Still running Windows 10? The 2026 plan for the last machines.

Microsoft and devices · 5 min · written 30 October 2026 · by the IT-360 team · sources at the end

Where we are

Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 10 on 14 October 2025. Businesses can buy Extended Security Updates for up to three years, with the price rising each year. It is the only way a Windows 10 machine keeps receiving security patches. A machine without patches fails Cyber Essentials and, increasingly, cyber insurance conditions.

Upgrade

Windows 11 needs a processor from roughly 2018 onwards, TPM 2.0 and secure boot. Microsoft's PC Health Check tells you in a minute; we run it across a whole fleet from the management console. A machine that passes is upgraded in place, usually in under an hour, with the user's files and apps where they left them.

Replace

A machine that fails the check is normally five or more years old and costing you in slowness anyway. Replace on a plan: a third of the fleet a year keeps the spend even and means nobody waits years for a decent laptop. New devices arrive enrolled in management, encrypted and ready to sign in.

Isolate

Some machines cannot move. Think of the PC that runs a CNC machine, a scanner or a piece of lab equipment whose software only runs on an old Windows. Those are taken off the main network and the internet, kept on their own segment, and documented as an accepted exception. That satisfies the scheme and the insurer, and it is honest about the risk.

The order to do it in

Inventory first, so you know the numbers. Upgrades next, because they are nearly free. Then the replacement plan, with the oldest and the most important users first. Isolation for the handful left. The Managed IT page explains how the device management behind all of this works day to day.

Further reading on Insights: Copilot for small businesses.

Sources

• Microsoft: Windows 10 end of support and Extended Security Updates for organisations.
• Microsoft: Windows 11 system requirements.