC estate onto the next version of Windows.
There may have been many good reasons not to upgrade Windows 10, but IT leaders are being urged to prioritise the upgrade, as unpatched Windows 10 machines are likely to be targeted by cyber criminals.
Analysis from Nexthink estimates that custom support to continue running Windows 10 could collectively cost organisations billions of dollars. According to Nexthink analysis of customer endpoints, there has been a 33% decrease in Windows 10 devices between 19 May and 1 August. Assuming a further 33% reduction by the 14 October, that would leave around 121 million Windows 10 PCs. At $61 per device for the first year of custom support, organisations could collectively be facing a bill of just more than $7.3bn.
While Windows 11 has been available since October 2021, many organisations have been slow to adopt it. Operating system upgrades are often aligned to a refresh of PC hardware, so when a PC is replaced, the new machine will have Windows 11.
With support for Windows 10 ending on 14 October, those organisations that have yet to migrate their PC estate fully over to Windows 11 will no longer receive operating system patches and updates unless they buy Microsoft Extended Support (ESU).
Microsoft had previously promised that Windows 10 would be the latest major Windows upgrade. Ranjt Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner, said: “I remember when Windows 10 came out after Windows 7, and I’m sure Microsoft said it was going to be the last big upgrade.”
At the time, people believed there would be no Windows 11, but then Microsoft released a major new version of the Windows operating system and so support for Windows 10 is ending. As Atwal points out, the 14 October end-of life-date for Windows 10 essentially means that there will be no further security updates issued for Windows 10.
“There’ll be no more bug fixes or performance enhancements,” he warned. Businesses can buy an ESU, but Atwal expects that only a small number of organisations will pay for this, to provide a “support” bridge enabling them to continue to receive support from Microsoft when they complete the migration away from Windows 10.
Among the questions people will often ask is why is there a need to upgrade the operating system, especially if they are not planning to run any new applications or buy new peripherals that only run on the newest version of Windows. Atwal said: “There’s so much legacy software and peripherals that are supported through the Windows operating system that at some point it all becomes too much in terms of the size code being supported.”
Microsoft puts in a place a mechanism that effectively limits which applications and device driver software is able to run. The Secure Boot feature is enabled by default in Windows 11, but is optional on Windows 10, which means older pieces of software and device drivers that need to be digitally signed cannot be installed on the newer operating system.
Adoption of AI PCs
Removing support for older hardware also allows Microsoft to offer new capabilities such as the AI features now being built into Copilot+ PCs, conversational AI which offer a different way to interact with the device. In terms of introducing new features and the functionality, Atwal notes that it is an easier step for Microsoft to make to add these into Windows 11 rather than introduce them as updates for Windows 10.
Gartner forecasts that by 2026, over half (55%) of PCs sold will be AI PCs. “AI PCs are reshaping the market, but their adoption in 2025 is slowing because of tariffs and pauses in PC buying caused by market uncertainty,” said Atwal.
Tim Flower, digital employee strategist at Nexthink, added: “Moving from one operating system to another shouldn’t feel like a disruption, it should be an opportunity to improve how employees work every day. That means understanding how devices and applications perform before the migration, anticipating issues and problems, and taking steps to ensure migrations and upgrades run smoothly. The goal is to avoid productivity being interrupted by an IT event, and help organisations to see clear benefits from their investment.”
