We still have Windows 10 machines. What do we do?

Support ended on 14 October 2025. Machines still running Windows 10 are no longer receiving security patches, which means newly discovered vulnerabilities on them stay open permanently. This is not a future problem.

It also has consequences beyond risk. Cyber insurance applications ask whether your systems are supported, and answering yes when they are not can affect a claim. Compliance frameworks treat unsupported operating systems as a finding. And software vendors progressively stop supporting their own products on it.

What we do, in order:

• Inventory. Which machines, running what, used by whom. Most businesses are not sure of the real number.
• Sort into upgradeable and not. Many machines meet the requirements for Windows 11 and can simply be upgraded at no hardware cost. Others do not, usually for processor or security chip reasons, and need replacing.
• Prioritize by exposure. A machine handling client data or reaching the internet daily matters more than one driving a label printer in a back room.
• Isolate what genuinely cannot move. Occasionally a machine must stay because it runs equipment that will not work otherwise. Those get segregated on the network rather than left in the open.

Paid extended security updates exist as a stopgap, but they cost money annually and buy time rather than solving anything.