Tuesday, October 13, came and went without much noise. For a lot of school districts, city halls and county offices, it was still a deadline that mattered.
That was the last day of year one of Microsoft's Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10. Any organization-managed PC that isn't licensed for year two stops receiving security patches. The computer still boots. Email still opens. It just quietly stops getting fixes for the vulnerabilities attackers find next.
A quick refresher on how we got here
Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Version 22H2 was the last release. For organizations that weren't ready to move, Microsoft offered ESU as a paid bridge: up to three years of security-only updates, bought one year at a time.
Microsoft's own documentation spells out the pricing model. Commercial ESU started at $61 per device for year one, and "the price doubles every consecutive year, for a maximum of three years." The program is also cumulative. In Microsoft's words, "If you decide to purchase the program in Year Two, you have to pay for Year One too."
Run the doubling rule and a commercial device lands around $122 for year two and $244 for year three. A device that skipped year one and enrolls now would owe both years. Those figures are derived from Microsoft's stated rule, not printed on a price list, so confirm current pricing through your licensing channel before you budget.
Schools get a better deal. Microsoft's Education Blog announced ESU pricing for education customers of $1 per license in year one, $2 in year two and $4 in year three. That is cheap enough that some districts will reasonably decide to buy time. The catch is what you are buying: security patches only. No new features, no fixes for non-security bugs, and support limited to the ESU itself.
Wait, didn't Microsoft extend this?
Sort of, and this is where confusion is creeping in.
Earlier this year, Microsoft quietly updated its consumer ESU page to push the end date for personal devices from October 13, 2026 to October 12, 2027. "We understand that moving to a new PC can take time," the company said. Several tech outlets reported it as "Windows 10 updates extended to 2027."
That extension is for home users. It does not cover devices managed by an organization. A third-party breakdown of the program put it plainly: managed Windows 10 devices without a year-two license receive no further OS security updates, and the consumer program cannot be used in commercial scenarios.
If a staff member tells you "I read that Windows 10 is covered until 2027," they read something true about their home laptop. It probably doesn't apply to the PC in the front office.
How many machines are we talking about?
More than most people assume. In July, HP's chief financial officer, Karen Parkhill, told investors, "We have roughly 30 percent of the installed base still on Windows 10." That is one vendor's view of its own customers, not a census. Still, it's the kind of number that should make any IT director pull an inventory report.
Public sector environments tend to hold onto hardware longer than average. There's always a lab, a kiosk or a building controller that nobody wants to touch because "it just works." Those forgotten machines are the problem, because an unpatched endpoint is an easy foothold. The 2026 NASCIO-Deloitte Cybersecurity Study found that state CISOs ranked aging technology infrastructure among their top challenges. Their confidence in local governments and public higher education has dropped since 2022.
Three honest options
Every agency still running Windows 10 is choosing one of these, whether it means to or not.
Buy year two of ESU. This makes sense for a defined set of devices with a planned replacement date. For schools at $2 a device, it is an easy insurance policy. For commercial pricing, the cumulative cost climbs fast and starts to look like a down payment on new hardware.
Upgrade in place to Windows 11. If the hardware meets Windows 11's requirements, including TPM 2.0 and a supported processor, an in-place upgrade is often the cheapest path. Many PCs bought in 2018 or earlier won't qualify.
Refresh the hardware. For machines that can't run Windows 11, replacement is the long-term answer. It is also a chance to standardize. Current business-class PCs ship with Windows 11, hardware-based security features and, increasingly, on-device AI processing. If staff are already using AI tools, that last part matters more than it did a year ago.
What doesn't work is option four: do nothing and hope.
A practical plan for the next 90 days
Start with an accurate count. Pull a report from your endpoint management tool, whether that's Intune, Configuration Manager or something else, showing every Windows 10 device, its hardware model and whether it's eligible for Windows 11.
Sort devices into three buckets: upgrade now, cover with ESU while you plan, and replace. Be honest about the "replace" pile.
Tie the plan to your budget calendar. If replacements land next fiscal year, ESU covers the gap. Write that decision down so the board can see it was deliberate.
Handle retired devices properly. Old PCs hold data. Use a certified asset disposition or recycling program so student and resident information doesn't walk out the door on a donated laptop.
Where vTECH io fits
This is work we do every week for Florida school districts, municipalities and county agencies. As a Dell Technologies Platinum Partner, we can help you assess which devices can upgrade, price out replacements through the contract vehicles your procurement team already uses, and manage deployment and secure disposal.
If you're not sure how many Windows 10 machines are still on your network, that's the place to start. Reach out to the vTECH io team at 888-277-5918 and we'll help you build the inventory and the plan.
Sources
- Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10, Microsoft Learn
- Windows 10 end of support: updates for education, Microsoft Education Blog, April 2, 2024
- Windows 10 ESU Year One Ends 13 October 2026, IT Partner, October 11, 2026
- Windows 10 Security Updates Don't End October 13, 2026: ESU Now Runs to 2027, Bluemediaworld
- HP exec says 30% of PCs still run Windows 10, APH Networks, July 27, 2026
- State CISOs less confident in protecting public data, Smart Cities Dive, May 5, 2026