On 13 October 2026 — exactly two months from now — the Extended Security Updates (ESU) programme for Windows 10 comes to an end. Mainstream support already ended on 14 October 2025; ESU was the one-year extension for those who had not managed to migrate. This time the deadline is firm and no further extension follows.
This article is for companies that still have Windows 10 computers in their offices, warehouses or branch locations: from three PCs at reception to an entire fleet of workstations. It shows you what happens concretely after the deadline, how to find out quickly where you stand and what real options you have for the machines that cannot move to Windows 11.
It is not an isolated case: at the start of 2026, roughly 26–27% of the world's desktops were still running Windows 10. If your company is among them, you have two more months in which the decision can be taken in an orderly way. After that, it gets taken under pressure.
What exactly happens on 13 October 2026
The computers do not stop. Windows 10 will boot on 14 October too, applications will run just as before. What disappears is something else: the security updates. Any vulnerability discovered after this date remains open, permanently, on every Windows 10 PC.
Every published flaw thus becomes a door that never closes again. Attackers treat out-of-support systems as priority targets: the vulnerabilities are publicly documented, the fixes no longer come, and the effort of exploitation drops from one month to the next.
In parallel, a slower but equally unpleasant effect appears: software makers gradually withdraw their support for old operating systems. Browsers, accounting applications, invoicing solutions and the antivirus will keep working for a while, then stop receiving new versions. The company remains stuck in an ecosystem that thins out from one quarter to the next.
Why so many companies are still on Windows 10
Not out of complacency. The main blocker is the hardware requirement: Windows 11 demands a TPM 2.0 chip — a security module that stores cryptographic keys and verifies system integrity at start-up. Many perfectly functional company computers do not have it or do not have it enabled, so the free upgrade is simply not offered to them.
The pace of adoption says something too: Windows 11 needed four years to reach 50% of the market, one year longer than Windows 10 needed in its day. This transition has been, for many organisations, harder than the previous ones — precisely because of the hardware threshold.
The first step: the inventory
Before any decision you need a list. For each computer in the company, note three things: which operating system it runs (Windows key + R, the winver command), whether it meets the requirements for Windows 11 (Microsoft's PC Health Check app gives you the verdict directly) and which critical applications depend on it.
The result splits naturally into three categories:
- Compatible — can receive Windows 11 through an upgrade; all that remains is to plan when and in what order.
- Incompatible — fail the check; for these, read the next section.
- Unclear — the check fails or the machine runs old applications sensitive to change; these need a closer look before any move.
Check the licences now too: which versions you own, what is tied to the current hardware, what can be transferred to the new machines. And if it is not clear who should keep this record in the company, the frequently asked questions about IT infrastructure are a good starting point.
The options for PCs that cannot move to Windows 11
1. Check whether it is truly incompatible
Some of the rejected machines actually have the TPM module disabled from the factory. A technician can enable it (it appears in the motherboard settings as fTPM or PTT), together with Secure Boot, and the computer suddenly becomes eligible for the upgrade. It is worth half an hour of checking before you budget replacements.
2. Replace in stages, not in the final week
For the genuinely incompatible machines, replacement is the fundamental solution. Two months are enough if you start now: order first for the exposed positions — the computers with access to the bank, to accounting, to customer data — then for the rest. Delivery and configuration lead times get crowded as October approaches, because you are not the only one migrating.
3. Isolate what cannot be replaced
Some PCs drive machinery, run specialised software with no modern equivalent or are tied to old equipment. For them, the temporary solution is isolation: no internet access, separated on the network from the rest of the company, no email and no USB sticks carried between desks. It is a plaster, not a strategy — but a legitimate one for isolated cases, as long as it is treated as a documented exception.
4. Change the operating system
For simple roles — a browsing terminal, a display screen, a workstation using only web applications — a modern Linux system can extend the hardware's life without the risk of an unpatched Windows. The condition is that the applications you depend on run in the browser or have an equivalent; for Romanian business management software, check this before, not after.
What you risk if you do nothing
- Security: new vulnerabilities, left unpatched forever, on machines connected to the internet and to the company's data.
- Compliance: large clients increasingly vet their suppliers, and “are your operating systems in support?” is among the first questions in their security questionnaires.
- Insurance: cyber liability policies ask similar questions; a fleet of unsupported systems complicates the conversation exactly when you need it most.
- Money: an incident on an unprotected system stops work, and a day of downtime costs more than it seems at first glance.
The plan for the next two months
- Weeks 1–2: the complete inventory — operating systems, compatibility, critical applications, licences.
- Weeks 3–4: the decisions and the orders — what gets upgraded in place, what gets replaced, what gets isolated; the new hardware is ordered now, not in October.
- Weeks 5–8: migration in batches — exposed positions first; backup verified before every move; users informed in advance, so migration day is not a surprise.
- The final week before the deadline: only checks and remaining cases — not mass migrations in fast-forward.
If you have nobody internal to carry the operation from one end to the other, an IT support contract covers exactly this type of project: inventory, migration in batches, configuration and a clean handover, with users up and running the next morning.
The next step is simple and costs nothing: open the list of the company's computers and note, for each one, the operating system and the PC Health Check verdict. All the good decisions of the next two months flow from that list. Neoxis, an IT services company founded in 2015 in Pitești, works with companies across Romania — remotely nationwide and on site in the Pitești–Argeș area.