Windows 10 ESU Year 1 ends on 13 October: what Irish businesses should do now

What changes on 13 October 2026

Windows 10 reached end of support on 14 October 2025. Since then, business PCs only receive security fixes if they are enrolled in Microsoft's paid Extended Security Updates (ESU) programme. ESU is sold one year at a time, and the first year ends on 13 October 2026.

A business PC covered by Year 1 alone stops receiving security updates after that date. It will keep working, but any new vulnerability found in Windows 10 stays open on that machine. For PCs that handle email, banking, customer records or remote access, that is a real risk.

Why the free home extension doesn't help businesses

You may have read that Windows 10 updates are now free until October 2027. That applies to the consumer ESU programme. In June 2026 Microsoft extended it to 12 October 2027, and in the European Economic Area enrolment is free for anyone signed in with a Microsoft account.

If your PCs sign in with work accounts and are managed by your IT provider, you need the business ESU programme, an upgrade or a replacement. ESU also only applies to Windows 10 version 22H2, so PCs on older builds must be updated first.

Find your Windows 10 PCs

Start with a simple list. For each PC, record the user, model, age, Windows version and anything it runs that the business can't do without.

• Windows version: open Settings › System › About and check the edition and version under Windows specifications.
• Windows 11 readiness: run Microsoft's PC Health Check app, or compare the hardware with the Windows 11 system requirements. A missing TPM 2.0 chip or an unsupported processor are the usual blockers.
• Managed PCs: if your PCs are enrolled in Microsoft Intune, its device inventory can list every Windows 10 machine and its build in one report.
• Office version: in Word, open File › Account to see whether you use Microsoft 365 or a one-off version such as Office 2021.

Your options: upgrade, replace or extend

Every Windows 10 PC ends up in one of three groups. Work through them in this order.

1. Upgrade to Windows 11. If a PC meets the requirements, upgrading from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 11 Pro has no licence cost. Test the applications, printers, VPN and other software the business relies on before upgrading everyone, and back up anything that only lives on the PC itself.

2. Replace the PC. PCs that can't run Windows 11 are usually older hardware, and often slow and out of warranty as well, so replacement fixes several problems at once. New business laptops can be supplied through our IT procurement service and set up automatically with Microsoft Intune and Windows Autopilot, so each user gets a ready-to-use machine with their apps and security settings in place. Our business laptop buying guide covers what to check before you order.

3. Extend with ESU Year 2. ESU buys time for PCs that genuinely can't move yet: a machine that runs specialist software, controls equipment, or is due for replacement in next year's budget. Treat it as a bridge, not a plan. The price doubles every year and the final year ends in October 2028.

There is also a cloud route. Windows 10 PCs used to connect to a Windows 365 Cloud PC receive ESU at no extra cost while the Windows 365 subscription is active. It can suit businesses that are moving their desktops to the cloud anyway.

What ESU Year 2 costs in euro

ESU is priced per device, per year, and the price doubles each year. These are Microsoft's euro list prices from September 2026, excluding VAT:

ESU is cumulative. A business that didn't buy Year 1 can't start at Year 2; it has to buy both. That makes the real cost of joining now €145.52 per device, or about €179 including VAT at 23%.

The lower cloud-managed prices apply to PCs managed through Microsoft Intune or Windows Autopatch, with the matching Intune and Microsoft Entra ID licences. Starting now on that route costs €107.73 per device before VAT.

For a PC that can't run Windows 11, that money only buys one more year on an ageing machine, and the same decision comes back next October at twice the price. That is why replacement usually wins for anything except genuinely specialist machines.

Prices are Microsoft list prices and can differ slightly between partners and over time, so confirm the current price before ordering. InstaIT is not affiliated with Microsoft.

Office 2021 ends the same day

Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 also reach end of support on 13 October 2026, according to Microsoft's lifecycle policy. After that, Word, Excel and Outlook from those versions stop receiving security updates, even on Windows 11.

The usual fix is a Microsoft 365 business plan, which includes the desktop apps and keeps them up to date. If you are moving to Microsoft 365 anyway, our Microsoft 365 and cloud consulting can plan the move together with your Windows upgrades.

A plan for the next two weeks

1. List every Windows 10 PC with its user, age and Windows 11 readiness.
2. Sort each one into upgrade, replace or extend.
3. Order ESU before 13 October for the "extend" group, including Year 1 if you never bought it.
4. Order replacements and agree a setup date, so nobody loses a working day.
5. Check Office versions and plan any move to Microsoft 365.
6. Set a retirement date before October 2027 for every PC on ESU.

You can still buy ESU after 13 October, but Microsoft doesn't sell part years, so you pay for the whole year and those PCs go without security updates until the licence is applied.