Windows 10 End of Support: What to Do in 2026

On 14 October 2025, Microsoft ended support for Windows 10. If your computer is still running it with no further measures, then at the time of this update it has gone eight months without security patches — and six rounds of fixes have shipped in the meantime, all of which such a machine has missed entirely. Yet the system keeps working normally, and that's the most treacherous part: nothing crashes, nothing flashes red — unpatched vulnerabilities with publicly available exploits just quietly pile up.

The emergency brake: an extra year of updates (free in the EU)

Under pressure from hundreds of millions of users who couldn't or didn't manage to migrate, Microsoft introduced the ESU (Extended Security Updates) programme — an extra year of critical security patches, until 13 October 2026. Consumers have three enrolment paths: free with PC settings sync via a Microsoft account, 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or a one-time payment of ~$30. In the EU it's even simpler — after consumer organisations stepped in, free enrolment is available without conditions; a Microsoft account is all you need. (official ESU page)

Three important caveats:

• ESU covers critical security patches only — no bug fixes, no new features, no technical support. It requires Windows 10 22H2.
• You can enrol any time before the programme ends — but patches don't apply retroactively to your protection: every month outside ESU was a month with your back exposed.
• It ends for good on 13 October 2026. There will be no extension for consumers; four months remain. Businesses with volume licensing can buy up to three years (until October 2028), but the price doubles every year.

The new problem of 2026: expiring Secure Boot certificates

This June, the 2011 generation of Secure Boot certificates — which verify the integrity of the system boot process — began to expire. Windows 11 and ESU-enrolled machines receive the replacement (2023) certificates automatically through updates — Windows 10 outside ESU may never get them at all. This isn't an abstract risk: an outdated trust chain at system startup is exactly where the hardest-to-detect malware likes to settle in. (details in the Microsoft support article)

Your options, ranked by security

1. Upgrade to Windows 11 — if your hardware meets the requirements (TPM 2.0 in particular), it's free and the simplest path. Check with the PC Health Check app.
2. A new computer — if the hardware falls short. A machine that can't run Windows 11 is typically 8+ years old and near the end of its physical life anyway.
3. Linux — a fully capable, secure path for older hardware. Distributions like Linux Mint or Ubuntu are manageable, after a short adjustment period, for anyone who mainly uses a browser, e-mail and office documents. It's not a "free with no effort" solution, though — budget time for migration and for verifying that your key applications have replacements.
4. ESU as a bridge — a legitimate choice if you need time. Just don't treat it as a solution: it's a postponement with a hard stop in four months.
5. Doing nothing — the one option I can't recommend in any scenario. Every month, the gap between known vulnerabilities and your protection widens.

In conclusion: a bridge, not a destination

If you've made it past end of support unscathed, you're lucky — and thanks to ESU you have a second chance to migrate calmly instead of in a panic. Use it now: enrolling in ESU takes minutes, planning a migration takes weeks. In October 2026, no further emergency brake is coming.