Windows 10 Support is Ending Soon: Here’s What You Need to Do

The venerable Windows 10 operating system is reaching end-of-life status on October 14, 2025, ending a very successful 10-year run. As the successor to the much-maligned Windows 8, Windows 10 was largely touted as a stable and responsive OS, so its passing is something the tech world will collectively mourn.

It will also force millions of users to take action, as after October 14 there will be no more security updates for Windows 10, so it would not be wise to continue using it. That does not mean you have to throw your PC into the nearest e-waste pile though, as you do have several options.

Microsoft is advising everyone using Windows 10 to upgrade to Windows 11, which is free if your PC meets the requirements. However, Windows 11 has hardware requirements that make some Windows 10 PCs unable to run the new OS (we’ll go over those below), so some people might need more time to figure out the best course of action. To help those people out Microsoft is offering an additional year of security updates for individuals and Windows 10 Home users. This program is called Extended Service Updates (ESU) and it will last for only one year, and Microsoft offers a paid version or two options if you want it for free, which we'll cover below.

According to Microsoft, you can sign up for its ESU program in Windows 10 through Settings. Once you locate the ESU portion of the OS it will present you with three options:

Pay $30 for one year of service.

Pay no cost if you sign up for Windows Backup, which is built into Windows 10.

Redeem 1,000 Microsoft Reward Points, which will also waive your fee for one more year of updates via ESU.

If you don’t want to pay for ESU or hassle with Microsoft services for the free versions, you should consider upgrading to Windows 11 since It’s a free upgrade. Though the OS was not received particularly well when it launched in October 2021, we’re happy to report it’s not that terrible these days, and works pretty well for most people. We admittedly don’t keep up with the current “mood” on the OS, but we are online almost all the time and can’t remember the last time we saw people complaining about Windows 11 the same way people complained about Windows 8, Windows Vista, etc. Most of the criticism thus far has been about Microsoft’s heavy-handed tactics to cross-sell its own products within the OS, but that is more of a nuisance, and doesn’t affect usability.

Windows 11 has hardware requirements that make some older machines ineligible to run it. If you’re not sure if your Windows 10 machine meets those requirements , you can download the PC Health Check app from Microsoft which will tell you if your PC meets the requirements.

Here’s the hardware requirements for Windows 11:

• 64-bit CPU with 2 cores and 1GHz clock speed
• 4GB memory
• 64GB of storage
• Trusted Platform (TPM) 2.0 on the motherboard
• Motherboard with UEFI BIOS and Secure Boot
• DX12 graphics card

Those are pretty low-end specs, and even the most basic PC today will satisfy them, but they could be a stretch for some PCs purchased more than 10 years ago. What most people are lacking in older hardware is the TPM module and the UEFI BIOS.

One of the biggest criticisms of Windows 11 at launch was its stringent hardware requirements, which made some Windows 10 PCs ineligible for an upgrade. Microsoft now lets people install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, but sticks a watermark on the desktop to remind you of it, and it does not offer support for it, so we don’t recommend going this route. Also, if your PC is ineligible for Windows 11, it’s probably 10 years old, at least, so you would likely benefit from upgrading your computer.

You can keep using Windows 10 after it reaches end-of-life as it will continue to function normally, but we don’t recommend it. Since there won’t be any more security updates, it is dangerous to keep using it as Microsoft will no longer be patching security holes, and app makers will also likely stop issuing security updates as well.

Also, it’s a 10-year-old OS, so at this point we’d say you should just upgrade to a new PC so you can enjoy the performance and security benefits, and Windows 11 is a pretty decent OS now as well. We wouldn’t say it’s amazing or use superlatives, but it does what it is supposed to do and is stable and responsive, which is what matters most (to us at least).

There are two ways to do this; either upgrade the PC you own now if it’s eligible (via Windows Update), or buy a new PC. If your current PC doesn’t meet the basic requirements and you can’t upgrade, we say it’s time to get a new PC. It goes without saying that a new PC will be eligible, as it will come with Windows 11 pre-installed.