End of Windows 10 support:
what to do now

No. According to Microsoft, Windows 10 computers keep working after the end of support, which was 14 October 2025: they switch on, open programs and save documents just as before. What they stop getting is security updates, fixes and technical support, unless they're enrolled in the Extended Security Updates programme (ESU). That's precisely the problem, because you don't notice it. A computer without patches doesn't warn you of anything; every security flaw discovered in Windows 10 from that date simply stays open forever on that machine. For a computer used for banking, email or customer data, that isn't a technical detail, it's a door nobody is going to close. Working fine doesn't mean it's safe to keep using it like that.

The quickest way is the one Microsoft suggests: go to Settings, Privacy & security, Windows Update, and see whether it offers you Windows 11 or tells you the computer doesn't meet the requirements. There's also the PC Health Check app, which runs the same check and tells you what's failing. The minimum requirements, according to Microsoft, are a processor on the approved list with at least two cores at 1 GHz, 4 GB of memory, 64 GB of storage, UEFI firmware with Secure Boot, TPM 2.0 and a DirectX 12 compatible graphics card. In practice, what usually rules a computer out is the processor: many computers that run perfectly well aren't on that list because of their generation. Sometimes TPM or Secure Boot are just disabled in the BIOS and enabling them is enough, so it's worth checking before writing the computer off.

If the computer meets the requirements, no. According to Microsoft, upgrading from Windows 10 Home or Pro to the equivalent edition of Windows 11 is free, and it's done from Windows Update itself. What does cost something is the time and the risk of doing it badly: before upgrading you should have a copy of your documents off the computer, check that the programs you use every day, especially management, invoicing or vendor-specific software, work on Windows 11, and take your time over it, not first thing on a Monday on the office's only computer. Also bear in mind that Windows 11 Home requires an internet connection and a Microsoft account during initial setup. If the computer qualifies but still has a mechanical hard disk, it's a good time to switch to an SSD: the upgrade will go much faster and you'll notice the difference every day.

It stands for Windows 10's Extended Security Updates programme. With it, the computer keeps receiving critical and important security updates, but nothing else: no new features, no non-security fixes and no technical support. For home users, Microsoft has extended the programme to 12 October 2027; the original date was 13 October 2026. For businesses and schools there's a different, paid programme that can cover up to three years from the end of support. In both cases the computer must be on Windows 10 version 22H2. It's best seen for what it is: a bridge to replace things in an orderly way, not a way to stay on Windows 10 indefinitely. When ESU ends, the computer will be exactly where it was, just one or three years older.

In the European Economic Area, according to Microsoft, it's enough to sign in to the computer with a Microsoft account and keep it signed in: that's the free route. If 60 days go by without signing in with that account, updates stop and you have to re-enrol by signing in with the same account. There's also a one-off paid option for anyone who doesn't want to depend on the account. You enrol from Windows Update, and the computer must be on Windows 10 version 22H2 with the latest updates installed; if the option doesn't appear, that's the first thing to check. Note that, according to Microsoft, the consumer programme can't be used on computers joined to an Active Directory domain or managed with a device management solution, which is common in many offices. Those computers go down the business route.

Microsoft publishes the first-year price: $61 per device, bought through volume licensing, and the price doubles each following year, for a maximum of three years. It's bought in whole years, not months, and it's cumulative: if you join in the second year, you also pay for the first. The minimum purchase is one licence, so it's within reach of a business with few computers too. With those numbers, business ESU makes sense to cover the time it takes to replace computers that can't run Windows 11 in an orderly way, not to stretch it out for all three years: from the second year on, what you pay to keep an old computer patched approaches a significant share of the cost of a new one. It also includes no technical support beyond installing ESU itself.

Technically there are ways, and plenty of guides out there, but Microsoft says clearly that it doesn't recommend it: those computers aren't guaranteed to receive updates, including security ones, they may fail because of compatibility problems, they get no support from Microsoft, and any resulting damage isn't covered by the manufacturer's warranty. In other words, you force the installation precisely to have a patched system, and you may end up with a system whose patches aren't guaranteed. For a home computer that's rarely used it might look like a clever fix, but on a work computer it isn't: it swaps a known problem with a date for one without a date. If the computer doesn't qualify, the reasonable options are ESU as a bridge or replacing it; not a workaround that may stop updating with any new release.

No, because they do different jobs. Antivirus tries to detect and block known malicious software; security updates close the flaws in the operating system itself through which that software gets in. Without patches, the antivirus is defending a house with a window nobody is going to fix: it may stop the intruder many times, but not always, and the flaw is still there. On top of that, over time makers of software, browsers and peripherals stop supporting a system that's no longer supported itself, so the list of things that don't get updated grows on its own. Microsoft, for example, has announced it will keep providing Microsoft 365 security updates on Windows 10 until 10 October 2028, but that covers the Office apps, not Windows. A good antivirus is still necessary on Windows 11; on Windows 10 without ESU it doesn't replace what's missing.