What "end of support" actually means
What it means, in plain terms, is that from now on, whenever a new security flaw is found in Windows 10, Microsoft will not fix it for ordinary home and business computers. Windows 11 will keep getting those fixes. Over time that gap widens, and a Windows 10 computer slowly becomes an easier target, simply because its known weak spots are never closed up.
So is it urgent?
Not in the way it sometimes gets made to sound. A Windows 10 computer that is used sensibly, protected by decent antivirus, and not used for anything especially sensitive is not going to become unsafe overnight. But the risk is real, and it only grows the longer a computer goes without fixes. This is worth an actual decision rather than being left indefinitely, especially for a small business that holds customer details or takes payments. It is also worth knowing that an unpatched computer can be a contributing factor if you happen to become the target of a scam or an attack; a phishing email or a remote-access scam call is more likely to succeed once it is aimed at a computer whose known weak spots are never being closed.
Step one: check if your computer can upgrade for free
Many computers bought from around 2018 onwards can upgrade to Windows 11 at no cost. The check itself takes a couple of minutes, either through Microsoft's own free PC Health Check tool or by having someone confirm it for you, and it is well worth doing before assuming a new computer is needed.
If your computer can upgrade
This is the easy case. The upgrade to Windows 11 is free, and once it is done you are back on a fully supported, up-to-date system with nothing more to think about. The layout looks slightly different at first, but most people find their feet within a day or two. We can carry this out for you and back up your files first, as a matter of course.
If your computer cannot upgrade
If the checker says no, it is usually not because your computer lacks the raw grunt to run Windows 11; plenty of otherwise capable machines fail this check. The most common reason is a requirement Microsoft has never asked for before: a small security chip called a TPM (Trusted Platform Module), version 2.0. This is what makes BitLocker possible, Windows' full-drive encryption feature, along with a few other background security checks. BitLocker is a genuinely high-level protection, but it is also the kind of feature that can cause its own headaches, such as being locked out of your own files if a recovery key ever goes missing. Older computers, even fairly quick ones, often simply were not built with this chip.
It is technically possible to bypass this requirement and Microsoft does not guarantee full compatibility on a computer set up this way, and there is no guarantee it will keep receiving updates the way a properly supported one does. It is also fair to say this requirement has drawn some criticism; plenty of people see it as a way of nudging otherwise perfectly good computers towards early retirement, with the electronic waste that creates.
- Replace it - the straightforward choice if the computer is old enough that other things, battery life, speed, or general wear, were already due for a rethink anyway.
- Keep it running safely for now - reasonable for a computer that still does its job well, is not used for online banking or sensitive information, and can be looked after with good antivirus and sensible browsing habits.
What we would not suggest is spending money keeping a computer going that was already struggling for other reasons. If it is also slow, or the battery barely lasts an hour, the Windows 10 question is usually not the only thing worth weighing up. See why your computer feels slower than it used to if that sounds familiar.
Getting yourself actually covered by ESU
Everything above assumes your computer is simply left as it is on Windows 10. As mentioned above, ESU does not switch itself on; there is no pop-up drawing attention to it, and nobody enrols by accident. Someone has to deliberately go through the sign-up step below, which is exactly what we mean by "not manually enrolled."
It is also worth being clear about what ESU does and does not cover, once you are enrolled. It only delivers the important security fixes, the same ones a supported computer gets. It does not bring back technical support from Microsoft, and it does not add any new features. Think of it as a bridge to buy yourself time to make a proper decision, rather than a long-term fix.
How to check and sign up
This applies to computers running a reasonably up-to-date copy of Windows 10 which covers the large majority of computers that have been receiving updates normally. Here is how to enrol:
- Open Settings, then go to Update & Security and select Windows Update.
- If your computer is eligible, you will see a message about enrolling in Extended Security Updates, with an "Enrol now" button. Click it, then Next.
- Follow the prompts, then click Done.
Once enrolled, the updates simply arrive on their own from then on, the same way Windows updates always have. You can double-check it worked by returning to Windows Update and looking for a message confirming your PC is enrolled.
What this means for your Microsoft account
There is one thing worth knowing before you start: signing up requires you to be signed in to the computer with a Microsoft account rather than a plain local account, and that account needs to have administrator access on that PC.
If you have always signed in with just a username and password you set up on the computer itself, known as a local account, Windows will ask you to sign in with, or create, a Microsoft account before it lets you continue. This is the same free account used for Outlook.com email, Xbox, or OneDrive, so if you already use any of those, the same login works here.
Once signed in this way, your computer is linked to that account rather than existing purely on its own. In practical terms, that means a few things worth being aware of:
- Your Windows sign-in is now tied to an online account, rather than living solely on that one computer.
- If you use the same Microsoft account on another device, some of those settings can sync across to it as well.
For most home users this is a small, one-time trade-off for a free year of protection, and plenty of people are already signed in this way without having thought about it.
A word for local small businesses
If you handle customer details or take payments, whether that is a shop in Paraparaumu, a trades business working out of Waikanae, or a home office anywhere along the coast, this is worth treating a bit more seriously than a home computer used for browsing and email. An annual plan that covers monitoring, backups and a yearly check-up is a simple way to stay on top of this sort of thing, rather than dealing with it as a once-a-decade emergency. See annual management plans.
Where to start
We can check whether your computer qualifies for Windows 11 in a couple of minutes, either remotely or in person anywhere on the Kāpiti Coast, and give you a straight, honest answer about which path above makes sense for you, rather than steering you towards the more expensive option by default. See computer repairs to book a visit.