Windows 10 extended to 2027? Not for your business.
"Windows 10 extended to 2027": the headline made the rounds in late June. What it doesn't say is that the extension only covers personal devices. For your company's computers, nothing changed — except the bill, which doubles in November. Here's the real math, and how to pick your moment instead of having it picked for you.
In late June, the news made the rounds everywhere, from tech sites to mainstream media: "Microsoft extends Windows 10 to 2027." In plenty of small and mid-sized businesses, someone read it, thought about the migration file gathering dust on the corner of their desk, and mentally moved it back to the "not urgent" pile.
That's exactly the reflex this announcement risks triggering — and it's a mistake that could cost real money. Because the headline leaves out one fundamental detail: the extension announced on June 25 applies only to personal devices. Your company's computers didn't get a reprieve.
What Microsoft actually announced
Quick recap. Official support for Windows 10 ended on October 14, 2025. Since that date, no security patches have been released for the operating system — except for devices enrolled in the Extended Security Updates program, better known as ESU.
That program comes in two versions that have almost nothing in common. The consumer version — free or nearly free, Microsoft account required — originally covered a single year. That's the one Microsoft just extended to October 12, 2027. The business version is paid per device, per year — and its price doubles every year.
Meanwhile, at the time of the announcement, Windows 10 was still running on roughly one Windows PC in four worldwide, according to StatCounter. Windows 11 may have crossed the one-billion-user mark in January, but business fleets always migrate more slowly than consumers: hardware amortized over five years, line-of-business software to validate, budgets to plan. If part of your fleet is still on Windows 10, you're far from alone. But you are exposed.
The bill that doubles in November
Here are the real numbers for the commercial ESU program, as published by Microsoft:
Year 1 (November 2025 to October 2026) costs $61 USD per device — roughly $85 CAD. Year 2, which starts in November 2026, doubles to about $122 USD (around $172 CAD). Year 3 doubles again, to about $244 USD (around $345 CAD). Keeping a single Windows 10 machine covered for the program's full three years therefore adds up to roughly $600 CAD — for a computer that, in many cases, is already six or seven years old.
Two fine-print details make the deal even less appealing. First, ESU licences are cumulative: a business that did nothing in 2025 and wants to enrol in year 2 also has to pay for year 1 retroactively. Second, ESU includes no technical support and no new features — only security fixes rated critical or important. It's minimal insurance, not a service.
That exponential pricing is no accident. It's Microsoft's message, written in numbers: ESU is a bridge, not a destination.
It's not just about the money
A fleet running without security patches isn't merely "a bit behind on updates." It becomes a marked target. Every month, Microsoft's Patch Tuesday fixes vulnerabilities in Windows 11 — and in doing so, publishes for attackers a list of the flaws that will stay open forever on uncovered Windows 10 machines. Cybercriminals don't even need to hunt anymore: the roadmap refreshes monthly.
In Quebec, there's a second layer. Law 25 requires businesses to protect personal information with reasonable security measures. Defending the "reasonableness" of a fleet that hasn't received a patch in months — after a confidentiality incident — will be a difficult exercise, in front of the Commission d'accès à l'information and in front of your clients.
And then there's your insurer. Nearly every cyber insurance questionnaire asks whether your systems are vendor-supported and kept up to date. An inaccurate "yes" at renewal, discovered after a claim, is exactly the kind of detail that turns a payout into a dispute.
The real obstacle: hardware
If moving to Windows 11 were just a software update, this would have been settled long ago. The real blocker is elsewhere: Windows 11 requires a TPM 2.0 security chip and a relatively recent processor — roughly Intel 8th generation or AMD Ryzen 2000 and up. Many machines bought before 2018 simply don't qualify.
In practice, your fleet sorts into three piles:
Compatible machines. For these, the upgrade is free, keeps files and applications, and can be planned like any IT project. This is the easy pile — and often the biggest.
Incompatible machines. Here the math becomes obvious: $600 in ESU over three years to prolong a computer at the end of its life, or that same amount applied to a new machine — faster, under warranty, and problem solved for the next six years. In most cases, ESU loses.
Special cases. The PC driving a CNC machine, the line-of-business application certified only on Windows 10: there, a targeted year of ESU — combined with network isolation for that specific machine — is justified as a transitional measure. It's the exception that proves the rule, not a fleet strategy.
One last item for the file: Microsoft 365 apps will keep receiving security fixes on Windows 10 until October 2028, but their features are frozen as of 2026. While your M365 licences keep evolving , the machines left behind quietly fall out of step.
The plan before fall
The good news: in mid-July, there's exactly enough time left to do this properly — provided you start now rather than in October.
1. Inventory. Which machines are still on Windows 10, and which ones are Windows 11-ready? A fleet management tool answers that in minutes. Without an inventory, everything else is improvisation — it's also the first step of any serious audit .
2. Sort. Compatible, incompatible, special cases. Three piles, three treatments.
3. Budget in waves. Replacing fifteen machines all at once in November means eating supply delays and full price. Spreading replacements across the fall means negotiating, prioritizing critical workstations and smoothing out the expense.
4. Migrate in batches. Compatible machines first, one department at a time, with a rollback plan. The goal: reach the November ESU renewal with a short list — ideally an empty one.
In the end, the question isn't whether your fleet will leave Windows 10 — it will. The real question is who picks the moment: you, this summer, with a plan; or the November bill, deciding on your behalf.
At MMO Techno, this is exactly what we help Quebec SMBs with: fleet inventory, compatibility triage, staged migration plans and negotiated replacements — without disrupting your operations. If you don't know how many of your machines are still running Windows 10, that's probably the sign it's time to give us a call .