Windows 10 reached end of support on 14th October 2025. That date has now passed, but a huge number of businesses haven’t dealt with it, and the risk hasn’t gone away just because the deadline has.
So here we walk you through where businesses actually stand and what the realistic options are.
Who’s still running Windows 10 and why
Data shows around 22% of devices are still running Windows 10, with migration showing signs of stalling rather than accelerating.
There are a few reasons why businesses still haven’t migrated:
- Legacy software dependency. Windows 11 comes with stringent hardware requirements, so devices older than three years will likely not be compatible with the new OS. Many organisations still have bespoke or legacy systems running that can’t be migrated to Windows 11.
- Specialised hardware. We’ve seen diagnostic equipment or manufacturing controllers that are tied to a specific device rather than a specific OS version, so replacing the OS isn’t a simple decision.
- Budget timing. A hardware refresh that simply wasn’t planned into this financial year, so businesses are trying to stretch the life of what they’ve already got.
While these are not unreasonable, they don’t make the underlying risk of continuing to operate an outdated operating system go away.
What actually happens now that Windows 10 support has ended
Your device will continue working after this date but will not receive security patches, feature upgrades or technical support from Microsoft.
Any vulnerability discovered from this point on, what the industry calls a CVE (Common Vulnerability Exposure), simply never gets patched on an unsupported device. And attackers know this, and they often target known vulnerabilities right after a platform’s end-of-support date, when they know a large pool of unpatched devices is guaranteed to exist.
The numbers back this up. Lansweeper’s analysis found the average Windows 10 device now carries roughly three times as many active CVEs as a comparable Windows 11 device, with around two-thirds of those rated high or critical severity.
There’s a compliance dimension too. If you’re regulated by the FCA, the SRA, or you’re working toward Cyber Essentials, running unsupported operating systems is very likely to be a straight fail, regardless of how well everything else is configured.
Extended Security Updates: Useful, but not a fix
If you can’t migrate everything, Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates (ESU) programme buys you time. It provides critical and important security patches only, no feature updates, no general technical support, for enrolled Windows 10 devices.
Pricing rises steeply the longer you delay migrating. ESUs cost $61 per device for year one, doubling to $122 in year two, and $244 in year three for commercial customers. Add up three years across a reasonable-sized fleet, and you’re looking at close to the cost of the new hardware you were trying to avoid buying.
What’s different about Windows 11?
Beyond the interface changes, the security case has become a lot more concrete. A survey found businesses running Windows 11 saw a 62% drop in security incidents compared with Windows 10. That comes from Virtualisation-Based Security (VBS), which isolates login credentials and other sensitive parts of the OS in a protected area that’s much harder for malware to reach.
It also comes with TPM 2.0, which is essentially a secure hardware microchip built into your computer that offers better encryption and safety of sensitive data. This means even if your laptop is stolen or lost, your data is safe.
The sensible first step, before replacing all your devices, is a proper compatibility audit to work out which devices already meet the requirements, which need a straightforward upgrade, and which genuinely need replacing. Devices bought in the last couple of years usually have TPM 2.0 as standard; older ones often don’t.
Cloud alternatives worth considering
End of life is also a natural point to ask a bigger question: does every device need to be a physical, locally-managed machine at all? Two cloud options are worth knowing about if you haven’t looked at them before.
Windows 365 (Cloud PC) works like leasing a car: each licensed user gets a dedicated cloud PC for a fixed, predictable monthly cost. It suits businesses whose day-to-day work already lives in Microsoft 365 and a handful of cloud apps, and where simplicity matters more than fine-grained control.
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is closer to a shared car service: more flexible, and often more cost-effective where usage varies, because you pay for the compute you actually use rather than a fixed per-user allocation. It suits businesses with custom or legacy applications, or with fluctuating usage patterns, shift workers or a global team logging in at different times, for example, where virtual machines can scale up during busy hours and back down overnight.
Both routes bring a useful side benefit – moving eligible workloads or servers into Azure removes a lot of the single-site risk that comes with on-premise legacy servers, since users can keep working from anywhere with a decent connection if your office loses power or connectivity.
If budget is the real blocker
If the issue isn’t which option is right but finding the capital to do it, Device as a Service (DaaS) is worth a look.
Instead of a large upfront hardware spend, you pay a fixed monthly fee per user that covers the device itself, refreshed on a set cycle (typically three years), with old devices securely wiped and moved into the secondary market rather than landfill. For businesses trying to evidence their environmental commitments, that’s a genuine, demonstrable outcome rather than a talking point.
Where to start
If you haven’t dealt with this yet, the worst move is waiting any longer. Start with a compatibility audit, so you know exactly what you’re working with, then decide whether that’s a straightforward upgrade, a phased hardware refresh, a move to Azure Virtual Desktop or Windows 365, or some combination of all three depending on the device.
Contact us for a tailored assessment of your environment; we can run the audit, map out your options, and help you plan a migration that doesn’t bring the business to a standstill while it happens.
