July 2, 2026
Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10 in October 2025, and I'm still finding it on desks all over Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church — usually on machines that run fine and nobody's thought about since. If that's your office, here's what actually changed and what to do about it.
What "End of Support" Actually Means
It doesn't mean Windows 10 stopped working. Your computer will boot up tomorrow exactly like it did yesterday. What stopped is the security patches — the monthly updates that close holes hackers find in the operating system. After October 14, 2025, Microsoft isn't writing those patches anymore, so every new vulnerability found from here on just... stays open. Forever, until you're off Windows 10.
Why This Hits a Small Business Harder Than It Sounds
On a home computer, this is a "get around to it" problem. In an office, it's different. You've usually got client data, financial records, or patient/customer information sitting on those machines, and a lot of insurance and compliance requirements assume you're running supported software. An unpatched Windows 10 box connected to your network is the easiest door in for ransomware — and it puts every other machine on that network at risk too, not just the one gathering dust in the corner.
How to Check What You're Running
If you're not sure, this takes fifteen seconds: click Start, type winver, hit Enter. A window pops up telling you the exact Windows version. If it says "Windows 10" anywhere in there, this post is about you.
Quick Check
Don't stop at one machine. Check every computer in the office — the one in the back office or the point-of-sale terminal is usually the one everybody forgets.
Your Three Real Options
1. Upgrade to Windows 11 (free, if the hardware supports it). Microsoft has minimum requirements — a newer processor and a security chip called TPM 2.0 — so this only works on machines from roughly the last five years. Worth checking before you assume you need new hardware.
2. Replace the machine. If it's old enough that it can't run Windows 11, it's probably also due for retirement anyway. A five-to-seven-year-old office PC is usually slower and less reliable regardless of the Windows-11 question.
3. Buy time with Extended Security Updates (ESU). Microsoft sells a paid program that keeps critical security patches coming for a limited window past end-of-support. It's priced per device and gets more expensive every year you renew it — a real option if you need a few months to plan a proper upgrade, but a stopgap, not a long-term plan.
Windows 10 machines aren't broken — they're just standing in an open door. The fix is rarely complicated, it's just easy to put off until it isn't. — Sammy Lackey, SammIT
What Happens If You Just Don't Deal With It
Nothing happens the first week. Nothing happens the first month, probably. That's exactly what makes this dangerous — there's no alarm going off, just a slowly growing list of unpatched holes that anyone scanning the internet for exposed small businesses can find. I'd rather you spend twenty minutes now than find out the hard way during a slow Tuesday afternoon.
When to Call a Pro
If you've got even one machine still on Windows 10, I can check your whole office in one visit — which machines can upgrade for free, which need replacing, and whether ESU makes sense as a bridge for anyone in between. That's part of what I look at during a Vulnerability Assessment, or if you'd rather have someone handling this kind of thing on an ongoing basis, it's built into managed IT so you're never the last office in Arlington still running something Microsoft walked away from. Remote diagnostics start at $65/hr if you just want a quick read on where you stand — book a time here.