14th October 2025 is a big day in the world of IT – this is the day that Windows 10 will no longer receive support from Microsoft.

What does this mean in practice? Essentially, after this date, Microsoft will no longer roll out security or functionality updates to the Windows 10 operating system as part of their Windows Update service.

This day comes around every few years, where Microsoft, in their desire to prioritise the newer Windows 11 operating system, ends support for the older operating system. Windows 11 has been around for a little while now and comes with a few feature improvements, such as the embedding of Microsoft’s AI Service Co-Pilot within in and reported performance improvements.

My particular frustration with the upcoming end of life is that this time, in my view, Microsoft have put quite a high bar on the specification of device required to run Windows 11. Compared to this time a few years back when Windows 7 was being effectively “mothballed”, you could run Windows 10 on almost any device. Microsoft, this time, have put physical blocks which will not allow you to upgrade to Windows 11 easily. They say this is to improve security of devices and to ensure performance of devices is maximised.

During testing ourselves, we have found routes around these physical blocks and have been able to install Windows 11 on devices that technically doesn’t support them and some of these run absolutely fine. However, some we installed it on, run very slowly so it’s a very mixed picture.

My belief is that this will lead to a huge increase in waste of devices as people decide to dump their perfectly acceptable laptops and desktops to ensure they have the latest operating system.

But what are the options? Clearly, i’d always recommend the use of a supported operated system and every IT professional will tell you the same, however i know that the reality is that in the current financial climate, there will be many people who will have to operate Windows 10 beyond the end of support date. We saw this happen when Windows 7 became end of life and i don’t see this changing this time around.

If budget is there i’d recommend planning towards replacing your device in advance of next October. If budget isn’t likely to be there then there are some things you could look at doing.

Firstly, investigate whether you can upgrade to Windows 11 or not on your current device. If you have the PC Health Check App installed on your device then open it up and it will tell you whether you can do this or not. If you need more help with this use the handy Microsoft guide which gives you more information. Once it has been checked you should be offered the chance to upgrade as part of the Windows update service.

If you find your device won’t support Windows 11 and you are unlikely to be able to afford a new device, then you’ll want to ensure you invest in some decent endpoint/anti-virus protection that has built in anti-ransomeware features so that it provides some enhanced protection for you after October next year. The cost for something like this is around £30-40 a year so not a significant investment. Secondly, if you are confident that your machine has a reasonably decent specification, you could work with an IT specialist to upgrade your machine to Windows 11 via other routes.

Here at IT Services at CAS Ltd, as IT professionals we are very much aware of our need to provide accurate, honest but also secure advice and October 2025 provides a somewhat tricky balancing act. Ultimately, we would recommend the use of Windows 11 on every device, but we know the reality of this for individuals, small businesses and charities will look very different. In this scenario we simply recommend getting some enhanced security protection and this should reduce the risk to your users.

Please contact me at [email protected] or on 01473 345321 and I’d be happy to have a discussion about anything in this area.