Windows 10 Is on Borrowed Time - Migrate on Your Schedule, Not Microsoft's

Support ended in October 2025. The paid extension gets twice as expensive this October. The calm, cheap path is a planned migration - starting now.

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Windows 10 stopped receiving free security updates on October 14, 2025. Businesses can buy Extended Security Updates (ESU), but the price doubles each year - Year 2 costs $122 per device starting October 2026, and Year 3 doubles again. For most Spokane-area businesses, migrating to Windows 11 on a planned schedule is cheaper and safer than paying ESU rent on aging machines. TechFort handles the whole migration: compatibility checks, hardware decisions, data transfer, and zero-drama cutover.

Where things stand right now (mid-2026)

Windows 10 free support ended October 14, 2025. No more security patches without paying for ESU.
Consumer ESU ends October 13, 2026. Home-edition machines in your office go fully unpatched after that.
Business ESU Year 2 doubles to $122/device on October 14, 2026 - and doubles again to $244 for Year 3.
Roughly a quarter of Windows 10 PCs can't officially run Windows 11 - those need a hardware plan, not just an upgrade button.
Adjacent deadlines: Office 2021 support ends October 2026; Windows Server 2016 hits end of life January 2027. One plan can cover all of it.

How we run a migration

First, a free inventory: which machines can take Windows 11, which need replacing, and what software might complain. Then a schedule - a few machines at a time, after hours where it matters, so nobody walks in Monday to a computer they don't recognize. Data, printers, and the seventeen browser tabs your bookkeeper keeps open all come along. Flat project price, agreed before we touch anything.

Straight answers

Common Questions

Is it safe to keep running Windows 10 in 2026?

Without paid ESU coverage, no - unpatched systems accumulate known, published vulnerabilities every month, and attackers scan for exactly those. With ESU you are safe but paying rent that doubles every October. Either way it is a bridge, not a destination.

What does Windows 10 ESU cost for a business?

Year 1 was $61 per device; Year 2 is $122 per device starting October 14, 2026; Year 3 is $244. Ten machines on ESU for two more years costs more than several new computers.

My computers can't run Windows 11 - now what?

You have three honest options: replace the hardware (often cheaper than two years of ESU), pay ESU as a planned bridge while you stage replacements, or move certain workloads to the cloud. We will price all three for your actual machines, for free.